Gardens, birds, insects

[pameladean]

Okay, the previous post's comments are full of spoilers for the new X-Men movie, so if you want to read my maunderings about phenology and talk about them here, or report the state of your own garden, or any of that, you can avoid being spoiled for the movie.

I'll add that the semi-wild roses bloomed during the heat wave and are rapidly dropping all their petals; that the former mystery weed, now known to me as wild four-o'-clock, is blooming; and that I have one lone iris, a fancy one in purple and dark red, with "Burgundy" in its name somewhere, that has put out two blooms so far in the midst of a welter of hairy bellflower. Brave iris!

P.

Comments

[rocza.livejournal.com]

Sigh.

I'm normally so good about NOT spoiling things, too, since that's one of the things that pisses me off grandly when I go read comments. I sincerely apologize to anyone for whom I ruined things. I suck.

[pameladean]

No, no, I didn't mean to chide any commenters. I started it. When there are spoilers in an entry, of course they will turn up in the discussion. I should have separated my remarks on X-3 to start with. Wise readers will have been wary already, knowing how these things snowball.

Really, you have nothing to apologize for.

P.

[rocza.livejournal.com]

Oh no no, I didn't take it as a chide, don't worry! It was more of a "gorramit, I normally do better than that!" sort of thing, because it's my own pet peeve. And I figure, if I'm going to have a pet peeve, I should be consistent about it.

Well that, and it seemed considerate to apologize to anyone who did get caught up in my own enthusiasm for discussing the subject (how often can I discuss everything I study - medical ethics, agency, affect, autonomy, and frakkin comic books - in the same breath?), thus forgetting my general adhering to my own peeves.

:)

[pameladean]

Oh, all right, then. It's not my business to interfere between you and yourself.

P.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I had an early iris bloom in the midst of the bellflower here. I missed it, in fact, and only noted its wither remains. Drat.

K.

[pameladean]

I'd have missed mine too, except that there are a couple of trumpet lilies in the same bed that I weed around every year so they have half a chance.

The horrible heat wave really accelerated things and cut down on blooming time, alas.

P.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

The horrible heat wave really accelerated things

Like weeds in perennial beds. I think we have them under control now, or at least valiantly holding our own.

[pameladean]

I need mulch or I'm going to lose spectacularly.

I enjoyed your garden post!

P.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

8-)

Thank you. You should come over and we can have a tea party on the deck.

I saw a house wren checking out a bird house on our fence today. Not afraid of people at all. It sang so vigorously it shook.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

There are several of those semi-wild rose bushes in my neighborhood, still in full bloom. One garden has pink Poppies!

I saw two bunny rabbits on the short walk I took this morning. I guess this is only amazing because I live just a block off University Avenue which has traffic at all hours.

[pameladean]

I remember being astonished to see a rabbit right by the Nicollet Avenue bus garage; but then I realized that there are a lot of nice dense plantings, many native, all around that building, and probably fewer loose dogs than in a more residential neighborhood.

I love those pink poppies. I can't grown Oriental poppies, though; they just don't like me.

P.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

The pink ones are 'Oriental?' I hadn't seen them before. Very pretty. They were right in the same garden with one of those semi-wild Rose bushes, where there'd earlier been Iris and Tulips.

That household also has a very friendly little female Calico cat, who threatens to follow me home when I greet her.

[pameladean]

If the plant is tall and bristly all over with hairs and the flowers look as if they were made of crepe paper, it's an Oriental poppy, whether it's red or pink or orange. It is, in fact, the opium poppy, although the climate hereabouts is not hot enough to produce opium in the seeds.

Smaller poppies can be pink two, but most people who have poppies seem to have Orientals, because they are hardy; the smaller ones are mostly annuals here.

P.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Yep; that's the Oriental one then. I didn't know that about needing more heat o produce Opium. Too bad for prospects of being able to survive on local produce in the event of civilization-destroying disasters. :)