The great grape vine doesn't quite know what to do. It's June. It's cold. It's raining. Again. Instead of filling out with leaves and racing into August's full leaf-waving greenery, the vine is dawdling, lollygagging. A few leaves here, then there then wait and sniff the air. The dark liver-red smoke trees in both the front and back yard are still nearly bare. A few bouquet cluster of leaves helicoptering at the end of a few branches, other buds showing but clutched tighly closed. Very late to the party is that one. And the purple/green leaved vitus in the front yard, which got really hammered with the frost, are just now coming back to life. And taking their time, too. It's like they're checking the unseasonal weather and saying, "Feh. It's cold. It's wet. Why bother? It'll be Christmas soon anyway."
But the 25++ year-old pink mallow plant has run amok this year, which is what I guess it does when it's cut back severely and then gets rained on. And I discovered wonderful something quite by accident. Mallow flower stems, in all their hollyhock look-alike glory, make wonderful cut flowers. Toss a little powdered flower extender/preservative into the vase and they'll last for well over a week. Which was a surprise since I figured they'd wilt and croak within hours.
Given the massive bush in the back yard, I'll have lots of vases of beautiful mallows in the house all summer while I stand in the middle of the livingroom in a sweater and look out at . . . all the rain.
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2 comments:
Thank you! My mallows are going nuts and I'm going to attack them with pruning shears as soon as the rain lets up. How nice to know I can put some of the prunings in a vase to brighten the hovel!
Great shot Ann, thanks for posting. It's nice to see something bright and beautiful on this gloomy day. (The bougainvillea is the late starter over here, just doesn't know what to do!)
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