Flora

Spring Birds and Flowers

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Peach background. Photo of two house sparrows on a branch. Text, "Spring Birds & Flowers. Petticoats & Pistols Blog"

We made it through winter! You might live in a warm weather climate, but here in northwest Ohio, winter can linger for far too long. In April, it snowed. It rained. One day it was in the eighties. We had severe storms. And we had sunshine. Go figure. Thankfully, it’s time for spring birds and flowers.

My husband and I spent a weekend working in the yard. He thatched the lawn, and our son and I raked the grass. I learned I had muscles I wasn’t aware of. I was pretty sore for a few days! But we also bought flowers to plant in pots on our deck and porch.

I love flowers.

I took this picture right after planting them. By the end of the month, the planter will be full of pretty petunias. 🙂

 

Deck and pot with white, purple and pink flowers

Another thing I love about spring? All the birds and bunnies and squirrels scurry around our feeders and birdbath. I watch them every morning while I sip coffee. It’s a blessing. The squirrels are silly. We have two regulars. One of them gnawed through the side hole of a birdhouse-turned-feeder, and he squeezed his way inside. His fluffy tail was sticking out of the feed tray. I laughed! I tried to take a picture of it. You can see his tail sticking out in the picture below.

Squirrel in birdfeeder

 

We have beautiful parks in our area, so I stopped at one along the Maumee River. I saw this chubby guy at their feeders. I don’t usually see raccoons out during the day! I figured it might be a pregnant raccoon, filling up before she has her babies. Who knows? She was cute, though.

 

Racoon at birdfeeder

The only birds I don’t like to see in my backyard are the predators–hawks, especially. They eat the sparrows and mourning doves. I don’t like it. I’m feeding the birds so they can live, not so they can be snacks! I know the hawks have to eat, too, but do they have to pick off the sweet little birds and bunnies in my yard? Ugh.

The hawk below is on the smaller side, and I saw him at the same park as the raccoon.

 

Hawk in tree

Oh well. Such is life.

We have two robin nests in our yard–one in the front and one in the back–but I don’t believe we have a cardinal nest this year. There must be one nearby, though, because we have a mama and daddy cardinal flying around, stopping at the feeders, every day. I love them. They’re such bright birds. Oh, and we have goldfinches. If you’d like to try to identify birds, check out AllAboutBirds.org.

What kind spring birds and flowers do you have? Do you have favorites?

Enjoy your day!

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Lilac Bride Sale

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I don’t know about you, but I love it when the lilacs bloom. I mean, really LOVE it!

The flowers, from the deep purples, to the creamiest whites, make me so happy. They make me think of spring, and bring to mind memories of picking them for my mom for Mother’s Day, and gathering them from my grandpa’s garden.

Their scent isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I find that fragrance to be glorious.

A few years ago, I wrote a story about a bride-to-be who wanted a spring wedding filled with lilacs in memory of her mother.

 

Then it seemed like nature and everything else conspired against her getting the wedding of her dreams.

Just when it looks like it will all fall apart, some meddling octogenarians (like fairy godmothers who need cholesterol meds and Aspercreme) come to the rescue.

For a limited time, you can get Lilac Bride for just 99 cents. If you haven’t read it yet, I hope you’ll give it a whirl!

When wedding plans go awry, wily matchmakers come to the rescue . . .

Katherine Kelly has been dreaming of her wedding since she was old enough to cut pictures out of magazines and glue them into her bridal binder. When Kaden, the handsome cowboy who holds her heart, proposes on a snowy Christmas Eve, she couldn’t envision anything more perfect or romantic. The spring date is set, all the nuptial details have been meticulously arranged, and she only has six weeks to go before the big day. Then, in a blink, her carefully formed plans begin to rapidly unravel. A freak snowstorm, rampaging rodents, and a lost wedding gown are only the beginning of the troubles they face.

Cowboy entrepreneur Kaden Ford still can’t quite believe Katherine Kelly agreed to marry him. She’s beautiful, elegant, intelligent, and the woman who fills his heart with joy. He doesn’t care if they get married in a cathedral or a cabin in the woods. All he wants is to spend his life loving Kat. But when faced with one overwhelming challenge after another, will love be enough to hold them together?

Find out in this sweet, charming, small-town romance full of laughter, love, and scheming octogenarian matchmakers.

