Chamelon Tulips and Other Blooms

Some of our tulips are chameleons! The clear yellow beauty that I featured in Thursday's blog was a lively orange by this morning. This is not an April Fools joke...unless the plant is having it at our expense. More tulips are showing color--yellow, gold, cream, pink. And orange. I guess there is a new light show in the front yard every day.

March is going out like a lion tonight with thunder and lightning and a lot of rain, but not nearly like the soaking Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas got today. Before the rains came, I took this shot of some of our new grape hyacinths, one of Norm's favorites, growing in the raised bed that Matt and Doug built for us, along with the fieldstone wall. This is also a columbine garden, so they will be next.

Just to show that not all of our flowers are yellow/orange, and also not all of them are of our planting, I took a picture of this deep blue hyacinth that volunteers every year in our back yard perennial garden. It must have been planted by a previous gardener, and we enjoy it every year. Whenever we plant perennials, shrubs or trees, to paraphrase Archbishop Romero, we become builders of a garden in someone else's future. We are grateful to the previous gardeners at this place. Next up....the lilac, which we did transplant from our house in Ferguson. May all of your April Fool experiences tomorrow be mild and pleasant ones.

Gold, Gold and More Gold

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we had acquired some new Holland bulbs. Today the first of the new tulips opened, and they were this glorious yellow. (We think we ordered a mixed grouping so we can't wait to see the next buds to open.) When I was a little girl, my grandmother liked to sing a song that went, "when you wore a tulip, a big yellow tulip, and I wore a big red rose." Frankly I always thought and still think that it would be rather difficult to wear a tulip corsage, but what do I know?

Keeping with today's golden theme, I stalked the thistle feeder through the back window pane and caught this goldfinch pair at lunch. They are blurry, because I probably need a real SLR camera with a real telephoto lens, instead of my 3x optical zoom on my digital Olympus. But I do the best I can. We have enjoyed watching the males molt from olive green winter drab to this bright yellow spring courting plumage with the snazzy black cap. These guys are territorial, too. He chased off several other goldfinches during this session.

Many of our daffodils are spent, but these bicolor blooms come out a bit later, and they have shade from the afternoon sun. We brought these bulbs to St. Louis from Tulsa about 15 years ago, and when we moved to our present house, we moved a clump of them again. It is always a comforting sight to see the same flowers that bloomed in my mother's garden blooming in mine. In contrast, the blossoms below are some cluster daffodils that were in our Anniversary purchase. They are blooming for the first time in the bed at the front of the porch. Norm thinks they will be his favorites...at least for now.

Daffodils and Magnolias

All of a sudden, bulbs and trees are blooming all over St. Louis. On Sunday we decided to have lunch at Missouri Botanical Garden and go for a stroll among the bulb beds. Usually our visits are to the indoor rainforest of the Climatron in the winter, followed by the orchid show, and then we wait until the iris and roses are out, usually in late April. But fascinated by the plethora of daffodils we had at home, we decided to check out the bulb garden here. We must have seen a hundred different varieties of daffodils, jonquils, narcissus--as well as hyacinths and other more exotic bulb varieties.

Overhead, the trees were glorious with many varieties of "saucer" and "star" magnolias, the deciduous variety that blooms in the north. These plants have a habit of showing color and opening very close to the vernal equinox, which this year had been on March 20. Five days later, some of the petals on the pink ones, especially, had already started to fall as the blossoms don't last long in the heat, and over the weekend the thermometer flirted with 80.

The stunning white blooms above were just beginning to open, and the fragrance was sweet and pungent, much like a gardenia. The pink stars at left were right at eye level. The garden was filled with people of all ages and nationalities, speaking a variety of languages, enjoying the sunshine and beauty that is Henry Shaw's lasting legacy to the people of St. Louis.

Retreat Weekend

March 23-24, 2007--This weekend was the spring 24-hour retreat for women, sponsored by the Disciples Womens Ministries of the Christian Church in Mid-America. Our gathering spot is the Rickman Camp and Conference Center, just south of Jefferson City, MO. This retreat had fewer women than in past years; some 22 from all corners of the state came together for a time of reflection and worship. The Rickman center is comfortable, with motel-style rooms and amazing food served in the dining hall.

On Saturday morning most of us took walks in the sunshine to enjoy a glorious day. I came across Connie Atchley from Bowling Green and Faye Vaughn from New London and two other ladies and took their picture. Then another woman passed by and took this one with me in it as well. Soon we went inside for lunch, followed by a closing session.

Not long before I came across the group above, I took a half-hour prayer walk in the woods. One sight on the grounds was this perfect little dandelion among some interesting rocks. I'm going to place some meditations from the retreat, and some more photos from my walk, on Thursday's Child.


