I don't care about flowers

[Randomguy]

Yeah, I know they are pretty and all, but I don't go nuts over 'em.  Some people get all stupid and gushy over a few flowers and know the names of them all and want to tell you the names and they go on and on and I don't care and don't really want to hear you ramble on over flowers and would you please stop taking pictures of them and will you shut the hell up about them already?

Thank you.

[AirwickWithCheese]

You are wrong my handsome friend. There is nothing more satisfying than living directly across the street from the largest, most beautiful house in the neighborhood in your humble, tiny cottage but getting all the looks because you have every rose known to man and casement windows. 

I would put a flower box on the chimney if I wasn't afraid of heights.   

Lydia

[shootingstar]

4 minutes ago, Lydia Cheesewaithe said:

You are wrong my handsome friend. There is nothing more satisfying than living directly across the street from the largest, most beautiful house in the neighborhood in your humble, tiny cottage but getting all the looks because you have every rose known to man and casement windows. 

I would put a flower box on the chimney if I wasn't afraid of heights.   

Lydia

Are you new here?

[AirwickWithCheese]

Just now, shootingstar said:

Are you new here?

Yes. 

I am a debutante from Greensboro, North Carolina. My father is the director and writer Norman Lloyd. 

I absolutely love flowers and bumblebees. 

[Randomguy]

2 minutes ago, Lydia Cheesewaithe said:

I absolutely love flowers and bumblebees. 

Q:  What kind of bees are scary?

 

 

A:  Boo-bees!

[Dirtyhip]

4 minutes ago, Lydia Cheesewaithe said:

Yes. 

I am a debutante from Greensboro, North Carolina. My father is the director and writer Norman Lloyd. 

I absolutely love flowers and bumblebees. 

Welcome back.  We missed you.

[Randomguy]

I would like to add that I wasn't specifically talking to Page when posting this (but I could have been).  I said the very same thing to RO yesterday.

I will also agree that no cottage would be complete without them.   Flowers to me are more like tapestry and bee porn, and who doesn't like sugared-up horny bees flying like drunken lemurs everywhere?

[AirwickWithCheese]

5 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Welcome back.  We missed you.

Thank you, I missed you guys too but just visiting. I felt I must defend my honor in another RG thread. He ignores my texts now that he is making money hands or fists laundering money for Canadian arabs. 

[Randomguy]

Just now, Lydia Cheesewaithe said:

Thank you, I missed you guys too but just visiting. I felt I must defend my honor in another RG thread. He ignores my texts now that he is making money hands or fists laundering money for Canadian arabs. 

I am not ignoring your texts!  I am just mulling possible responses, it will be another 29 minutes and 17 seconds until I can possibly respond.

[AirwickWithCheese]

Just now, Randomguy said:

I am not ignoring your texts!  I am just mulling possible responses, it will be another 29 minutes and 17 seconds until I can possibly respond.

Too late, by then I will be on the front porch swing sipping lemonade and watching the illegals building another addition to Kathryn's mansion. It looks like she has a new gentleman caller who drives a Mercedes convertible. Pearl white with tan leather, very nice actually. 

The gentleman caller is not Hispanic thankfully.  

[Randomguy]

6 minutes ago, Lydia Cheesewaithe said:

Too late, by then I will be on the front porch swing sipping lemonade and watching the illegals building another addition to Kathryn's mansion. It looks like she has a new gentleman caller who drives a Mercedes convertible. Pearl white with tan leather, very nice actually. 

The gentleman caller is not Hispanic thankfully.  

Did the gentleman caller bring flowers?

[AirwickWithCheese]

1 minute ago, Randomguy said:

Did the gentleman call bring flowers?

Kathryn is not walking the neighborhood in her mourning robe anymore so I suspect they are having an improper physical relationship. I would hope he brings her flowers, yes.  

[Green Grass]

Oh, Random Guy.  You just need to relax.  Sometimes simple things in life help bring badly needed balance.  At my summer place I plant 17 pots with the annual flower that thrive in the area.  I water them every day and lightly fertilize every other.  They are big, colorful, bright and put a bit of a soft edge on my rather A type personality. 

I know many of their botanical names even.  Let me know if you'd like a plant list for the pots that you are going to put on your apartment balcony.  By the way, what growing zone do you live in?

[Randomguy]

15 minutes ago, Goat Geddah said:

Oh, Random Guy.  You just need to relax.  Sometimes simple things in life help bring badly needed balance.  At my summer place I plant 17 pots with the annual flower that thrive in the area.  I water them every day and lightly fertilize every other.  They are big, colorful, bright and put a bit of a soft edge on my rather A type personality. 

