Today the sun shone gloriously, the sky bright blue, and the cool air not joking around -it means it this time. But did we all forget the rains of this week, the two mornings we were woken by the heavy drops blopping on the sill? Well we may have, but the plants remember.
Heavy rains have flattened my perennial sunflowers. Too bad, this year was the first year I pruned them
just right, so that they remained mid-height and intermingled with the stiffer-stemmed, blue asters. The heavy rains weigh them down, the cells in each stem responding rapidly to the change -prostrate now, must turn up towards sun! It seems that in less than 24 hours the new form has been solidified. I call this rain memory.
The rains also flattened the weaker varieties of aster with nothing to lean on. It's a bit sad -sort of plant equivalent of a frown.
Aster 'alma potschke' has only begun to flower and is well tangled with other plants.
Speaking of sad,
Eupatorium coelestinum looks like it's having the worst of hair days. Ratty.
And what of cosmos and ironweed and bluestem solidago? Maybe the tornado came through here too. The mildew on the zinnia and the not dead-headed enough cosmos conspire to blech.
On the upside, all these rains have pleased
Aconitum. Yes, it's the earliest I've seen this specimen bloom, and it doesn't seem to mind the rain one bit. Probably thankful it received some water, lighter rains never making it through the yew tree it lies beneath.
Herbs, one month ago all frizzled and fried, now feeling stronger, enjoying the days of rains.
Heavy rains have flattened my perennial sunflowers. Too bad, this year was the first year I pruned them just right, so that they remained mid-height and intermingled with the stiffer-stemmed, blue asters. The heavy rains weigh them down, the cells in each stem responding rapidly to the change -prostrate now, must turn up towards sun! It seems that in less than 24 hours the new form has been solidified. I call this rain memory.
The rains also flattened the weaker varieties of aster with nothing to lean on. It's a bit sad -sort of plant equivalent of a frown.
Aster 'alma potschke' has only begun to flower and is well tangled with other plants.
Speaking of sad, Eupatorium coelestinum looks like it's having the worst of hair days. Ratty.
And what of cosmos and ironweed and bluestem solidago? Maybe the tornado came through here too. The mildew on the zinnia and the not dead-headed enough cosmos conspire to blech.
On the upside, all these rains have pleased Aconitum. Yes, it's the earliest I've seen this specimen bloom, and it doesn't seem to mind the rain one bit. Probably thankful it received some water, lighter rains never making it through the yew tree it lies beneath.
Herbs, one month ago all frizzled and fried, now feeling stronger, enjoying the days of rains.
Going through rain recovery here in NJ as well. Hopefully by tomorrow the majority of plants will have bounced back, hard to look at right now.
ReplyDeleteyou had it much worse than us!
ReplyDelete