What is your favorite flower fragrance?

Thank You Bees and Lady Bird Johnson

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A couple weeks ago, my neighbor discovered a bee swarm on one of our fence posts. (When I first saw it, the swarm was twice the size of the one pictured.) Being a conservationist, I was concerned the swarm was honeybees. Being a paranoid dog owner/foster, I was worried what could happen if dogs and bees met. Thankfully, my ever-calm hubby hopped on the Internet and called Little Giant Beekeepers.

The woman he spoke with said the swarm was probably resting after their hive had been disturbed. They’d send out scouts, find a new home and move in a day or two. But, if we wanted, they could send a beekeeper. With me imagining one or more dogs not having the sense to leave the bees alone, getting stung, and having an allergic reaction, we opted for the beekeeper.

Turned out the bees were honeybees. When Miguel came, he suited up, and with an Amazon box and brush in hand, he swept them into the box! He accomplished the task amazingly fast. (Miguel later told us once the queen is in the box, the remaining bees pretty much follow.) Then he taped the box shut and said the bees would be relocated.

The bee incident made me thinking about Lady Bird Johnson’s legacy. This time of year, wildflowers, particularly Texas’ state flower bluebonnets, bloom along highways and in medians, continuing the conservation efforts she started decades ago. According to http://www.pbs.org/ladybird, on January 27, 1965, Lady Bird wrote in her diary, “Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool. All the threads are interwoven—recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate, and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks—national, state and local.”

I’ve always felt passionately about issues. Rarely am I on the fence. These days, two of my soap box issues are conservation and saving honeybees. I keep thinking about planting bee friendly plants–sage, salvia, lavender, clover and native wildflowers. Honeybees are struggling to survive. I believe we all need to do our part to help. After all, as Lady Bird said, everything is interwoven, and honeybees pollinate most plants, including our food. No bees? Life will get tough for other animals. Humans included.

I think the bee swarm was the universe telling me to quit talking about it and improve my garden. This weekend I intend to take a tip from Lady Bird Johnson and plant flowers, because like she believed, “beauty can improve the mental health of a society,” and of course, I’ll choose bee friendly plants. We should be kind to our planet and its inhabitants, honeybees included. We’re in this together, and we should keep the Earth healthy. As French president Macron said, there is no Planet B. 

Tonight I’ll select one reader who leaves a comment to receive a Book Club wine glass and a copy of To Catch a Texas Cowboy, where my heroine runs a B&B, The Bluebonnet Inn.

The Capitals of Texas

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Kathleen Rice Adams, author

I spend a lot of time talking and writing about Texas history—all the people, places, and things that have made Texas a larger-than-life state. Every once in a while it’s interesting to reflect on what modern-day Texans have done with the legacy of ancestors who sacrificed, struggled, and bled .

Texas FlagIt’s true what they say, you know: “Everything’s bigger in Texas.” Texans take a great deal of pride in that statement, having been devoted to “big” since the state was an independent republic. From its admission to the Union in 1845 until someone exhibited extremely poor judgment and granted statehood to Alaska in 1959, Texas was the biggest U.S. state by far. Ever since that unfortunate dethroning, Texans have felt compelled to prove we can out-big the best of ’em by conspicuously displaying big houses, big vehicles, big fortunes, and big hair.

Sometimes, though, even Texans think this “big” thing has gotten out of hand. Take, for example, the list of Official State Capital Designations. Who in their right mind thinks any state needs sixty-nine official state capitals? Texas has seventy, actually, if one counts Austin.

Texas Bluebonnets
Texas Bluebonnets outside Ennis. (photo by Jeffrey Pang)

Austin, as it turns out, lies at the heart of the ridiculously big list. In 1981, probably in an effort to head off a county-line war, the legislature passed a joint resolution naming Burnet County and Llano County the Bluebonnet Co-capitals of Texas. The Bluebonnet City is Ennis, which is in neither county but probably got its feelings hurt because it does put on quite a show during bluebonnet season.

From there, the legislature got the bit in its teeth and went hog wild. The official representatives in the official Official State Capital in Austin went on a designating binge from which the state has yet to emerge.

