Which One Would You Prefer? A Morning Kiss or a Witch's Tongue?

Clerodendrum incisum

Here's a novel gift for your sweetie the next time your romance hits a sour note or you somehow manage to strike the wrong chord in conversation. It's commonly known as a musical note plant, although I've seen it referred to as the "Morning Kiss" as well as a "Witch's Tongue." Which name do you prefer? By the way, it doesn't smell bad, so I don't know how it got saddled with those particular names.

If you're into chasing small balls around for hours and trying to get them into holes from various angles and distances, you might even think it looks like a club of some sort. What I'd like to know is where do teeth enter the picture? As in "dendrum" and "incisum?" I'll leave it up to you to figure that one out.

Although most sites I've searched recommend this plant for more southern zones, it has tripled in size since I planted it here in the spring of 2012. The leaves fall off when winter arrives and the temps drop, but it slowly emerges from dormancy around the beginning of May and continues to bloom regularly until the first touch of frost. It's one of those plants that shines in the evening when the moon rises above the horizon.

I missed seeing this month's full moon (July 22) because....

It's been raining again!

But Soft! What Twilight Garden?

Peanut by twilight garden

"But soft! what [Twi]light [Garden] through yonder window breaks?"

The gardener softly shuts off the light and out of doors her way she makes.

Daylight fades and night begins to fall but just before it does,






The gardener takes the cap from off the camera lens and blows away the Peanut fur and fuzz,

'Cause camera obscura is not the tack she wants to take
as flowers show their peak.

The gardener's figure softly hides in twilight's cloak,
and softly does she sneak

To savor and to archive twilight's bloom for future garden plan.
Whilst present, pleasant, daytime life is fat and full and may be whipped up cream,

"O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard,
Being in night, all [that] this is [we've learned from life thus far may be nothing]
but a dream..."

(Words in quotes, it's true, are gathered from bits and pieces of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet,
but those in brackets and all the rest come from Walk2Write, direct to you, via blog and Internet.)