🐾 Maybe the reason I love animals so much, is because the only time they have broken my heart is when theirs has stopped beating.
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Friday 9 October 2015

NATURE rarer uses yellow

Camera : Canon EOS 550D - ©Maree Clarkson

NATURE rarer uses yellow
Than another hue;
Saves she all of that for sunsets,
Prodigal of blue,

Spending scarlet like a woman,
Yellow she affords
Only scantly and selectly,
Like a lover’s words.


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Sunday 3 May 2015

A splash of White

Not much gardening has been happening over the past couple of weeks - raking up leaves, tending to the compost heap, neatening edges, nothing exciting.


I've got no Shasta daisies in my garden this year, but I've always had a patch somewhere. What happened? (Note to self: get some more Shasta’s). As a child I always admired the Shasta Daisies in my father’s garden. What I remember most was the dazzling brightness of the white blooms that always offset the bright colours of the dahlias, larkspur, gazanias, arctotis and zinnias that grew so prolifically under the African sun.

The simple white flowers with yellow button centres are a symbol of purity and are perfect for cutting. Easy to grow, they are a favourite for beginner flower gardeners and are effective when planted in small groups.

Crab Spiders seem to favour Shasta's as their favourite while ambush-hunting their prey in flowers. These tiny spiders take on the colour of the flower they're sitting on and it's wonderful to come across a pure white or bright yellow little specimen on your flowers.

A white crab spider catching a butterfly on some Shasta daisies

Yellow crab spider

Until recently, Shasta Daisies were considered members of the Chrysanthemum family. But the daisies’ lack of fragrance and hairless stems caused them to be recently reclassified to Leucanthemum, the Sunflower family.

These Daisies like rich, fast draining soil, ample water and lots of sunshine. However, they are hardy and will tolerate poor soil conditions and partial shade. Work some old animal manure or compost into the soil to help promote abundant blooms. Picking often and cutting off dead flowers will extend their bloom period.

So do yourself a favour and get some of these easy-growing, sun-loving daisies for your garden and you'll always have an abundance of butterflies and ready-to-pick flowers for the vase.


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Shasta Daisies at my pond a couple of seasons ago. Every summer I SO looked forward to when my Shasta's would appear again. With their splashes of white they brighten up any corner of the garden and the more you pick them (they look lovely in a simple glass vase!), the more prolific they get.

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"If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive."

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Thursday 25 September 2014

Just living is not enough


Just living is not enough…

One must have
Sunshine
Freedom
and Flowers!

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Saturday 2 August 2014

I put a seed into the ground and said, "I'll watch it grow."

I put a seed into the ground And said, "I'll watch it grow." I watered it and cared for it As well as I could know. One day I walked in my back yard, And oh, what did I see! My seed had popped itself right out, Without consulting me! - by Gwendolyn Brooks
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I've always been fascinated by sunflowers, partly because they're so huge and have such a sunny disposition and partly because I feed a lot of sunflower seeds to my various birds and chickens. A couple of months ago, last year beginning October 2013, to be exact, I decided to plant a few of my own and scattered some seeds in an empty spot. I watered the area and then waited.
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24th October 2013
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They popped through the ground within a week, two tiny little plants reaching for the sun. Within another 2 weeks, they were already 30cm (12") tall. But there were only two, of about two dozen seeds I planted and they chose the most inaccessible spot to launch their growth, right next to my Barrel Cactus, so I couldn't even transplant them to a better position. But who am I to decided where is the better position, obviously they think that, right where they are, is perfect!
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 12th November 2013
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Three weeks later the tallest sunflower was already standing over 5' tall and showing the first signs of budding. I could just manage to look at its crown by bending the plant over slightly to take a pic.
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3rd December 2013
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7th December 2013 
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Another three weeks later, 8th December, and the tallest one was just over 15' and the flower had opened. The second one's flower opened a week later.
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16th December 2013, approx. 8 weeks after planting
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A couple of weeks before, the flowers would face East in the morning and by late afternoon would be facing almost due West. It really is true that Sunflowers seem to follow the sun! But as the plant matured, the flower eventually stayed facing East, due to the stalk becoming more rigid and to prevent scorching of the flower in the midday and late afternoon sun. 
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Just before Christmas, the flowers and most of the leaves started drying up and soon I was able to harvest some seeds for my birds! And to plant more in the garden...
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This was taken on the 16th January 2014, and it seemed it was going to take just as long before I could harvest the seeds as it took for the plant to grow! 
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So all in all it seems the farmer has to wait 18 weeks before he can harvest his crop and get some money in. No wonder sunflower seeds are so expensive!

