Sunday, July 08, 2007

Une fleur de prix pour Katiebird

In a post on Calendulas from a few days ago, I had a "find the bug" challenge going, and not only did Katiebird first find it, but she also won the coveted commenter's "I'm first!" award of the day! So ... as a humble effort at a prize of some sort, I give you even more summer firepower with a scrumptious California Poppy that was blooming this afternoon. You can also see a little more orange in the Moss Rose (Portulaca grandiflorum) in the background, though it's a bit more on the spent side of blooming. In all the variations we see in California poppies, I think this type is my favorite, with its warm inner orange glow, its tentacular whorls of IBs, all topped off by a crisp yellow that just summons up a cold glass of lemonade on a hot summer's day.

So here you go, Katiebird! Enjoy .... and though I'm long overdue in giving you linkage (my bad), I encourage readers (if you haven't already) to visit Katiebird's own marvelous site, Eat4Today. I've not been a frequent visitor of late, but I can see that I should be heading there more often. Shame on me, but good for us that Katiebird continues to provide such a resource with its wealth of wisdom!

6 comments:

Larry Kollar said...

Am I first today? Huh?

The thing I noticed about the surprise moss rose in what was supposed to be the garlic bed is that it closes up for the afternoon as well as the night. I guess it gets a little too warm at times.

So if it's a California poppy, does it like dry weather and plenty of auto exhaust? ;-)

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey there FAR ... yep, moss rose does sort of "close up shop" in the late afternoon and the blooms usually seem to last no more than 2-3 days tops, but there are always more coming on, especially in this hot, sunny weather.

You could grow CA poppies easily there too and probably get a lot longer season out of them. Once they self seed, they're pretty much there in future years too. You might want to consider sowing some in the fall w/the poppies I'm gonna send you. Easy annuals that continue to reward you later!

katiebird said...

IVG!! Thank you so much. I'm trying to post a link to the flower at E4T.

{{IVG}} It's beautiful. I've ALWAYS loved California Poppies (I'm a California Girl) so this one is the perfect prize for me.

xxoo
katiebird

PS, Thank you VERY MUCH for the blogroll link and the kind words for E4T.

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Glad you enjoyed it, KB! And extra glad to have another village member on the blogroll with such an excellent site as well.

Guess I lucked out w/the CA poppy, eh? We love em too and try to get more people to plant them. Here's a hint: get some seeds now, and choose a spot where you want them next year in your garden ... sow them after the first frost or two and just wait for them to pop up in early spring! I can't praise these little beauties enough....

olivia said...

Beautiful flower for a prize ... :) I agree w/ you, they are lovely for their simplicity of petals but complex insides with the tenticular whorls of IBS ... (love that description!).

Larry Kollar said...

Thanks for the info, IVG! I really have to get Mrs. Fetched over here; she could really get some ideas.

The second moss rose has started blooming; that one is deep orange or maybe red.