Bouquets

I know I live in horticultural denial. Denial that I live in a place which temperatures can dip down to -20sº in the winter and soar above 100º in the summer, and what can possibly grow here, besides corn, wheat, sorghum, and Angus beef? Anyone who keeps banana trees in Kansas is bananas, herself. Ditto the pineapple and avacado plants. Oh, yea - the ginger as well.

But I have to show my blooms of the week!

Pink Oleander

Oleander can thrive in sub-tropic climates. Since it won't be thriving much longer out on my front porch, come late September, it will become part of my "Haul-in-the-Houseplants" collection in the fall. I need to face facts: I need a conservatory.

Oleander has a beautiful scent - very soft and...happy? Some people describe it as intoxicating fragrance. Well, I just have to tell you, it ranks right up there with peony and honeysuckle smells as one of my favorite fragrances.

Interestingly, as beautiful as the flowers smell, the oleander is considered one of the most poisonous plants in the world. Pliny the Elder wrote in AD 77 that despite its toxicity, oleander was an effective snakebite cure. I wonder if he failed to point out the obvious: the snakebite victim did not die from the snakebite, because the oleander probably killed him first. Anyway, don't be going and eating my oleander. Just enjoy the flowers and fragrance.

Bougainvillea

Another tropical plant to enter the Armstrong household in a few short weeks is my bougainvillea. It is said that the leaves of the bougainvillea are slightly toxic, akin to poison ivy, but I think the needle-like thorns would bother you first. And I can simply look at poison ivy and break out in a rash 2 days later, but fiddling with this bougainvillea hasn't produced like results.

Late this afternoon I went out to the front porch, and there was a collection of honeybees all along the steps. I have never seen that before. At first I thought they were enjoying the bouquet of fragrance, but then that Spouse o' Mine pointed out that the honeybees were probably getting water. (I had just moved the sprinkler.) Anyway, it was a fascinating sight.

So in spite of the near-triple digit heat and 20 mph wind, I do get some enjoyment outside this week...only a few short steps away from my air conditioning, thank you very much.