Texas crape myrtle
Yes, crape myrtles are pretty. Evidently, they’re pretty enough to fight over in Texas. (photo by Atamari)

Evidently another botanical fight erupted in 1997, this one over crape myrtles. Waxahachie, Paris, and Lamar County all got a part of that designation, as Crape Myrtle Capital, Crape Myrtle City, and Crape Myrtle County, respectively. It should be noted that the Crape Myrtle City is in the Crape Myrtle County, about as far north and east as one can go in Texas. Why Waxahachie, which is south of Dallas, insisted on a piece of the action is anybody’s guess.

Wildflowers evidently caused yet another set-to, because the legislature named both the City of Temple and DeWitt County, about 162 miles apart, the Official Wildflower Capital of Texas. Both probably remain dismayed they have to share the honor.

Resistol Hat
“King George” Strait is a Resistol fan.

The legislature named Garland the Cowboy Hat Capital of Texas in 2013, which makes sense because that’s where Resistol Hats got their start. The designation Dinosaur Capital of Texas also makes sense for Glen Rose, since a plethora of dinosaur tracks—including some that had never been seen before—were discovered in the area at the turn of the 20th Century. But the Hippo Capital of Texas (Hutto)? The Jackrabbit-Roping Capital of Texas (Odessa)? Even Texans wonder who had gotten into the mescal when those ideas were trotted out.

Texas horned lizard
A Texas horny toad. Cute li’l feller, ain’t he? (photo by Steve Hillebrand, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Since the Official Texas State Reptile is the horned lizard—horny toad to Texans, and found only in our state—it’s only right the little critter have its own capital. The legislature went wild on this one, in 2001 designating Kenedy the Texas Horned Lizard Capital of the World. That may be justified, though, because Kenedy’s human population of about 3,000 is probably outnumbered by the reptiles.

Caldwell is the Kolache Capital of Texas, but the Official Kolache of the Texas Legislature resides 100 miles away in West. Yep—must’ve been another fight.

Quite a few of Texas’s Official Capitals are associated with food:

  • Texas crawfish
    In Texas, we call crawfish “crawdads.” They look like miniature lobsters, and they’re the only thing in Texas that looks miniature. (photo by Jon Sullivan)

    Elgin is the Sausage Capital.

  • Floydada is the Pumpkin Capital.
  • Friona is the Cheeseburger Capital.
  • Hawkins is the Pancake Capital.
  • Lockhart is the Barbecue Capital.
  • Madisonville is the Mushroom Capital.
  • Mansfield is the Pickle Capital.
  • Mauriceville is the Crawfish Capital.
  • Parker County is the Peach Capital.
  • Weslaco is the Citrus Capital.
  • West Tawakoni is the Catfish Capital.
  • Knox City is the Seedless Watermelon Capital. (There appears to be no Seeded Watermelon Capital, but I’m sure the legislature will remedy that oversight soon.)

In case anyone isn’t completely fed up by now with Texas’s determination to out-big everyone else (Sixty-nine official state capitals? Seriously?), the complete list of Texas Official State Capital Designations is here.

 

Burpee Seeds – A Short History

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wg-logo-picHi, Winnie Griggs here.  With the start of the new year I’ve been in a cleaning out and de-cluttering mood.  And I’ve been surprised by the number of things I’ve come across that I’d forgotten I had.  One of the items is a pretty little tray, with a picture on front that is a reproduction of a picture that was featured in a 1913 Burpee seed catalog.  Which got me to wondering, since I know Burpee Seeds are still around, just how long the Burpee Seed Company has been in business.  Which naturally gave me an excellent excuse to stop cleaning out my spare room and start in on a little research.

 

W. Atlee Burpee was born in 1858 into an established Philadelphia family that was descended from French Canadian Huguenots.  Both his father and grandfather were physicians and it was expected that Atlee would follow in their footsteps.  But Atlee himself had different ideas.

From an early age he had an interest in animals and plants.   He started with poultry Atleebreeding (chickens, geese, turkeys) but it wasn’t long before he was also working with livestock, dogs and plants.  Atlee was fascinated with the still-new and little-respected science of genetics.  A man who loved research, Atlee conducted his own experiments, and met with a great deal of success.   He corresponded with poultry experts across the world and contributed articles to poultry journals as well.

