Pied Beauty

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Bloom Day, November 15

November is an odd sort of time in the garden.  It's fall here, such as it is.  The very few trees that change color and lose their leaves are doing so, while the last of the tropical gingers and hibiscus continue blooming.  In fact, bougainvillea is rejuvenated with the onset of cooler nights.  It's a fidgety time, I think.  Neither fish nor fowl.  We plant our pansies, snapdragons, violas and such now.  That's part of our fall color, and helps us cope with the loss of our coleus, caladiums, and vincas.  But it's not a real fall.  The weather will surprise you and the highs will climb into the 90s.  The next day, a chilly rain will fall, and even though it's 56° outside, it will feel like 46°.  An awkward disconnect between what it really is out there, and what it ought to be.  Especially if you've been reading glossy gardening magazines.

So here's what's still blooming in my garden.  A little fish, a little fowl, and really, none of the above.

Sweet Potato Vine.  It really flowers!

Basil gone to flower and looking artsy and soft-focus.
Butterfly Gingers continue to show off.
Dianthus dying of shock, because I deadheaded it before I took this photo.
Faithful pentas.
Calendula.  Very sparky!
Snapdragons -- a nod to the season.
Always in bloom, the Bottle Tree.
Every month, gardeners all over the world post pictures of flowers on their own blogs, and link to May Dreams Gardens, where Carol is gracious enough to host us.  Hop over to May Dreams Gardens and see what the rest of the world has in store for you!  Thanks, Carol!

8 comments:

  1. Lovely pentas, gorgeous butterfly ginger, and I did a double-take at the bottle tree :-)

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  2. I too did a double take. The bottle tree is always in bloom, no fair! LOL.

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  3. I'm so happy to have found your blog, since I garden on the other side of Houston, i.e., northwest side. I see that we do have some plants in common, including the bottle tree "plant". I don't think I've ever seen a bloom on my potato vine.

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  4. I'm busily collecting blue wine bottles to 'plant' my own bottle tree soon. Yours is lovely!!

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  5. Lovely...I don't know if I've ever seen a sweet potato blossom...definitely reminiscent of a morning glory!

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  6. Beautiful November blooms. I especially liked the dianthus and of course, the bottle tree. I'm collecting bottles too for a tree but sadly, blue wine bottles are not so readily available here:(

    My pentas never spread out that much! Well, there IS hope!!

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  7. The butterfly ginger is sumptious. Does it have an intoxicating scent as well?

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  8. Hello Kanak! You have to drink a lot of not-so-good wine to collect the blue bottles. Luckily we once found several bottles of water in blue. Hello MSS! The butterfly ginger smells powerfully like gardenias to me. Walking down that path at night is enough to make you dizzy. I don't know how the pollinators can stand up to it!

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