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Monday 9 December 2013

A new season

A new season is unfolding . like a blossom . with petals curled tightly . concealing the beauty within.
- Author Unknown

Nasturtiums from my garden - back-ground image by Gingerbread Snowflakes
Processed in MS PowerPoint

My Nasturtiums have put up the most spectacular show this season and with summer still stretching ahead of us, I'm hoping to get lots of flowers until about April-May. They are an absolute delight to the insects, with sweet nectar accumulating at the base of the flower, luring ants, bees, flies, and even a few wasps. They also flowered right through winter, brightening up the garden just when I needed it most.

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Saturday 12 October 2013

Crawling among the Cosmos


Just outside our front gate, on both sides of the road, the Cosmos flowers were thick and bountiful after all the beautiful rain last summer. Every year I pick bunches for my vases and place them all over the house. Stray seeds also get dispersed by birds and the wind and I inevitably end up with some Cosmos flowers in my garden every summer. 

Crawling among the cosmos next to the side of the road to try and get a good shot of these annual flowers was quite an experience. I almost fell in a rabbit hole, got black jacks all over my pants, walked straight through a huge Orb Web Spider’s web before I realised it and even disturbed a family of Partridges, who scared the daylights out of me as they all raucously took to the air! 

Nature puts up this grand show every year from November, well into March, and tourists travel from the Cape Province to Mpumalanga to witness this spectacular event here in South Africa.  Hopefully I will have another beautiful Cosmos experience this year!

Cosmos are originally native to scrub and meadow areas in Mexico (where the bulk of the species occur), and occur in the southern United States (Arizona, Florida), Central America, South America south to Paraguay and South Africa. 

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Wednesday 29 May 2013

The Little Daisy (a sad story)

(My apologies for the rather lengthy story, but it is well worth the read!) 



Out in the country, close by the roadside, there was a country-house. Certainly you yourself have once seen it. 

Before it is a little garden with flowers and palings which are painted green. Close by it, by the ditch in the midst of the most beautiful green grass, grew a little daisy. 

The sun shone as warmly and as brightly upon it as on the great splendid garden flowers, and so it grew from hour to hour. 

One morning it stood in full bloom with its little shining white leaves spreading like rays round the little yellow sun in the centre. 

It never thought that no one would notice it down in the grass, and that it was a poor, despised floweret. It was very merry, and turned to the warm sun, looked up at it, and listened to the lark carolling high in the air.

The little daisy was as happy as if it were a great holiday, and yet it was only a Monday. All the children were at school. While they sat on their benches learning, it sat on its little green stalk, and learned also from the warm sun, and from all around, how good God is. 

And the daisy was very glad that everything that it silently felt was sung so loudly and charmingly by the lark. And the daisy looked up with a kind of respect to the happy bird who could sing and fly; but it was not at all sorrowful because it could not fly and sing also. 

“I can see and hear,” it thought; “the sun shines on me, and the forest kisses me. Oh, how richly have I been gifted.” 

Within the palings stood many stiff, aristocratic flowers – the less scent they had the more they flaunted. 

The peonies blew themselves out to be greater than the roses, but size will not do it. The tulips had the most splendid colours, and they knew that, and held themselves bolt upright that they might be seen more plainly. 

They did not notice the little daisy outside there, but the daisy looked at them the more and thought, “How rich and beautiful they are. Yes; the pretty bird flies across to them and visits them. I am glad that I stand so near them, for, at any rate, I can enjoy the sight of their splendour!” 

Just as she thought that – “keevit!” Down came flying the lark, but not down to the peonies and tulips – no, down into the grass to the lowly daisy, which started so with joy that it did not know what to think. 

The little bird danced round about it and sang, “Oh, how soft the grass is! And see what a lovely little flower, with gold in its heart and silver on its dress!” For the yellow point in the daisy looked like gold, and the little leaves around it shone silvery white. 

How happy was the little daisy – one can conceive how happy! The bird kissed it with his beak, sang to it, and then flew up again into the blue air. 

A quarter of an hour passed, at least, before the daisy could recover itself. Half ashamed, but inwardly rejoiced, it looked at the other flowers in the garden, for they had seen the honour and happiness it had gained, and must understand what a joy it was. 

But the tulips stood up twice as stiff as before. They looked quite peaky in the face, and quite red, for they were vexed. 

The peonies were quite wrong-headed. It was well they could not speak, or the daisy would have received a good scolding. The poor little flower could see very well that they were not in a good humour, and that hurt it. 

At this moment there came into the garden a girl with a great sharp, shiny knife. She went straight up to the tulips and cut off one after another of them.

“Oh!” sighed the daisy, “that is dreadful! Now it is all over with them!” 

