Happy Birthday, America

I always use Monarda for my red/white/and blue arrangements around the Fourth of July …. along with either delphinium or larkspur … and daisies, Annabelles, or lilies. Looking back through family albums containing photos of the ancestors, it would appear that the fourth was a very popular holiday with those folks …. nothing of Christmas, Easter, or even Thanksgiving, but always bunting on all the front porches that surrounded those tightly smiling faces. I feel that way too … yea America!

Mention of the Annabelles …. those pure white puff-ball Hydrangeas (H.arborescens natives introduced by John Bartram in 1736) …. reminds me of a memory I’ll carry forever. After visiting “Fallingwater” in western Pennsylvania one early July morning, we passed an old gentleman getting ready for his family to come visit for his fourth of July. He was stationed at his Annabelle bush with two cans of spray paint. One side of each bloom got a shot of red, and the opposite side got squirted with blue! What fun … think I’ll try it. My mopheads (macrophylla) and my lacecaps are blooming, but they’re having an identity crisis and a hard time trying to decide how blue to get, so they aren’t as photogenic as those of my neighbor.

The “ditch lily” daylilies are all in bloom now, and many of the regular lilies are still swelling their buds and taking their own sweet time in opening. Every year I threaten to yank the “ditchies” out and wait for the more sophisticated ones to bloom, but every year I can’t convince myself that they’re all that bad. Maybe they can find a nice niche down on the bank of the creek …same with the daisies. Those common (stinky) ones have finished blooming, and – in fact, look awful now – while their fancy-schmancy cousins (who can’t find a Latin identity that suits) are coming into their own.

The neighborhood is quiet. The garden abounds with weeds. And now comes the shift from fevered planting-and-trying in the garden to acceptance and peace therein. So what if I don’t get a horticultural blue …. I still cherish my visits to watch the changes there.

Happy Birthday, America.