The comfortable, sunny weather of May in Maryland’s gardening zone 8 welcomes spring blooms. I’ve enjoyed nurturing my plant babies these past few weeks. Watching them sprout and recently bloom brings a bright smile to my face. The tiny pink dianthus (aka carnations) and large lush peonies bloomed this week while my roses began displaying their vibrant colors within the past two weeks. Eternal Flame (yellow), Ebb Tide (purple/magenta), Bolero (white) boasts vibrant colors and exquisite fragrance! The songbirds have three separate nests hidden throughout this garden full of life. Last year, my lambs ear suffered from die back due to too much rain. It looked rather unsightly for quite some time. This spring, however, the lambs ear resurrected stronger than ever and in the lovely form of a heart (center of the collage photo). Perhaps the lesson of the heart-shaped lambs ear could be sometimes areas of our lives need to die back or be pruned before we can be reborn or renewed with a perfected heart. Glorious spring, without fail, always triumphs over the harsh winter. Renewed hope is the heart of Spring.
Yay! We made it to Spring! I recently launched a faith-based, online, gardening club that discusses gardening-themed books and what we’re learning in the garden! Join us on Facebook, and share your garden-themed books and blooms! Look for the “Books and Blooms Club” on Facebook or click here.
Are you as excited as I am for Spring? The dainty crocus in shades of purple and yellow announced the approaching Spring season. Despite the forsythia not blooming yet, I pruned my roses, lavender, and daisies in this gardening zone 8a along the shores of Maryland. Normally, I try to wait till the forsythia are blooming before pruning my roses, but I’m willing to risk it. Meanwhile, the grass is burgeoning. Leaflets are poking out from the woody stems of my hydrangea. My lamb’s ear, dianthus, and veronica/speedwell appear to be awakening too! Oh, how I love the glorious season of Spring!
Update: About 10 days after I pruned, and 3 days after this post on the first day of Spring, the forsythia started to bloom!
Happy fall, y’all! I’ve been enjoying the fall temperatures and the praying mantises that live in my garden. These are likely the same babies that I discovered in May on my back porch. Also, the Montauk daisies that I planted last year finally bloomed. The large, foliage of Montauk daisies feels like wax. Montauk daisies, not to be confused with Shasta daisies, only bloom in the fall whereas Shastas are repeat bloomers. This fall, I had both types blooming at once! A few weeks ago, I planted additional ‘Sweet Drift’ roses to finish a pink hedge that borders my neighbor’s fence, and transplanted rosemary and hostas to new locations. I trimmed an overgrown tree that blocked an exterior light and mulched some beds. The garden is ready for winter now. Just in time for a first freeze tonight.
Sea Myrtle also known as Salt Myrtle produces fluffy white blooms, is loved by the bees, and blooms profusely in my area.
I’ve been so busy taking multiple college courses while working full-time as a paralegal that I not only haven’t posted in several weeks, but my everbloomingroses.com domain name registration lapsed and was snapped up by a mysterious organization – probably to sell it back to me for an exorbitant amount. Subsequently, I’ve launched a new and improved gardening site, Bee-Everblooming, with the domain name http://www.bee-everblooming.com. I suppose like nature, even domain names can be reincarnated or reborn as something new!
As you may or may not know, this site was and still is designed to encourage the gardener’s soul. Although I have not been able to post lately, thankfully, my hard work in obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies may be starting to pay off as I was recently invited to bee 😉 a member of the Lambda Epsilon Chi (LEX), a national honor society for paralegal and legal studies students with a high GPA. I suppose there are advantages to finally finishing your degree in your forties – you not only have life experience to assist you, but you actually care about your grades! Ha! After I graduate next spring (2025), I anticipate sharing many more inspirational gardening tips. Nevertheless, I have been able to somewhat keep up with my ever-growing garden, but I confess the weeds are winning in some beds, and the blackspot, beetles, and borers are a thorn in my flesh. More on all that later! In the meantime, pray for me as I am discerning potential next steps to help me grow professionally, and personally.
While lounging on my back porch this past weekend, I discovered minuscule insects crawling on a black patio table as well as on two candles placed on the table. After close inspection of these critters that were no bigger than a dime, I realized they were baby praying mantis! In total, I found five crawling around my patio furniture. Last summer, there was an adult praying mantis crawling on my steps, which lead to the garden from my back porch, but I haven’t seen an adult one since. Needless to say, I have been in awe while observing these little ones. Praying Mantis are considered good bugs in the garden ecosystem, and they will devour plenty of damaging insects.
