My recent request to friends for photos and statements about favorite trees brought this wonderfully welcome response from Barbara Hubschman Gold. Her comments are in italics below. I drew a smoke bush at a young age and since wasn’t sure whether it was real or a product of childhood imagination. It was enchanting and dearlyContinue reading “Focus on Smoke Bushes”
Category Archives: bushes
Yellow Blooms in Early April
After our aunt Ruth Stein died in 2011, our cousin Ann Monahan reliably sent us lively messages of remembrance on Ruth’s birthday, April 9. She often introduced her cheers for Ruth with the yellow blooms of early April.
Ann’s death on April 7 this year cut short such special poetic reminders to us and countless others in her life. The striking loss led me to gather images of yellow blossoms, in honor of Ann’s great array of ways to supportively connect people.
Edible Plants and Memories of Minna Lee, part five*
Text and photos by Deb Lee, Michele Maniscalco; photo from Lee family album
*last of five parts, so far, with responses from friends and family to my request for photos and text related to edible plants in the life or remembrance of Minna Lee (1917-2005) prompted by her birthday on August 23.
Edible Plants and Memories of Minna Lee, part four*
Photos and text by John Miller; text by Brad Gurman with photo by Bernard Lee
*fourth of five parts, so far, with responses from friends and family to my request for photos and text related to edible plants in the life or remembrance of Minna Lee (1917-2005) prompted by her birthday on August 23.
Sharing Roses of Sharon
Some ways I’ve share roses of Sharon in recent years:
• dig up and transplant selected saplings that grow up below the original bush…
• sweep and scrape loose shriveled remains fallen on the sidewalk .
• take photos of successive stages of a blossom…
• take short videos of blossoms lifting/shifting in warm winds …
• cut branches with buds and blossoms ( a source of tiny active ants) to fill a vase… .
Wonder at the Range of Hydrangeas
Last week a surprise gift bouquet with botanical notes about hydrangeas got me to start noticing their variety in my neighborhood. I marveled at the many different forms of delicate clustered blossoms among their handsome hardy leaves. Wikipedia affirmed that worldwide there are more than seventy species of hydrangea, including shrubs, vines and truly tall trees.
Range of Yellow, Intense to Mellow
I invented this mid-April post to allow at least two more magnolias, both with yellow tones, that started blooming after my post about those captivating trees.
Magnolias, Magnificent and Magnified, April 2021
A few magnolia trees in my neighborhood began to blossom tentatively in late March, followed by a full surge in early April with three bright mild days. Cold winds and rain soon sent many petals to settle, discoloring on the ground after the brief but spectacular displays of distinctly different magnolias. No wet spring snowstorms to weigh them down this year, so they can gracefully give way to other predictably brilliant showings of the season.
Germany Midsummer 2014
This post is guided by my goal to focus on plants (trees, flowers, fruits, bushes, berries) that have nurtured connections to key people in my life (in this example, three generations of my sister’s family).
Why, When, How
I signed up for this slot last year when it showed as a fleeting bonus to my basic blog, Art Outdoors, on WordPress. It promised a solution to my urges to post pictures of plants that did not fit within my own constraints on what to include as art, which ruled out “the art that nature makes” no matter how amazing. Just knowing that the spot awaited was reassurance enough until this November, as the last leaves fell and faded while the prospect of renewed pandemic restrictions rose.
Pleasures of Plants 