Saturday Gardening Thread, Thanksgiving Weekend [KT]

Hello, Gardeners and Friends of Gardeners! On this Thanksgiving Weekend, I am thankful for members of The Horde who send in great photos and comments. Like the photo above. And the comments and photos below.

I lurk daily, and post occasionally at Ace of Spades as Reine.

Early morning dew covered rose. I have no clue what sort of rose this is. It's in my daughter's garden in north Louisiana.

And the next two: More from daughter's north Louisiana garden - A shout out to all the pollinators - Thanks guys for the chocolate, coffee, tequila and gumbo. Keep up the good work.

Anyone want to I.D. the flower or the butterfly?

On the Road

A while ago, I mentioned that we would be discussing hardscaping this fall. Gordon sent in a photo from the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis.

This is the spoonbridge. Of course, the water is off at this time of year, as it would be making ice, and that would ruin the esthetics. But folks are still walking around out there.

Interesting piece. Thanks.

We have some other examples of hardscaping in the garden ready to post in the coming weeks, but if you have something interesting, send it in.

Speaking of bridges, They know how to enhance a bridge with baskets of flowers in Lucerne, Switzerland.

A lot of people travel for Thanksgiving, but my cousin and his wife visited Alabama a little before Thanksgiving, where they saw cotton ready for harvest

and in new-fangled round bales

Around here, most cotton is lined up along canal roads and other field roads in giant, compressed bales that are sized to fit on the back of a typical semi trailer truck. I think they got most of the crop harvested this year before the rain this week. It's an operation that takes a lot of coordination.

Meanwhile, less child labor and forced labor is being used to harvest cotton in Uzbekistan. Production has also decreased. And the revival of Soviet-style forced labor to harvest cotton does not seem to be real popular, either.

More on Confederate Roses

Le Vieux Garde, who lives in Alabama, commented on our post-Halloween discussion of Confederate Roses:

You commented that you were unaware of that confederate roses bloomed in the fall. My neighbors confederate roses never bloom until at least October. Some years the frost gets them before they bloom. (Northern Alabama)

This lovely photo of a double flower was included in the first thread.

Apparently, there are double pink ones like this that stay pink the whole time they are on the bush. But as the scientific name, Hibiscus mutabilis, suggests, many of them change color, over a day or more. So you can get a plant that looks like this:

It is sometimes called the "Cotton Rose" because the leaves look like its relative, cotton. Remember, it's a big plant. If cut down, the Confederate Rose will Rise Again. There are also hybrids with the native Giant Rose Mallow and with Rose of Sharon.

The single flowers look like this:

Gardens of The Horde

Dr_No sent in the following from Tennessee:

This is from the clematis vine growing next to my daughter's mailbox. It's the last bloom of the season, and it's obviously a fighter. Looks like it's gonna hold on to the bitter end which, judging by its condition, won't be far away. One more object lesson in the Birth / Death / Rebirth series we call 'Life' ...

Thanks, Dr_No. The seasons change.

If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden
at g mail dot com

Include your nic unless you just want to be a lurker.

posted by Open Blogger at 01:03 PM

| Access Comments