In 1876, when Atlee was eighteen, he took a loan of $1000, most of which was provided by his mother, and started a mail-order chicken business out of the family home.  Because of the success of his breeding experiments and the numerous articles he’d written, many poultry farmers already knew his name and expertise.  His business became so successful that he was soon able to open a poultry and feed store in Philadelphia.  Because of a growing demand from his customer for quality vegetable seed, by 1878 Burpee had formed W. Atlee Burpee & Company.

But Atlee had a near-obsession with innovation and improvement.  And he had the intellect and skills to follow through on this keen interest.  In 1877 he was able to introduce a new variety of cabbage he called Surehead, in 1881 he produced an improved carrot, in 1884 it was both an improved celery and a better pepper and in 1887 he produced an improved radish..

ICatalogn 1888 the company established Foodhook Farms in Doylston, PA to test new flowers and vegetables.    This was before the US government had a seed testing or research station of their on.

Atlee traveled extensively through Europe and the US every summer.  And much of his travel time was spent visiting farms.  When he found flowers or vegetables he thought of as exceptional, he would ship these to Fordhook Farms where they could be tested and crossed with other seed stock to produce hybrids – in fact Foodhook Farms was on the leading edge of this type of seed production.

Although garden seed production became the company’s primary business, Atlee and his successors never forgot the company’s beginnings and it wasn’t until 1940 that live poultry disappeared entirely from the Burpee catalog.

At the time W. Atlee Burpee died in 1915, the company he founded was the largest seed company in the world and was receiving approximately 10,000 orders a day.  Burpee’s employed 300 people and was sending out a million catalogs a year.

Atlee was succeeded as head of the firm by his 22 year old son David.  It was shortly after David took over the company that World War I began taking a toll on seed production in Europe which pushed America to the forefront of world seed production.  David Burpee was one of the forces behind the ‘War Gardens’ movement of WW I.  This is what he had to say about it:

Food will win the war , we were told by Washington and I decided the best way I could help our country’s war effort was by showing people how to grow a good share of their food right in their own back yards. To dramatize this, I set up what we called War Gardens in a number of cities. The biggest attention-getter was the one in New York. It was in Union Square, directly opposite an imitation battleship bristling with wooden guns aimed at the tomatoes and cabbages. It was a huge success. I would guess that that garden alone must have started thousands of people gardening.

So, do you have any experience with Burpee’s seeds or their catalog?  And was any of this information a surprise to you.

And since, as I said, I’m trying to de-clutter my home, but would like to give some of my ‘treasures’ to folks who will appreciate them, I’m going to give the tray pictured here to one of today’s commenters.Tray

Seeing Daylight through Aspen Trees…and a giveaway ~Tanya Hanson

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MarryingMinda Crop to UseToday I’m giving away “book-ends”–the first e-book in my contemporary, inspirational ranch series, Hearts Crossing Ranch, as well as the latest, book seven, Seeing Daylight~so please leave a comment after you endure my lecture on Aspen Trees!

You see, Seeing Daylight takes place in autumn in Colorado, and last fall, Hubs and I witnessed the aspen trees in all their fiery glory, mostly yellow and gold, occasionally red. I still get goosebumps.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Aspen are found throughout North America, from New England to Alaska, even down into California and Arizona. But the best, the most, and brightest are found in Colorado and Utah. (Aspen, Colorado was named that for a reason!)

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Petiole–the stalk attaching the leaf to the stem–are long and flat, giving the leaves the chance to flutter or “quake” in the slightest breeze. Depending on their location, aspen endure temperatures as low as -78 F, and as high as 110 F. While they prefer moist soil, they can grow in desert climes that get a half a foot of rain a year. Their absolutely only requirement for survival is abundant sunlight.

With white bark and black scars, the aspen is often confused with the birch. However, birch bark easily peels like paper and aspen bark does not. And…an aspen isn’t really one tree at all.

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A stand of aspen is actually one huge organism, a large system–up to twenty acres–of underground roots. When there is finally enough sunlight, roots sprout up into the famed white trunks which eventually shoot off leaves.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This is called vegetative, or asexual, reproduction. These root systems are called “clones” and can live for thousands of of years. The oldest known clone at 80,000 years old is the “Pando” north of Bryce Canyon in central Utah. Five-to-ten thousand year old clones are more common,

Aspen are unique in another way…beneath that lovely white back is an inner green layer necessary for photosynthesis. Making sugars keeps the aspen growing all through the winter when other trees go dormant.