I know many of their botanical names even.  Let me know if you'd like a plant list for the pots that you are going to put on your apartment balcony.  By the way, what growing zone do you live in?

 

[Dirtyhip]

My narcissus are up.  Some hyacinth too.  Love it.

[Square Wheels]

2 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

Welcome back.  We missed you.

Please, don't encourage him.

[Page Turner]

3 hours ago, Randomguy said:

   Flowers to me are more like tapestry and bee porn, and who doesn't like sugared-up horny bees flying like drunken lemurs everywhere?

..the bees are all girls.  they're workers, so they don't get to have sex.  I have some serious doubts about whether this makes them horny.

It might, of course, because like I said they don't get to have sex.  Still , it seems to be a big stretch in the direction of anthropomorphizing insects.

[Page Turner]

2 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

My narcissus are up.  Some hyacinth too.  Love it.

...last fall, I put down 500 Narcissus "Golden Dawn" ( which was bred originally at the Oregon Bulb Farm when it still existed). 

They're all bloomed out by now, because I need for my stuff to be early and to bloom before the hotter days in the 80's start here.

 

In about three or four years, they'll be so thick in that bed on the corner that people will be phoning Sunset magazine.

[shootingstar]

I love botanical gardens and photographing them.

[Kirby]

Flowers are good for the soul.  A big field of wildflowers always brings me peace.

[Page Turner]

...the lupine and goldfields are in flower right now in a few places, one where they did some environmental remediation along the bike trail.

If I remember to take the camera on my ride today, I'll take a couple of photos and post them.

[Johnny Come Lately Name]

13 hours ago, shootingstar said:

I love botanical gardens and photographing them.

There’s a rose garden near where I work. I went over there during the peak bloom....and was underwhelmed. As much as Ike flowers, roses are kind of boring.

[shootingstar]

4 minutes ago, F_in Ray Of Sunshine said:

There’s a rose garden near where I work. I went over there during the peak bloom....and was underwhelmed. As much as Ike flowers, roses are kind of boring.

They aren't my favourite flowers either.  However I appreciate the effort taken to grow a variety of roses. Not just 1 type.  I love hydraegeas, azaelas, cherry blossoms, magnolias, irises, etc. These flowers I just cited, are rarely seen in our prairie city.  More prevalent in Vancouver BC.  

[The_Karen_Cooper_Incident]

17 hours ago, Lydia Cheesewaithe said:

Yes. 

 

LOL! 

Couch 

[Page Turner]

17 minutes ago, F_in Ray Of Sunshine said:

There’s a rose garden near where I work. I went over there during the peak bloom....and was underwhelmed. As much as Ike flowers, roses are kind of boring.

 

...there is an existent history of roses in cultivation by humans that goes all the way back to ancient Persia and Rome.

While it is true that a lot of the more modern roses have lost their way, in pursuit of a certain form, color and substance at cost of scent, if you are at all a fan of flowers you owe it to yourself to become a little more educated in the history and variety of the genus as it exists and is available to us today.

 

For my own purposes, I only grow a couple of varieties now, but have in past gardens had larger plantings of either the old shrub and climbing roses ( many of which achieve considerable size and are quite spectacular in bloom), or one garden where I had a great many of the David Austin "English" roses that were very popular here for a while, but seem lately to have gone out of fashion.

 

Anyway, see if you can find a decent sized plant of something like Abraham Darby or Gertrude Jekyll..or a well established climbing Altissimo, or the older Don Juan or Buff Beauty .  

 

The problem with many more formal rose gardens is that they overprune their plants in order to keep them at a certain smaller size.

[Johnny Come Lately Name]

18 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

Anyway, see if you can find a decent sized plant of something like Abraham Darby or Gertrude Jekyll..or a well established climbing Altissimo, or the older Don Juan or Buff Beauty . 

I noticed there were about a bazillion different varieties, but there was a certain “sameness” about them all...but then my idea of “flowers” are trillium and columbine.

This is the rose garden. I’ll go back once things are in bloom and have another look.

[Johnny Come Lately Name]

50 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

They aren't my favourite flowers either.  However I appreciate the effort taken to grow a variety of roses. Not just 1 type.  I love hydraegeas, azaelas, cherry blossoms, magnolias, irises, etc. These flowers I just cited, are rarely seen in our prairie city.  More prevalent in Vancouver BC.  

I like stuff like trilliums, columbine, lupine...wildflowers that more often than not are a pleasant surprise when you run across them.

[shootingstar]

15 minutes ago, F_in Ray Of Sunshine said:

I like stuff like trilliums, columbine, lupine...wildflowers that more often than not are a pleasant surprise when you run across them.