Then the girl went away with the tulips. The daisy was glad to stand out in the grass and be only a poor little flower. It felt very grateful. When the sun went down, it folded its leaves and went to sleep. It dreamed all night long about the sun and the pretty little bird. 

The next morning, when the flower again happily stretched out all its white leaves like little arms toward the light and air, it recognized the voice of the bird, but the song he was singing sounded mournfully. 

Yes, the poor lark had reason to be sad. He had been caught, and now sat in a cage close by the open window. 

He sang of free and happy roaming. He sang of the young green corn in the fields. He sang of the glorious journey he might make on his wings high through the air. 

The poor lark was not in good spirits, for there he sat, a prisoner in a cage. 

The little daisy wished very much to help him. But what was it to do? Yes, that was difficult to make out. 

The daisy quite forgot how everything was so beautiful around, how warm the sun shone, and how splendidly white its own leaves were. 

Ah! it could only think of the imprisoned bird, and how it was powerless to do anything for him. 

Just then two little boys came out of the garden. One of them carried in his hand the knife which the little girl had used to cut off tulips. The boys went straight up to the little daisy, which could not at all make out what they wanted. 

“Here we may cut a capital piece of turf for the lark,” said one of the boys; and he began to cut off a square patch round about the daisy, so that the flower remained standing in its piece of grass. 

“Tear off the flower!” said the other boy, and the daisy trembled with fear, for to be torn off would be to lose its life; and now it wanted particularly to live, as it was to be given with the piece of turf to the captive lark.

“No; let it stay,” said the other boy; “it makes such a nice ornament.” 

And so it remained, and was put into the lark’s cage. But the poor bird complained aloud of his lost liberty, and beat his wings against the wires of his prison; and the little daisy could not speak – could say no consoling word to him, gladly as it would have done so. And thus the whole morning passed. 

 “Here is no water,” said the captive lark. “They are all gone out, and have forgotten to give me anything to drink. My throat is dry and burning. It is like fire and ice within me, and the air is so close. Oh, I must die! I must leave the warm sunshine, the fresh green, and all the splendour that God has created!” 

And then he thrust his beak into the cool turf to refresh himself a little with it. Then the bird’s eye fell upon the daisy, and he nodded to it and kissed it with his beak, and said: 

“You also must wither in here, poor little flower. They have given you to me with the little patch of green grass on which you grow, instead of the whole world which was mine out there! Every little blade of grass shall be a great tree for me, and every one of your fragrant leaves a great flower. Ah, you only tell me how much I have lost!” 

“If I could only comfort him!” thought the daisy. 

It could not stir a leaf; but the scent which streamed forth from its delicate leaves was far stronger than is generally found in these flowers; the bird also noticed that, and, though he was fainting with thirst, and in his pain plucked up the green blades of grass, he did not touch the flower. 

The evening came on, and yet nobody appeared to bring the poor bird a drop of water. Then he stretched out his pretty wings and beat the air frantically with them; his song changed to a mournful piping, his little head sank down toward the flower, and the bird’s heart broke with want and yearning. Then the flower could not fold its leaves, as it had done on the previous evening, and sleep; it drooped, sorrowful and sick, toward the earth. 

Not till the next morn did the boys come; and when they found the dead bird they wept – wept many tears, and dug him a neat grave, which they adorned with leaves and flowers. 

The bird’s corpse was put into a pretty red box, for he was to be royally buried – the poor bird! While he was alive and sang they forgot him, and let him sit in his cage and suffer want; but now that he was dead he had adornment and many tears. 

But the patch of turf with the daisy on it was thrown out into the high-road; no one thought of the flower that had felt the most for the little bird, and would have been so glad to console him. 

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Monday 17 December 2012

December gifts

. . . tomorrow’s flowers . winter food for hungry birds . shapes and shadows for a grey landscape . something to look forward to . december's delights ...


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Friday 5 October 2012

Early morning walk

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. 
- John Muir 

 
An early-morning walk on our smallholding is something I enjoy immensely and even though the landscape sometimes seems very ordinary, hidden amongst the grasses is the most beautiful delights, from lovely tiny, almost unnoticeable little flowers like the one above, scarcely 5mm in diameter, to insects, Dandelions, Sunflowers, stones, twigs and even the odd ground bird's nest.


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I had a keychain once, with  long rubbery tendrils, which looked just like this wild flower I found hiding amongst the grass. At first glance it was just another weed, but through the camera lens set on Macro, it's true beauty was revealed.


This little Dandelion flower amazes as it goes through its metamorphosis from bud to floret to seedhead, dispersing in the wind like tiny little parachutes.