This green layer also becomes survival food for deer and elk when winters are long.

In the fall, the trees of each aspen “clone” structure will have the same color turning from green to gold or red at the same time.

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The intensive root systems appear immune to plant diseases. The aspen is not endangered and never will be. Even dormant root systems come back to life…especially after a forest fire clears out other growth and brings back the sun.

The only natural enemy of the aspen are pocket gophers who, in abundance, can gnaw through root systems. But chopped up roots can still grow.

The aspen turn gold earlier in the mountains than say, Denver, and we sure timed it right during our vacation in Vail.

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(view from our condo…pretty swell!)

Have you ever seen aspen? Did you find any interesting facts today? Please leave a comment to win either kindle or PDF copies of my “book-end” books.

SeeingDaylight_w4964_680 (2) HeartsCrossingRanch_w4841_300[1]

 

 

…a beautiful attorney widowed by a foolhardy man…a successful builder vanquishing guilt over his wife’s death. Can they rebuild faith and find love enough to give each other and their kids a happy home together? 

….Sixteen months since the foolish death of her husband, attorney Rachel Martin aches to move on as much as she fears the future. Cutting back on her practice and moving back to her childhood ranch means her three-year old son has all the attention he needs. Finding love again is the last thing on her mind…until she meets Brayton Metcalf.

 After ten year’s of self-blame for his wife’s death in a plane crash, successful businessman Brayton Metcalf is instantly drawn to Rachel when he brings his his daughter to Hearts Crossing Ranch for therapy riding lessons. But Rachel backs off at his impetuous personality. He whittles away at her doubts…until he jumps head-fist into a business decision that will affect her family. Rachel, her trust in Brayton endangered, turns to trusting in God. Can the couple’s shared grief and guilt permit them to see daylight once again?

 

 

 

State Trivia Week – Louisiana

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Photo WG2 smallHi.  Winnie Griggs here, and I’m pleased to be sharing some fun facts about my home state of Louisiana with you.  Though I’ve moved around within its borders, I’ve been proud to call the Pelican State home for my entire lifetime.

Here are just a few things you may not know about my home state:

 

Structures:

  • Louisiana’s state capitol building is the tallest in the United States.  The building is 450 feet tall and has 34 floors.  The Capitol is surrounded by 27 acres of formally landscaped gardens.
  • Louisiana is home to the longest bridge over water in the world.  The Lake Pontchartrain causeway is 24 miles long and connects the city of Metairie with St. Tammany Parish.
  • The Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans is the world’s largest enclosed stadium.
  • Morgan City, La is home to the world’s largest heliport.

Entertainment:

  • The first Tarzan movie, Tarzan of the Apes , was filmed in St. Mary Parish .
  • The staircase at Chretien Point, in Sunset, was copied for Tara in Gone With the Wind
  • The nation’s first opera was performed in New Orleans in 1796.
  • The name “jazz” was first given to the music of New Orleans about 100 years ago.
  • Elvis got his start playing at the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport.
  • The first opera performed in America was in 1796 in New Orleans
  • Grand Isle’s Tarpon Rodeo, established in 1928, is the oldest fishing tournament in the U.S.
  • Grambling’s Eddie Robinson is the “winningest” football coach in college history.
  • The nation’s oldest community theater, is Le Petit Theatre de Vieux Carre, is in New Orleans and  dates from 1919.

 

Natural Resources and Flora:

  • Louisiana is the number one producer of crawfish, alligators and shallots in the nation.
  • Louisiana produces 24% of the nation’s salt, the most in the country.
  • There are 117,518 oyster reefs in Louisiana waters.
  • The salt mine at AveryIsland, the oldest salt mine in the Western Hemisphere, was discovered in 1862.
  • Toledo Bend Reservoir offers 185,000 acres of bass fishing paradise.
  • The oldest salt dome in the Western Hemisphere was discovered in AveryIsland in 1862
  • Saint Martin Parish is home to the world’s largest freshwater river basin, the AtchafalayaBasin; the basin provides nearly every type of outdoor recreational activity imaginable.
  • The TunicaSwamp, near St. Francisville, boasts the nation’s largest bald cypress.
  • Louisiana has the largest variety of plant and animal species of any of the Gulf states.
  • Louisiana’s 6.5 million acres of wetlands are the greatest in the nation.
  • Steen’s Syrup Mill is the world’s largest syrup plant, producing sugarcane syrup.
  • The AmericanRoseCenter, located in Shreveport, boasts 20,000 rose bushes.
  • The world’s most complete collection of camellias is at the JungleGardens in AveryIsland.
  • Redwing, La, has a cherry tree that sprouts from a cedar tree trunk.
  • Louisiana has 15 State Historic Sites, 17 State Parks, and 1 State Preservation Area.