What is a lesson we can learn from the Praying Mantis? Perhaps the lesson is when we take the time to pray, listen, and be discerning in our movements, we can overcome much!
Within these last couple of weeks of May, my peonies have exploded in hues of pink and divine aroma! Peonies are once-blooming perennials, which seems like a juxtaposition. The luscious, fragrant blooms last a few weeks while the foliage remains a vibrant, shiny green until late fall when they need to be cut down so the plant will rebloom the following year. In my gardening zone of 8a here in Maryland, peonies bloom typically in May.
What can we learn from the peony? Our talents and giftings take time and maintenance to cultivate; moreover, they aren’t necessarily meant to be showcased all year long but rather in an appointed season.
The hostas are unfurling and the shrubs are stretching their limbs as everything is awakening from the sleepy winter here in Maryland’s gardening zone 8a. I’ve also been amazed at how rapidly my peonies are growing. I added plant supports that I purchased from Amazon to help support the billowing pink blooms soon enough. Once the peonies are past their peak, I plan on moving the plant support stakes over to my Shasta daisies later in the summer. At the moment, the daisies are only about six inches in height but I know in time they will grow to be nearly two feet tall. I intentionally avoided the grid-style plant support stakes so I could use these rounded ones in different areas of the garden if needed. I have immensely enjoyed seeing the growth of the peonies and hostas in recent days. The peonies have grown so much you can’t even see the support stakes!
The plant support stakes are camouflaged among the peony stalks.
I also recently added affordable, custom eight-inch metal garden tags purchased from Specialty Garden Markers to identify my roses by name and variety at just $1.50 each. They arrived in a week and were easy to place in front of each rose. Meanwhile, my fragrant, yellow hybrid tea rose known as ‘Eternal Flame’ was the first rose to bloom in my garden, reminding me first and foremost, to keep my mind focused on the Eternal and less on the insanity of this world. This rose bush is nearly as tall as me already! I look forward to propagating it and a few others from my garden after their first flush of blooms – I’m going to try anyway!
The pink dianthus and lavender I recently planted have taken root and are blooming beautifully. I look forward to seeing them bloom in full force as the weeks go on. I’ve staggered the pink dianthus in between the lavender to create a romantic border. In a different, distant bed, one yellow lily has exploded in color but for the most part, my various plants are growing and loaded with buds. I look forward to seeing my garden burst forth soon in hues of yellow, pink, purple, and white.
While my garden is exploding in growth, I, too, am growing spiritually as I continue to study Torah/Tanakh, and I’m also expanding my education as I am about to embark on my next college course while working full-time.
Everything is growing good in my life. I guess you could say, “You grow, girl!”
Dig. Plant. Weed. Mulch. Fertilize. I’ve been busy in the garden these last few weeks as have the the plants themselves and the insects they attract. Here in garden zone 8a of Baltimore County, Maryland, nearly all of my roses boast buds accompanied by aphids, tiny bugs that enjoy sucking sap from a rosebud. In years past I have squished aphids or squirted them off, but I felt confident that the ladybugs that took up residence in my flower beds would eat their full of the aphid buffet soon enough. It’s believed ladybugs can eat 50 or more aphids in a single day. Sure enough, when I checked back a few days later, only this aphid lingered. Unless a pest is obliterating a plant, I tend to let nature do its thing or find other less severe options to mitigate pests. Last year, a praying mantis showed up (they eat just about any insect in range).
Speaking of life, I’m delighted to see everything I planted last year managed to resurface this year! A couple of hostas kept me in suspense as they just now broke ground (in mid-April) whereas others manifested in late March.
The side of the house is part shade which is why I planted several hostas as well as broke up one large hosta and transplanted five sections of the original in that shaded location. After a minor outdoor plumbing repair (where the sump pump drains) and adding river rock, I decided to plant a shrub known as ‘Golden Euonymus’ to hide the pipe that runs along the house as well as the gutter. When I purchased the house, it already had these golden-green shrubs that retain their foliage throughout the winter; so, I was familiar with their habitat and it was only $11 at Home Depot. Before planting the new shrub, however, I relocated a large hosta known as ‘Blue Angel’ by a foot or two to the left. I also added other hostas between a hydrangea bush and a reddish shrub aptly named ‘burning bush’. I also lined a sidewalk with brick for a cohesive look in the backyard that same Sunday last week and set up small trellises for my clematises to climb. One week later, my clematis has reached the top of the 4-foot trellises! As I said, my plants and I have been busy.
