Hydrangea Sex

 

 The bee hive is taller than it used to be....a couple new levels on it since the nectar flow really kicked in hard. Now its almost over and all that's really left is the hot and heavy going on in our tree hydrangeas. Last year I talked here about how incredibly stunning these big, fluffy glamor queens are this time of year.

 

I noticed that the flowers faded faster this year and that our bigger, healthier hive was very busy swarming in and out and jetting to the fluffy blossom masses. Turns out there's a connection. The flowers fade and "turn" once they've been all pollinated. Its very possible that with our more mature population this summer the bees polished off the nectar flow and pollen distribution faster than last year.

 Kind of fun to think about our little hive making a noticeable difference in the local pollination.

I also noticed this year for the first time the anatomy of the hydrangeas. The "blooms" we notice and ply with ph to alter and sell at a fortune to fill out bridal bouquets everywhere aren't blooms at all. They're just bracts...fakey flowers with no real sexy flower body parts. They're all for show...just billboards to attract the insects. You have to look deeper to see the real goods beyond the advertising.

 

See those little star shaped flowers starting their lives as white pearls that are hiding in the inner core of the cluster? That's where its really at. Cool eh? Botany rocks my socks.

 

 

Garden Packing

So, today I started "packing" the garden a little...or at least preparing it for packing. I made a list of all the plants that I know want to dig up and take with me, clipped back some of the plants that had gotten so wild that they'd be hard to dig, pulled my raised bed apart, gathered up the garden decorations and pulled potted plants out of their tucked away locations throughout the garden. There is quite the assortment of flotsam and jetsom on the patio now.

Since we pulled the vegetable bed apart we pulled out all the remains of our veggies, threw the leggy plants into the woods and solidified our dependence on the CSA for fresh produce. That's it folks! We had one little moon-white cucumber left. Ru ate it for lunch.

I have decided to do it right this time and make a careful, orchestrated blueprint-style plan for our yard before I move in a single forget-me-not. I'm hoping this will help avoid turning it into a botanical three ring circus and make sure that we use our space well. A friend of a friend from church who was a landscape designer in her past life has offered to help advise and direct me with design and layout and making logical choices. I am so excited about that. A real design person!

Before we even look at the property together her first assignment she gave was that I make a list of what we'd like to work into our yard. Heh. The list is a bit long but, she told me to put down even my wildest dreams and scrimp not...better to dream big and finagle ways to work things out than to downsize our ideas and have a so so yard that we wish we'd been braver with. (So goes the theory) I haven't emailed her the list yet but so far this is what I have:

• Stone bread/pizza oven
• Cottage garden style flowers (annuals and perennials, sun and shade)
• Fruit trees (at least some, espalier style)
• Grassy, open area for play/football
• BBQ area
• Water feature of some kind
• Vegetable bed
• Compost area
• Herb garden (can be small, even potted)
• Berries
• Grapes
• Stone bed borders
• Butterfly attracting flowers
• Places to sit
• Sandbox w/ cover
• Board and rope style swing?
• Window boxes and front porch plantings
• Arbor
• A garden statue or two
• A beehive

Do you think that's a bit over the top? I'm all for extravagant dreams.

I'm thinking something like this: