Whirled Piece: Ginger or Mary Ann? Julia or Lucetta?

Costus pictus, spiral ginger

The ginger that does grow
In tropical garden isle
Makes its way onto the blog
And so the garden file

It traveled here all potted up
Last year from lakeside yard
It grew but didn't bloom 'til now
A spiraling upwards guard

With gaze that grows from inward out
To focus on a whirled
Piece on Earth, on entwined fates allowed
To mingle here, so gradually unfurled.

Hedychium coronarium, butterfly ginger

JULIA: What is't that you took up so gingerly?

LUCETTA: Nothing.

JULIA: Why didst thou stoop, then?

LUCETTA: To take a paper [blog] up that I let fall.

JULIA: And is that paper [blog] nothing?

LUCETTA: Nothing concerning me.

JULIA: Then let it lie for those that it concerns...

(from William Shakespeare's The Two Gentleman of Verona, Act I, scene ii)

*******************************************************

I never dreamed I would become such a ginger gardener. But who can resist the tropical allure of these beauties? They grow so effortlessly, with so little care and attention, quite unlike a blog, I'm afraid. I never dreamed I would become such a "gingerly" blogger. If a blog is let go, allowed to drop out of sight and mind, it might just die on the vine, so to speak. And the entwined fates (faithful readers/followers/thinkers) will stop mingling here and remain unfurled. Impressions either never arrive or quickly leave, unseen and unspoken.

If you're wondering what Ginger or Mary Ann have to do with this whirled piece, blame SAM. When he saw the ginger unfurling its flower bracts, he suggested that I ask the question. Are you a Ginger or Mary Ann? Gilligan's Island fans will know what I'm talking about. You might even remember dramatic Ginger as Ophelia in this episode. There, now. Shakespeare>Ginger>Tropical Landscaping>Gilligan's Island. Everything comes together in this whirled piece. Oh. What about Julia or Lucetta? Read the play and let me know what you think.

Autumn Leaves Time for a Visit to Dixon Springs State Park and a Friend 'In the Garden'

Secret Aging Man and I were on our way to work for him and a family visit for me when I saw the sign. "Dixon Springs State Park." We weren't far from the border between Kentucky and Illinois. "I just have to see it again," I said. What age deletes from my memory, Southern Illinois replaces. Leaving Interstate 24 for a two-lane highway, SAM in the driver's seat, I leaned forward with anticipation. Would I find the place just as I had left it that summer in high school? Of course not! I've been back to it since then, the summer I took a field botany course and learned more about human nature than Nature nature.

Certainly, the contours of the land were the same, not much different there. And silly rules were still posted: a "No Swimming" sign in the very place where swimming would seem most appropriate--the catch-basin for a natural spring.

The cabins were there or at least they were standing. A "Dead End" sign seemed more than appropriate for them now.

The cabins' window-blinds were sagging and wrinkled like the lids on an old woman's eyes--hey, I'm beginning to resemble that remark. No signs of recent life appeared. Still, I thought I heard the ghosts of loud whispers and giggles from girls sneaking over to the boys' cabin in the middle of the night. Rules and raging hormones somehow cannot coexist in the mind of a teenager. Our teacher, Mr. R, surely must have known that nothing short of a barb-wire fence surrounded by punji stakes could separate the girls from the boys at the end of a week-long field trip away from parental supervision. Back then, I guess school authorities and parents giving their permission were fairly naive about such things. Mr. R and his 18-year-old daughter were our only chaperones for the trip.

Nothing "naughty" happened, of course. I think the presence of old church buildings in the park must have made some impression on a group of youngsters raised in the Heartland or Buckle of the Bible Belt. Or it could have been the fact that none of us trusted Mr. R's daughter to keep her mouth shut about our shenanigans. She was nice, but none of us really knew her. We were high school freshmen, and she had just graduated high school. She was officially a "grup" and apparently wise in matters of the heart. She already had a steady boyfriend. We were newbies on that scene.

Considering the present state of Illinois' economy, the park's condition wasn't too shabby. But I did find the lack of signs about the park's history somewhat shameful. Who, for instance, built this wall?

And what was the origin of this ancient well at which SAM is pointing his finger? Was it the foundation of a bath house? The state website link at the beginning of this post indicates that 19th century visitors to the area used to bathe in the mineral springs for health reasons.

Maybe a better question is why don't we utilize our state parks for similar purposes today? Why did traditional forms of therapy such as hydrotherapy and massage therapy fall out of favor with people interested in maintaining good health?

Thank goodness the end of the week-long trip that SAM and I made wasn't plagued by unanswered questions or shrouded by the mists of time and fading memory. We stopped on our way home to visit a gardening friend, one I'm sure that many of my visitors are familiar with: Tina of In the Garden fame.

She and Mr. Fix-It had an answer for every question, a wonderful supper for hungry guests, and warm hospitality for visitors who forgot how cold Tennessee weather can be in early October.








And of course, they had plants to share: asters, irises, cannas, and variegated Miscanthus.

I hope we can repay their kindness someday soon. It's been nearly four years since our last meeting in New Harmony, Indiana. I pray it's not so long until the next one.

Hummingbird on my cold-hardy ginger

Encouragement from Other Bloggers

I hadn't posted anything to the other blog, my fictional short story one, since last November, and I'm not sure why. Stories keep popping up in my mind, demanding to be dusted off or written for the very first time. Maybe all it took was a little encouragement from another blogger. A few weeks ago, writer E. J. Wesley left a nice comment on my last post on Big Bend Over Easy in Florida, so I figured it was time to add another story. Here's a link to a very-first-time story. 

Keeping It Short, Simple, and Sweet--Seriously--'Orchid' You Not!

Winter makes me long-winded. It must have something to do with those cold blasts of air sweeping out of the north and taking my breath away. I'm sorry! This short post will make amends, I hope. At the Gardening Friends of the Big Bend meeting last week, SAM and I had our first encounter with an orchid enthusiast. Mr. Jodie Shumaker of Florida Star Nursery and Supply Company in Marianna, Florida, presented a program that made me sit up and take notes. I'm pretty sure SAM enjoyed it too. What's not to enjoy about Red Velvet Cheesecake, among other snacks?



Wilsonara Lisa's Delight 'Rayna' Orchid

 As noted on a simple pad of paper, here are some of the things I learned (I hope I heard what was said and then read my chicken scratch correctly!):

• Orchids have a lip or landing platform that attracts specific pollinators
• There are only 4 pollen capsules per blossom but 25,000 pollen grains in each one
• 100,000 seeds may form per seed pod and are carried by wind
• Most orchids are epiphytic, meaning they live on other plants such as trees, often high above the ground
• Some of them are terrestrial (the vanilla plant being one of them)
• There is no food reserve stored in the seed as in most plants. A special fungus attacks the seed, sending its hyphae into the seed cell, which then acts like a guillotine, cutting the hyphae for its own consumption of the sugars and nutrients stored in the hyphae
• There are even subterranean species living underground
• A small clump of cells from the orchid's meristem can grow hundreds of plants, known as mericlones
• Many intergeneric crosses may be created, and the Royal Horticultural Society keeps a register of the patents
• It would be easy to get carried away with purchases when provided with as many choices as I had that evening. Good thing SAM was along. I bought one. That's it! Wilsonara Lisa's Delight 'Rayna' is a cross between Cochlioda, Odontoglossum, and Oncidium orchids

My Japanese blogging friend Sapphire (Through the Sapphire Sky) published a most interesting post last week to celebrate her upcoming blogiversary. She shared some of her favorite bloggers' sites, including mine! What a sweet thing to do. Seriously. She is kind, gentle, and modest. I love learning about Japanese art, culture, and just life in general through her eyes.

There is another special event taking place this weekend at the North Florida Research and Education Center. It's open to anyone with an interest in nature and gardening who lives in or might be passing through the Tallahassee area. A workshop on "Butterflies, Bees, and Bats" will be presented on Saturday morning. Here is a link with the specifics. I've heard there's to be a plant sale after the presentation. Do you think our porch at the apartment is full enough? Nah!

One more thing (I promise):  Mr. Hammons has provided a list of blogs where all of the clues to his mystery may be found. Click here for the list or click on the picture of the sailboat on my sidebar. Happy clue hunting and Valentine's Day!