Historical Trivia:

  • The oldest city in the entire Louisiana Purchase Territory is Natchitoches, founded in 1714. Which Street Carmeans Natchitoches (a beautiful city where I spent my 4 college years) is celebrating its tri-centennial.
  • Baton Rouge was the site of the only American Revolution battle outside the 13 Colonies.
  • The first commemorative railroad spike to be driven by a woman was the golden spike commemorating the completion of the east-west Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific Railroad.  It was driven at Bossier City on July 12, 1884, by Julia “Pansy” Rule.
  • The St. Charles Avenue streetcar in New Orleans has been operating since 1835, which makes it the oldest line in the world.  It is also one of the two only mobile national monuments in the nation.

 

There you have it, some of the lesser known facts about Louisiana.  I hope I brought you something new.  Let me know what surprised you in this list or caught your fancy.

Almost Heaven–Shenandoah Valley in the Fall ~Tanya Hanson

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I live along the California coast where the weather is unusually mild. We broil when the temperature reaches 80 degrees, a rarity, and we drag out the woolies in the low fifties. Therefore, witnessing the change of seasons is always a true treat. A year ago, my husband and I took a historical tour of the East Coast at the perfect time: the leaves were turning.

Perhaps the most dramatic experience of visual delight came in the Shenandoah Valley, named for the river that lines much of its length. The valley consists of nine counties in Virginia and two in West Virginia. Famed for autumn displays like the picture below, (courtesy of Dreamstime), our group looked forward to our stay at Big Meadows Lodge, located in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, at 3,510 feet above sea level. Every balcony of the original building overlooks the valley.

 

The historic lodge was built in the late 1930’s with stones cut from Massanutten Mountain, which bisects the valley. Sadly, rain and fog obscured much of our views, but we still managed to enjoy plenty of local and fall color. The following pictures are mine.

 

The Shenandoah Valley is gorgeous any time, bordered on the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, to the north by the Potomac River and south by the James River. Kind of the confluence of many of the places and rivers we’d visited.

Many legends abound as to how the valley got its name. The one I like best comes from the Iroquois, one of my favorite tribes. It is said Chief Sherando (also the name of his people) fought against the ruler of the Powhatan Confederacy–the Algonquian chief Opechancanough, (1618-1644), and was driven back to his original territory at the Great Lakes by Opechancanough’s son, Sheeva-a-nee, whose descendants became the Shawnee. I like how several tribes kind of mashed together in this account.

After this, colonial settlement of the farm-rich valley was delayed by the barrier of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1671, they were finally crossed by explorer John Lederer at Manassas Gap, and Cadwallader Jones in 1682.

The first permanent white settler in the valley was Adam Miller, or Mueller, who staked out a claim in 1727 on the south fork of the river near today’s division of Rockingham and Page Counties. A Native road through common tribal hunting grounds soon became the Great Wagon Road. This road, later called the Valley Turnpike, soon brought more settlers in from Pennsylvania and northern Virginia, including Quakers and Mennonites who apparently were fairly well received by the natives. The German settlers became known as “Shenandoah Deitsch” and may Scots-Irish immigrated into the valley via the Potomac River.

During the Civil War, the valley was known as the “breadbasket of the Confederacy” and became a back door for Confederate raids on Maryland, Washington, and Pennsylvania. In the 20th century, the valley’s vineyards reached maturity and the new industry of viticulture began.

Whenever you get there, the Shenandoah Valley is a terrific place to visit.

 

As John Denver (one of my favorites)sings:

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains
Shenandoah River

SOUL FOOD available now. ANGEL CHILD early 2013

 

Wildflowers of Texas

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I had the opportunity to spend a few quiet days at a writer friend’s ranch established in 1895 here in the Texas Panhandle.  We began the day drinking coffee and watching the sunrise from the back porch and ended each day sitting on the front porch taking in the fantastic sunsets. We’ve had a lot of rain, so the wildflowers are really pretty right now.