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A newly-born sunflower struggling its way through the tall grass, soon to become Queen of the field, standing taller than the rest, showing all those around her which way the sun will be rising tomorrow morning.


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A perfectly camouflaged praying mantis waits patiently for some unsuspecting insect to come past. She almost escaped my eye she is so perfectly at one with the blue gum leaves.


A cluster of Ladybirds on an old piece of wood made me wonder whey they would be sitting there...?


A small yellow surprise basking in the sun...


And, of course, no outing is complete without the odd spider! Not a very good photograph, but I wasn't going to interfere in there to see what else might emerge!

Hope your early-morning walks also delivery some lovely delights and surprises!

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Sunday 27 May 2012

Soaking up the Winter sun

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul. 
- Luther Burbank


Cosmos are like sunshine to the ground! 

Two Pink Cosmos flowers still soaking up the winter sun in my garden, they have long surpassed their usual time of flowering. A bird must have carried in a seed, for I only have this one Cosmos plant, but it's rewarded me with some beautiful flowers! 

Camera : Canon EOS 550D 

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Wednesday 4 April 2012

The last Cosmos of the Season


The show of Cosmos next to the roads in our area hasn't been that great this year and now, as the flowers start to wane, the insects are making the most of the last pollen and the Autumn sunshine. Soon all that will be left is the yellowing leaves and dry stalks. 


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But I've been lucky - the birds carried a Cosmos seed into my garden and I've got this one, very tall plant that, even though it fell over because it is so tall, has blessed me with a couple of beautiful flowers. 

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Tuesday 31 January 2012

Love is in the air

The first Cosmos flowers of the season...

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Love is in the air
Everywhere I look around
Love is in the air
Every sight and every sound

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Love is in the air
In the whisper of the trees
Love is in the air
In the flower and the breeze

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Love is in the air
In the rising of the sun
Love is in the air
When the day is nearly done

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Normally the countryside is covered in Cosmos by now, starting about November through to March ~ but this year (and it seems every year lately) we only have a scarce spattering along the road. I had to traipse DEEP into the veld to capture these few...

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Saturday 31 December 2011

This is life...



As the year draws to an end and I stroll through my garden, it always amazes me the peace I find here. I'm grounded here, on my own tiny piece of African paradise...

The White Karees (rhus viminalis) and Black Karees (Rhus lancea) have now grown to about 15m, offering shade to the plants and home to all the lovely birds that have chosen this as their home. I feel honoured.

Every morning as I step outside to fill the bird feeders and give my special whistle, they sit watching me intently, hardly able to wait for me to finish. Then I spend a while sipping my coffee at the patio table watching as they flit from one table to the other, not being able to decide what to try first - the suet and fruit section or the mixed seeds. There's a lot of scrambling and busyness for a while, but it soon quietens down as they settle into the serious business of eating.

I finish my coffee with a sigh and head for my studio.

I just want to say thank you to all of you for stopping by, reading, commenting and sharing my experiences of the past year as I whirl through this journey called life. It means a lot to me.

May your new year also be filled with JOY, LOVE, SPARKLING LIGHT and INSPIRATION.

Camera : Kodak EasyShare C195. Flowers of the Acacia 'karroo' - Pic taken in my garden in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa.

Sunday 20 September 2009

Cosmos in South Africa


Cosmos in Mpumalanga, South Africa

Every March and November respectively our countryside explodes with colour when pretty pink and white cosmos flowers bloom in late summer. They grow easily in the soil at the side of the roads disturbed by the road scrapers widening the verges.

Cosmos is a genus of about 20-26 species of annual and perennial plants in the family Asteraceae, native to scrub and meadow areas in Mexico (where the bulk of the species occur), the southern United States (Arizona, Florida), Central America, South America south to Paraguay and South Africa

They are herbaceous perennial plants growing 0.3-2 m tall. The leaves are simple, pinnate, or bipinnate, and arranged in opposite pairs. The flowers are produced in a capitulum with a ring of broad ray florets and a center of disc florets; flower color is very variable between the different species.


Cosmos next to a stream

Cosmos, along with many of our succulent and aloe species, have become regarded as indigenous in South Africa and bloom in various colours - white, pink, cerise and red - no yellow in South Africa.

It's against the law to pick the flowers next to the side of the road, but Cosmos seeds are now packaged and available at most nurseries. Growing them in the garden is easy and they make a wonderful country-style cut-flower arrangement.


"Cosmos" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree

Cosmos flowers is a favourite subject of, and has inspired, artists throughout the years and have been depicted on many a canvass.

Cosmos growing wild in the country-side (photo by Jo-Ann Kruger)



















White Cosmos


Cosmos growing wild next to a stream



 

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