coming out of my shell

coming out of my shell

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Accepting Reality?

The month of June ushers in the heat, the humidity, the rains, and hurricane season. It has been very dry for a long, long time, so in some ways I welcome the rainy season. I just hope the pool doesn't overflow...

Last year we lost quite a few new plantings to the summer rains. This spring we took care to plant hardy native plants in the wet areas of the lawn. By the end of the summer we shall see what survives the deluge and what doesn't. I am trying to make peace with Florida, which (when you get away from the housing developments) is a big, beautiful, wild, and altogether primordial place. I am also trying not to become too attached to plants and flowers, knowing that they may not be here for the long term.


As I get older I find myself fine-tuning my attachments to people, too. I dunno, they don't seem to last either.

An old fashioned yellow iris from my gardens up north








9 comments:

  1. This -----> fine tuning attachments to people so necessary.

    Love the photo.

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    1. FYI, my mother gave me those small yellow irises. She dug them out of her own garden in Indiana and brought them to me in NYS in the early 1990's. It was hard leaving them behind.

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  2. I always want to hang onto people but you're right, you can't always. Things change. Time passes. We grow, or don't. I don't make friends easily so I always want to hold fast:)

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    1. The whole idea of "hanging on to people" is an interesting one. I do that, too.

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  3. I had to chuckle about people not lasting long either:)
    Moving to FL from up north must be a shock to your gardening system. What are you finding grows well there? Hibiscus?

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    1. It really has been a shock - many of the things I knew about gardening up North don't work down here. And, of course, very few flowers I was familiar (and in love) with can survive down here. I have written a bit about my Florida gardening adventures/struggles - if you click on the Gardening link in the subject list to the side of the post, you'll see what I mean. I have hibiscus, Louisiana irises, canna lilies, caladium, penta, madagascar impatiens, roses, agapanthus, bird of paradise, and some small flowering trees like crape myrtle and camellia. I'm getting the hang of it, but it is a different ball of wax.

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    2. And plumbago (aka leadwort). I love plumbago.

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So, whadayathink?