One of the ‘Golden Euonymus’ shrubs that was already established upon purchasing my home.
On Friday, a plant order arrived on my doorstep from Proven Winners which I quickly planted before the whipping winds consumed our region. I ordered 3 pink dianthus (they look like carnation mounds), 2 pink veronica speedwells, and 1 lavender. Last year, I planted several of Proven Winners’ lavender known as ‘Sweet Romance’ in one particular bed as a border. I intended on planting sweet alyssum, a dainty low-growing white flower, in between the lavendar but that never transpired. This year, I added the lavender that just arrived and staggered the pink dianthus between the lavender border (instead of my sweet alyssum idea from last year). My garden has a pink, purple, white, and yellow theme.
Meanwhile, the lamb’s ear I transplanted in the same bed a few weeks ago took without hesitation and my roses are busy cranking out buds. If you recall from an earlier post, I transplanted a rose known as ‘Earth Angel’ in early March and created a new flower bed for her. Like the transplanted lamb’s ear, it too established itself with no transplant shock. I clearly do not subscribe to the “wait to Mother’s Day myth” to plant or transplant. I figure if the temperatures dip, it’s easy enough to put a 5-gallon bucket, pot, or cloth over the plant for protection.
In the new flower bed, I anchored the newly arrived pink veronica speedwells on each side of ‘Earth Angel’, a pink and white romantic rose. I’m anticipating the vertical spikes of pink will annunciate the rounded pink in the center of the mostly white rose.
After resting on Sabbath yesterday, today, I checked on my new plants and put plant support stakes around my quickly sprouting peonies. I also mulched a bed and scrubbed the bird bath as well as the bird feeder. As if all the dreaming, planting, mulching, and fertilizing isn’t enough joy, I have a mama bird also busy this spring!
I am processing this unbelievable event of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsing while contemplating the physical and spiritual mayday, the physical and spiritual urgent movement to soon follow, and the physical and spiritual shaking that some will experience.
The Book of Job teaches us nothing happens without God’s permission. Some events manifest as a consequence and sometimes events are for a greater divine purpose and many times unexpected events are for our refinement and ultimate benefit. God is the ultimate Harbormaster. Ponder these uncanny facts: The ship’s name that collided with our beloved bridge, means ‘Drawn up of God’. I interpret that to mean designed by God or destined or planned by God. Additionally, the infamous ship’s registered owner is ‘Grace Ocean Private, Limited’. Consider passages in the Bible that teach us tragic events and inconvenient restrictions are often for our benefit as well as a bigger picture beyond our limited perspective. Sometimes devastating events are an unimaginable act of grace, albeit terribly painful – especially for the loved ones of those now abruptly taken. Perhaps this unimaginable event is indeed an act of grace. Perhaps something far sinister had been planned, but this thwarted evil.
Furthermore, I see with this port disaster and the ripple effect to soon follow, Baltimore is being shuffled as people will be relocating. Did you notice President Biden used the phrase we’ll “move heaven and earth” to open the port and rebuild the bridge? Many felt secure, unmovable, in their livelihoods and homes like a steel bridge with concrete piers. Some may have been called to other things but out of fear resisted. They’ve been at the same job or home for years and comfortable as things were but sometimes GOD moves heaven and earth to transport us to where He wants us to be for our benefit. With this event, some will change jobs and homes due to a suddenly inconvenient commute or loss of a job. Others will move because homes will foreclose with the loss of port jobs and the broad economic ripple to follow. Others will move into the Baltimore region to rebuild and some will move out of the region to look for work elsewhere or move out for other reasons. Expect physical and spiritual relocation packages as a result of this collapsed icon.
As challenging as this is for us in Baltimore and the wider region, may we learn to trust not man or our well-intended plans, but trust in God’s plan. Let us learn to go when God says to go and to start anew when God dispatches or as the Baltimore dispatcher declared at the moment the bridge collapsed, “start, start, whoever, everybody!” Physical urgent movement is starting for our spiritual and physical benefit. Selah.