Our retreat keynoter was the Rev. Romney Nesbitt from Oklahoma. She is an artist and story-teller, art teacher, minister and spiritual director, as well as mother of two sons and wife. She challenged us to "rekindle the fire within" us, and illustrated Bible stories with chalk drawings such as this one, of the two disciples on the Emmaus Road, unaware of the outcome of the Easter story. I appreciated this retreat for the rest and renewal and challenges it brought to me. It was a great way to begin my week of Spring Break from school.

Spring is Official

As is often the case in the MIdwest, Spring arrived with a stormy night on Tuesday, but the flowers are popping out all over, although it's days to go until April is here. The daffodils along the driveway were already planted when we moved here six summers ago, but they grow bigger and more numerous every year.


The purple crocus are new this year, part of a group of bulbs we "gave" ourselves last summer for our anniversary! Still to come are bluebells, tulips, some unusual daffodil varieties, English hyacinths and red carpet lilies. As well as our regulars of iris, columbine, daylilies, etc. Robins are starting to build nests, squirrels are frisky, and most of the juncos have moved north although I think I saw one yesterday so we may still have more freezes before the season settles in.

Orchid Orgy

Sunday, March 11--After church today we went to one of our favorite places in St. Louis, the Missouri Botanical Garden. We try to go there for lunch every few months because the exhibits are ever-changing, and the cafe is nice. Every winter the Garden puts on an Orchid Show. Today was the last day of this year's exhibit. It was not to be missed!

Hundreds of orchids of every possible sub-species were on display. Some grew in pots, some were attached by aerial roots to trees or supports, and some were growing at ground level. The display opened the last week of January, and new specimens are continually introduced to keep the view fresh. We could have seen something different here every week all winter. One of our favorites is at left.

This yellow and red number at right was one of the show stoppers. A Japanese man behind us with a very long lens on his expensive camera sighed, "this is the best specimen in the entire show." It certainly drew a lot of attention.

I took at least 80 photos and didn't begin to photograph every flower there. Unfortunately there wasn't time to try to copy down all the names of the plants as well. But this one, at left, has a unusual "Christmas" coloring of light green with a red spot, and it dangled gracefully from high up in a tree.


After we had been through the entire exhibit three times, we moved on to the gift shop. We did not buy any of the tantalizing orchids for sale there, but friends from church were there, too, and Shannon took our picture to prove that we were there.

One of the most unusual types of orchids was this spiky one at left. From a distance it looks kind of like a liatris perennial, but it is an orchid. Upon close examination, every floret on the spike is a teeny, tiny, perfect orchid.

There are many varieties of the so-called lady-slipper orchids that grow in soil at ground level. The ones at right were spectacular. I almost expected that pouch to be full of water--or drowned insects!

Most lady slipper types are in muted tones, but this bright red one was an exception.





Although we all expect orchids to be, well, orchid or pink in color, this show was a riot of blues, reds, yellows, oranges, spots, blends as well as the traditional pinks, purples and whites. We were taken with the orange ones at right, and the red ones below.

The indoor exhibits at the Garden, including the Orchid Show, the Camellias, and the indoor tropical forest of the Climatron, are often the best part of a St. Louis winter. The next time we visit, we'll be out on the spacious grounds, enjoying the spring bulbs, the blooming trees and maybe even the Iris. There is always something new there.

March Blows In

Yesterday, we woke up to the wail of tornado warning sirens, although the worst part of the storm front was actually a hundred miles south of here. Something on radar looked suspicious, so the warnings were issued. About 10:30 a.m. it was up to 68 degrees, and the wind was gusting up to 40 mph--it really rearranged all of the empty trash cans in the neighborhood, and brought down a lot of smaller dead limbs from trees. I took my exercise walk around our long block--it is almost a mile--well, 7/8 of one to be exact. The sun was playing tag with the clouds, and this is one of the views, looking southeast from our front yard, over our neighbor's house. But we hardly got a sprinkle of rain.

The breezy day had me longing for spring to really arrive, though. I was cheered when I found about five different crocus bulbs starting to open in the front yard, including this little yellow number. The back yard was full of robins who were clucking and competing with the grackles, who had arrived to take a dip in the birdbath. It turned a lot cooler overnight and tomorrow is supposed to be cooler still. We may even get some snow flurries, but nothing substantial. It's supposed to hit 60 again by next Wednesday. Who knows what flowers may open in a week?

Quilt Project

Here is my project from the weekend quilt retreat. This is how it looked as the retreat ended. It's a table runner, with a tulip design. Since returning home, I have basted this top to some batting and a lining, and I have started to hand quilt it. One of my fellow retreaters challenged me to be finished by the next time the Guild meets, on March 15. Um...that's 13 days from now, right? When it is finished I'll see if I can get another photo that has a little less distortion.