In Mount Revelstoke National Park (British Columbia), there is (wild) alpine flowers meadow...best seen early Sept. or late Aug. Just gorgeous...especially in soft mist in the mountain air. It's a large swath to see.  Not all mountain parks, have huge alpine flower fields..

Since larger flowers and varieties of flowers aren't as prevalent in our province compared to British Columbia (Vancouver area and islands) or southern Ontario....So in the prairies, one appreciates....wild grasses. Its colours, types... Photo I took in Banff National Park in fall along a bike route. Mount Rundle by Vermillion Lake.

https://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/mountain-leaf-and-light-dancing/  Includes some personal abstract mixed media floral paintings plus real places.

Cycling certainly has been a wonderful opportunity to get to gardens and Nature, I wouldn't easily nor tend to stop easily if in a car to get up close.

[Johnny Come Lately Name]

14 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

Photo I took in Banff National Park

....I hate you.

(This is on my bucket list).

[Further]

FLOWER POWER BABY !!!

 

These are purpleish flowers !

[shootingstar]

Part of my heart is breaking a tinge since I've sacrificed a trip back to Vancouver home for cherry blossom time in city right now.  Instead this year, I'm not going so that I can pay for my portion to Japan, Seoul later.  Vancouver BC's annual cherry blossom festival is becoming bigger and bigger each year. Activities, walks for sakura viewing. There are walks also in ...Chinese language because of the large Chinese-Canadian population there. (Richmond BC, where the airport is...60% residents are of Asian descent.)

I realize Washington DC, Portland offers same.....but here's my strongest recommendation if you don't go to Japan to experience cherry blossoms/sakura, then go to Vancouver BC http://www.vcbf.ca/

In Vancouver BC, the local mountains are very close all around the City (you take local municipal buses to get to mountain base).....and in spirit because of many local Asian-Canadians living there (more than these other American cities) with some events that borrow from Asia, it is an experience in April I highly recommend to experience...Canada's Pacific Rim City...in its locals, culture, food and spirit  --with a Canadian twist. (I identify with the history, lingo of Chinese-Canadians, less with China.)  Other blooms this month:  https://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/13/magnolia-and-cherry-blossom-cascades/

City of Vancouver tries to plant new cherry blossom trees each year.  Imagine kayaking by shoreline in downtown ...and seeing cherry blossoms or biking all over the city along some paths and streets...

Does California offer such cherry blossoms? 

    

 

 

Below, at Horseshoe Bay, B.C. Ferry Terminal. North Vancouver.  

[Tizeye]

Look at what you are missing.

 

 

[Page Turner]

3 hours ago, F_in Ray Of Sunshine said:

I noticed there were about a bazillion different varieties, but there was a certain “sameness” about them all...but then my idea of “flowers” are trillium and columbine.

This is the rose garden. I’ll go back once things are in bloom and have another look.

...formal rose gardens like that, with an architectural plan layout for beds of roses, and the beds planted with multiples of the same variety to mass the flowers, were a big thing in most cities in the United States around the 1920's.  We have one here, in McKinley Park, which is also maintained by volunteers and suffers from the same somewhat overpruned and overmanaged outlook on life.  It's just what those sorts of rose gardens are.  Where roses really shine is in gardens that are a little more landscape oriented, and people plant older ramblers or climbers/shrubs that are not pruned down to sticks every year, and they can get bigger and give a more impressive show.

Here is one in the old city cemetery over on Broadway from a couple of years back.

And another one, a double form Banksia lutea that is 20 or 30 years old now.

 

 

[Page Turner]

3 hours ago, F_in Ray Of Sunshine said:

I like stuff like trilliums, columbine, lupine...wildflowers that more often than not are a pleasant surprise when you run across them.

 

[Page Turner]

1 hour ago, shootingstar said:

Does California offer such cherry blossoms? 

 

...they grow well here, and can get by with minimal summer irrigation if well situated. 

But I see them here mostly as specimen trees in individual landscapes, not massed like at the Tidal Basin.

 

There are some nice ones in Golden Gate Park near the Japanese Garden there. and I think I remember some in Micke Grove down near Lodi.

 

 

[Further]

From last April

 

[Further]

Meat Eaters

 

[shootingstar]

18 minutes ago, Further said:

From last April

 

The trillium is Ontario's official provincial flower.

[Randomguy]

Meh, all those flower pics are only ok.  The only really great one was Shootie's, the one where there are flowers hanging over the bay.

[Page Turner]

...everyone's a critic. 

[AirwickWithCheese]

2 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...everyone's a critic. 

You are right on this one Page. RG has a screw loose. 

I'm going to permanently park my rootbeer colored Raleigh sprite in the frontyard and plant daisies in the basket.  

[Road Runner]

10 minutes ago, Lydia Cheesewaithe said:

RG has a screw loose.

Just one?