Today I’ll share a few stories related to special flowers in my life.
Roses
Whenever I see roses, I think of a funny thing that happened to me when I was in my early twenties. I had just started dating a guy who checked parking passes where I worked. I invited him to my cozy little A-frame house on Puget Sound in Washington state. When we got to my house, I pulled open the screen door and there was a bouquet of roses tucked next to the main door. I grinned and asked if they were from him. “No,” he said sheepishly. He pulled a bouquet of roses from behind his back. Oops. The flowers in my door were from a different admirer. Awkward!
I took these photos on the High Desert Garden Tour this summer. The tour takes place in different Central Oregon locations, from sprawling rural ranches to tiny city yards. This year the featured gardens were in Bend.
Hibiscus
Another one of my special flowers is hibiscus. We had relatives who lived in Hawaii, and I associate this flower with the islands. I have fond memories of watching geckos crawling up the bathroom walls while doves cooed softly outside the open window. I remember my auntie cooking bananas in bubbling butter and brown sugar. We’d go on trips to places only locals knew, like natural waterslides carved by streams cutting through lush forests.
I live in the High Desert, where temperatures reach extremes, and I’m always surprised to see this “tropical” plant thriving here. These photos were taken in Bend.
Hydrangeas
I also like hydrangeas. We had a hydrangea growing alongside my childhood home. It produced big blue blossoms in softball-sized clusters. I tried to grow them where I used to live in Washington state. We had one hundred inches of rain a year at our house near the Cascade Mountains. Maybe all that rain washed away whatever hydrangeas needed to bloom because we never had flowers.
At our current house in Bend, where ten inches of rain falls a year, they will grow. Unfortunately, our deer “landscapers” like to trim our shrubs too often, as you can see in the picture below. There’s nothing left of this white hydrangea plant except a few twigs sticking out of the ground.
So, when I want to satisfy my cravings for hydrangeas, I have to find them elsewhere. I took these pictures at the Oregon Garden in Silverton.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Flower favorites and why
Ah hibiscus – one of my favourites too. They don’t grow in the UK (other than hothouses etc.) so I associate them with trips to more tropical climes 🙂 I’m surprised they grow in Oregon but I guess you get pretty hot summers?
Sorry hibiscus don’t grow outside there. Yes, we get very warm summers here. This year, summer has been slow to leave. I’m looking forward to fall weather! 😀
I love all your flowers as well! Hibiscus is a lovely flower that I would have wanted to feature myself…but overload overload. I am glad you did! Fond memories of “my auntie cooking bananas in bubbling butter and brown sugar.” That really made me wonder what that tasted like! I do love geckos though, always talk to them when I see them abroad.
Pretty landscapers – but sorry for the hydrangeas. Thank you for a great post with lovely memories and stories.
Thank you, Ann-Christine! I may try to grow hibiscus in my yard, but I’ll have to put netting over them to protect them from the four-legged pests. 😉 Bananas cooked that way are delicious!
With you 100% on hydrangeas Siobhan, including having to enjoy them elsewhere! Somehow just a few miles away they are able to grow them in abundance but I’ve never seen any here on Kiawah. I do find them gorgeous though and grew them successfully at our home up north. I do miss them!
Tina, I’m glad I’m not the only one unable to grow them! At least we can both appreciate them growing in other people’s gardens. 😀
All are beautiful.
Thank you! Glad you liked my choices.