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| Chaste Tree is another bee-friendly plant, more like a small tree or woody bush. |
I was doing a little work in the rose garden yesterday. I noticed the infamous Buckwheat crop had re-seeded itself while being weed-whacked. The parent plants created another generation to follow. If we have another late-arriving winter, like last year's, there is a chance the Buckwheat will prosper before the frost. The plant remains on my list to fill in areas before I decide what to do with them, but not as ground-cover for roses.
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| Sweetheart - Calladiums fade in color with too much sun, so deep shade is best. |
Take Hostas Out of the Dark
I have been growing Hummingbird-friendly plants since we moved to Springdale, but Hostas did the most to bring the flying rainbows to our yard. Like the famous Gruss an Aachen "shade" rose, Hostas tolerate shade but flourish with more sun.
Some plants want total sun and heat - corn, sunflowers, and tomatoes. Full sun means they love it.
Others - like roses and Hostas - enjoy morning sun and after noon shade. Growing roses near a south brick wall is double trouble. I would put sunflowers there.
A few - like Calladiums - fade with too much sun, so they would like as much shade as possible. They are the real deep shade plants and they are in vivid color all summer long.
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| Hidden Lily has not bloomed yet, but it is a big, healthy, winter tolerant plant. It is also called Wild Ginger for being a ginger substitute. |
More Perennials
I may be past the need to try exotic plants, though Wild Ginger was a big hit. I gave one plant to a gardening fan and promised some for our daughter-in-law.
I am constantly impressed by Joe Pye's magnetic personality. Mountain Mint and Joe Pye draw the greatest number of beneficial insects, but JP is the one that butterflies love the most.
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| Joe Pye is a good looking, not glamorous, tall perennial. You like butterflies? Plant JP. |
Is There a Plan?
If we look at plant characteristics and their interactions with insects, there must be a divine plan - not a serious of co-inky-dinks.
I see the succession of blooms, the early and late fruiting of berries - and marvel at how we can tune the garden to what God has already created and sustained by His Word.
Gardening unites people too. My English class loves fresh roses and they take them home after class. One of them said, "I thought my rose last week was small, but it kept growing and growing each day." Some buds look very modest indeed, but open up into pom-poms. Peace and Pink Peace adorned the altar last night because Mrs. JD enjoys seeing the roses. The blooms were gigantic.
Just as each creature has a role, whether a fungus, protozoa, flower, insect, or bird - so are we all mummers. We are costumed players who have a script written for us - in a sense - as Luther observed. God gives us certain abilities and places us in special circumstances. I know about a young boy - named A - who adores his grandmother as much as she adores him. His parents love and care for him, teaching others about his rare syndrome.
Maybe my script was not to work at a "Lutheran" publishing house that hawks Church Growth sales manuals, but to publish Luther for amnesiac Lutheran synods.
We mummers do not know about last-minute script changes until they happen. A lawyer got our Greek class going. What are the Vegas odds on that? That is slowly morphing into a brief commentary on the English and the Greek.
In the distant past I often felt like I was pulling the start cord on a lawnmower with no gas. Varoom. Varoom. Silence. "Oh, pastor, we really need to..." Varoom. Silence.
There is so little exposition of Scripture now, that anything done faithfully in that area is greatly appreciated.
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| Our Blueberry bushes were extended the Left Foot of Fellowship, and given to someone who lost all her plants through theft. |