In 1971 the bluebonnet of Texas was declared our official flower.  They aren’t native to our region of Texas, but I couldn’t start to describe any wildflower of Texas without beginning with the bluebonnet. They grow extensively over the state, primarily from the northeast to the southwest, but their greatest displays are on the limestone hillsides of Central Texas, creating large fields resembling a sea of blue. 

It’s not uncommon to see bluebonnets in fields of  impressive Indian blanket. To me they are one of the most beautiful wild flowers of Texas, especially mixed with bluebonnets.  Each has ten to twenty ray flowers, sometimes all red but usually marked with brilliant yellow on the ends of the rays, forming a yellow band along the outside.

A flower that typically gets confused with Indian blanket is Scarlet Paintbrush or Indian Paintbrush, as it’s more commonly known.  They represent one of  Texas’ most beautiful landscape displays. In the Hill Country around Austin and San Antonio large fields of red and blue, sometimes sprinkled with white prickly poppy are impressive sights.  The paintbrush plant grows between six and fifteen inches tall. Flowers with the attending floral leaves, called bracts, grow around the upper three or four inches of the stem.  The intense red-orange color is due to the bracts, which almost hide the inconspicuous cream-colored flowers. 

But the Whole Leaf Indian Paintbrush typically found in the Panhandle is about the same size as the Scarlet Paintbrush but it bears several leafy stems from a woody root.  The leaves are narrow, unlobed, and undivided.  The bracts are usually scarlet or cerise, sometimes yellow, mostly rounded on the outer edge.  Mixed with other wild flowers, it is easy to mix up the Indian blanket and the Indian Paintbrush because of the similarity in color.

To me one of the prettiest, yet oddest and deadly, plants found in Texas is the Jimsonweed.  You’ve probably heard it called devil’s trumpet, devil’s weed, thorn apple, Jamestown weed, stinkweed, locoweed, pricklyburr, devil’s cucumber, Hell’s Bells, or moonflower, just to name a few.  The large, white, trumpet-shaped flower can be found from one end of the state to the other and is always a refreshing surprise. It is a spreading, busy plant, often three feet tall and between five and eight feet across.  The branches are mainly on the upper half.  The board leaves are four to ten inches long with fine hair, especially along the vein.  The flowers somestimes have a pale pinkish cast.  The petals are united to form a funnel.  But the surprise … they open in the evening and close by mid-morning.  On still evenings, hawk moths are apt to dart from flower to flower.  The plant is poisonous, but because of its bad odor and taste, thank goodness, livestock seldom eat it.

What is your favorite wildflower?

Cheryl St.John: Bleeding Hearts and a Drawing

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It’s always a delight to share my garden photos! Spring has come early to the Midwest. Trees and perennials are already flowering. My bleeding heart, which is on the north side of the house beside ferns that have been moved from yard to yard since I got them from my grandfather thirty years ago, is not quite blooming, so I’m sharing last year’s photos.

 

The Royal Horticultural Society is an old group of plant lovers who sought out new and unusual flora. In the 18th century, rare and unique plants were being shipped to the UK from China and Japan. Robert Fortune was sent  to find and bring back Asian specimens. He is credited with introducing bleeding heart in 1847. The plant name for what is commonly known as bleeding heart is Dicentras

The informal herbal and perennial gardens of the Victorian era were perfect places for bleeding heart. The beauties flourished beneath the branches of elms, alders, maples or other shade trees. The traditional English cottage garden has also been a favorite planting place for the bleeding heart. The plant’s habit of blooming all summer with fall and winter dormancy, make it an important part of both spring and early summer gardens.

 

Native Americans used the wild bleeding heart medicinally. Wild Dicentras carpeted forest floors in the Pacific Northwest. It was used as a tincture or compress to relieve pain. The wild plants are lower growing and smaller than Dicentras spectabilis, but are identical in foliage type and have the classic heart-shaped flowers.

 

I hope you enjoy my photos today!

 

My April book The Wedding Journey is now available for order on amazon and the Kindle release will be available on the first.

 

Drumroll please…..

I’m giving away ALL THREE SIGNED BOOKS IN THE TRILOGY to one person who leaves a comment today.

Happy Spring!