These are the other liriope pictures.
Well the are coming when I can figure out what I am not doing correctly. The Blue fruit is what it is all about any way

Liriope Mystery

Above are 3 pictures of mystery Liriope. No one has been able to identify the species or hybrid. As you can see, It has no fantastic quality when the whole border is in bloom. But WOW does it have striking blue fruit. I have also included a closeup of the buds. No one has been able to identify this despite the best efforts over the years of the now retired garden editor of the local paper. It spreads rhyzomatously so it has filled as an outside border for a wooden border of a butterfly garden. It gets no special care.
Matt Cohen

Elvis Lives

I've been bad having taken a hiatus from blogging which at the time seemed to be consuming more and more of my time, particularly trying to keep up all my other responsibilities while traveling. I had hoped to edit the photo to read 'Matt Lives' but decided it is implied, in as much as I took the photo recently on a trip to the Boerner Botanical Gardens, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It is always nice to see a sense of humor exists among plant breeders. Hostas do well here (Zone 9) when the shade is considerable and the watering frequent and with considerable pesticide use. My record of success is abysmal because I am unwilling to fight the vegetation predators that so abound in the heat of summer. I have more travel pics and a lot more of my own garden pics as the last few months bring a perfusion of garden changes. Matt

Comment from Sparkling Lotus-Land about Zen of Watering Your Garden book

pure loveliness


This morning's post office run yielded something that I've been rather impatient to receive. The book pictured above contains my first published photograph! The fact that it's a gardenia flower makes the basic accomplishment all the more satisfying and meaningful to me.



I met Matt Cohen through his wife via Flickr. The way he described his book really intrigued me and I was thrilled when he decided to include my photograph of a very special petal-friend. The book is LOADED with truly gorgeous images and I think it would make a lovely holiday gift for any flower lover/gardener. The text contains musings from a variety of sources including Frank Lloyd Wright, Marc Chagall and Matt himself. Click on the photograph to read the poetic fragment that compliments my picture. Quoted poets range from Emily Dickinson to Allen Ginsberg. There are also applicable insights from prose writers of antiquity through to the present present tense. And yes...the list includes my special-favorite local boy, Thoreau.

Matt says this about the book: Zen of Watering Your Garden took me several years to produce, and demanded considerable intensity and focus in the past six months...many kind and generous people...were a part of helping me complete this project, some in ways I anticipated and some I never thought of when I started...The collective generosity of so many from around the world has greatly enhanced my pleasure in the project and I hope now that the book can do the same for them and many others.

When Matt first let me know he wanted to include the gardenia photograph, I was struck hard by the fact that this allowed me to resurrect a dream I had buried in my late teens - a dream about communicating through photographic images. The incident, and my delighted acceptance of it, opened the doorway to other interest in my images and some creative collaboration that's as nourishing as it is invigorating.

Click here to explore the book further through its Amazon profile. Said profile is quite well done and worth seeing for yourself. Now I'm off to properly savor this treasure...
Acey http://www.sparklinglotusink.com

Sabal Palm

The State of Florida Official Tree, oddly, enough the orange tree is not. Instead it is the sabal palm known botanicallyas the sabal palmetto. These are found state wide. They grow under most any Florida conditon including in sandy and salty ground. They Can grow over 60" feet tall . These are also known as the scrub palm or cabbage palm. The picture is not on my property but in my area as one approaches the Gulf coast they are abundant in pine uplands. Additionally, theya re used every where as landscape addition. depending on the situation they may be 5' to 60' tall

ORANGE TREE

This is a good picture of some oranges , up close and personal and ready to pick or at least to watch carefully for readiness by the feel of the fruit and the smell. Despite their association with Florida as I said before the orange tree is not the State Tree. That surprise will be in the next post.

The Orange Blossom