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Fleeting Beauty

October 13th, 2016

Every year in June, I wonder if my hardy hibiscus survived the winter. Then, just as I start mourning that it’s gone, up come the little green shoots from the soil. In August it starts blooming and only lasts a little while before the weather turns too cold for it. This hibiscus came as a seedling from my mom’s garden. She has dinnerplate hibiscus in white and red, the pink color is a cross-pollination between those two.
hardy-hibiscus
Even though it only blooms for a very short season, I’m always happy to see these lovely blooms. They remind me of my childhood in South America, we had hibiscus growing in our back patio. This season I purchased another hardy hibscus with dark leaves and red flowers to grace our front stoop. Hopefully it survives as well as this lovely specimen.

Do you have any plants that surprise you with their hardiness each year?

3 Comments to “Fleeting Beauty”
  1. Kyle on October 13, 2016 at 10:47 am

    I have some dahlias that I planted here the first. I don’t dig them out like i am supposed to. I just add a bit of compost in the fall, cut the stems back when they go dormant, and throw a bit of straw over the top. Every year, they come back stronger than the year before, giant lovely yellow and red blooms. They are near a swale coming off my downspout, so I never water them…just enjoy.

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  2. Nebraska Dave on October 14, 2016 at 7:35 am

    Susy, ordinary old tulips are my plant that amazes me. At the middle or end of February I begin to see the Tulips starting to poke through the wood chips. The ground may still have a little snow on it and the top layer of soil it definitely still frozen. How do they know it’s time to start growing. Freezing temperatures at night don’t seem to bother the sprouting nubs breaking through the ground looking for light. Some say it’s the length of the days that break the bulbs dormancy but how can a bulb know the length of day when buried under a layer of frozen dirt covered with a thin blanket of snow. It’s a mystery of nature that amazes me every year.

    Have a great enjoying nature’s beauty day.

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  3. Chris on October 14, 2016 at 8:51 pm

    Just read the previous post about your mother and I can only say how terrible sorry I am of her terminal illness. You are bravely posting of things in the garden as if nothing has changed in your life. As someone who has just lost their mother, I tried to do the same before and after her death, almost as a therapy I guess. Just trying to keep things “normal”. You don’t need to for anyone’s sake, unless you feel you need to for yourself. If you feel like talking about how you’re feeling and or your mother…we would all welcome that just as much at this sad time in your life.
    And of course, you may be a very private person about revealing such feelings and we would all understand that just as well.
    Cherish and spend as much time as you can now with your mother. May the beauty of nature right out your door bring you some peace.

    Reply to Chris's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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