old reliable

Taking a little break from all the blooms of late. “Bits and pieces” is always fun.

Bit and pieces of found nature

a rose is a rose is a rose

I bought this rose plant last year for Steve for Father’s Day. We were still living in the apartment then, rebuilding after the house fire. We planted it at the house, as symbol of hope. And then we had a huge storm and a 60 year old oak tree fell on it. Hope was hard won last year. We got the felled tree removed but he rosebush looked like a goner. And even this spring, it still looked like it wouldn’t make a comeback. But, it did. Just like our house. Just like STILL blog. Just like me. We all found a way to keep on keeping on. Hope wins.

champagne rose

dull pale pink to deep mauve

We have 14 types of native milkweed here in Minnesota. All of them are beneficial to Monarch butterflies. This one is the common milkweed which is a prolific breeder, so much so that it sometimes referred to as a noxious weed. The milkweed leaves are very large, and often hide these captivating flower clusters–so I took the liberty of removing the top leaves so you could see the flowers. You can see the latex drips from removing the leaves. My local Minnesota Wildflower guide describes the color of the round clusters as “ranging from dull pale pink to deep mauve, the tips of the star-shaped crown often cream colored.” Dull pale pink, deep mauve, cream. Yes, please!

common milkweed flowers (Asclepias syriaca)

P.S. I have been doing STILL during a very interesting period of plant re-classification. As genetic identification becomes more cost effective and ubiquitous, I am witnessing many plants get reclassified. Milkweeds are a good example. The Asclepias genus contains over 200 species distributed broadly across Africa, North America, and South America. It previously belonged to the family Asclepiadaceae, which is now classified as the subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the dogbane family, Apocynaceae.

Le champagne des fées

Elderflowers are in bloom so we decided to try making a naturally bubbly–aka lightly fermented–French limonade called Le champagne des fées (Fairy Champagne). My son sat at the kitchen counter patiently pulling the tiny elderflowers (¼ inch each) off of 15 umbel heads. It took an hour for about 2 cups of flowers. The resulting ivory-colored pile was one of the prettiest things I have seen in a while. I had no idea that each teeny tiny flower was itself perfection.

St-Germain is an artisanal French liqueur made from fresh, hand-picked elderflower blossoms. On the bottle it says “made from a thousand flowers”. I always thought this was hyperbole, But now I understand.

Beauty x 1000

elderflowers (Sambucus canadensis)

the gift that keeps on giving

The blue flag iris stems I photographed five days ago have been siting on my kitchen counter ikebana-style in a shallow pasta bowl with water and flower frogs. I thought the whole arrangement would last a day, maybe two. But here we are, five days later and it is still looks great. All the original blooms have faded, but hidden behind each of them was another bud just waiting for it’s chance to shine. And what elegant buds they are…like a Japanese tanuki hair brush dipped in purple paint ready to make marks on a fresh sheet of washi paper. Swoon.

blue flag iris– flower and bud (Iris versicolor)