MARIETTE'S BACK TO BASICS

Monday, September 2, 2013

{Our Hippeastrum Fragrantissimum 2013}

Our fragrant Hippeastrum Fragrantissimum was blooming on August 1, in Our Garden, here in Georgia/USA.

Here I have cut off one stem with no less than 8 flowers. Some were still buds but nevertheless!

Looking perfect in this tall Baccarat crystal vase.

They are of the Amaryllidaceae familly. There are supposed to be varieties that originated in South America and also in South Africa.
The link South Africa and Indonesia is a very logic one, since both countries belonged to The Kingdom of The Netherlands.
Lots of Javanese people were brought to South Africa from Indonesia, to cultivate the fields as they were very adept and natural gardeners.
With that, of course plants and bulbs have gone back and forth as well. Enjoy our Indonesian species of fragrant white Hippeastrum Fragrantissimum:

A very green lawn we have this year due to all the heavy rains.

The sky is again looking pregnant with rain here...

There was no way to make any decent photos inside the home so I used this table on the patio outside our Rose Suite.

The second link below this post will tell you more about how we got this Hippeastrum Fragrantissimum from Indonesia, where we worked and lived.

We are sure glad we did bring a bulb from our Indonesian garden home with us!

They are such a reward each year.

Highly fragrant too!

Here they are, in their big planter in front of our greenhouse. Under the left blossom you see the steps of our gazebo...

This photo is from August 18, when other blossoms had opened up.

A very happy and healthy plant and we're so glad for having something from the country where we used to work and live...

Related links:
{Hippeastrum Fragrantissimum in Our Garden} | previous post by me
{Our Hippeastrum Fragrantissimum in Wonosobo, Indonesia} | previous post by me
{Heavenly Hippeastrum Fragrantissimum} | previous post by me
{New Heavenly Hippeastrum Fragrantissimum} | previous post by me
{Our Tropical Patio with Orchids in Indonesia} | previous post by me

Saturday, August 31, 2013

{Our Weeping Pussy Willow Nearly Drowned}

On February 17 of this year, we proudly came home with a beautiful and healthy Salix Caprea Pendula - Weeping Pussy Willow. Below this post you will find a link about it from a provious post. Husband Pieter did plant it close to the creek as they love to grow near a stream.

Here it is, straight from Trader Joe's where we bought it and looking very healthy.

On August 6, I took this photo, near the creek where it already endured quite some abuse by the roaring waters that went way over its top.

Look for the red < chevrons > for locating our Weeping Pussy Willow between some weeds.

You barely can see it... struggling for dear life and several of its branches had lost the leaves from the current of he waters...

Pieter did rescue it on August 18 and it went back into a pot and inside the greenhouse, sheltered from the heavy tropical thunderstorms.

Such a sad Weeping Pussy Willow...

The above photo I took at 2:45 PM

Only 5 hours later at 7:45 PM I made this photo from our flooded greenhouse after another tropical thunderstorm had passed over.

It made us feel happy for having rescued it and yet, still it was in the water.

Below I will put again the special poem that came with it in February:

The Story of Salix Caprea Pendula

The weeping pussy willow is among the most graceful of trees.

It is connected with all that is feminine-dreaming, intuition, emotion, enchantment, healing and revitalization.

The willow has long since been recognized as a sacred tree by poets, philosophers and religious leaders because of the flexibility of its twigs.

The willow's flexibility symbolizes resilience and inspires us to move with life rather than resist what we are feeling.

Magic has it that willow is bestowed with magical power capable of fulfilling wishes.

For a wish to be granted, ask permission of the willow explaining your desire.

Select a pliable shoot and tie a loose knot in it expressing your wish.

When your wish is fulfilled, return and untie the knot.

Remember to thank the willow for your gift.

Related link:
{Salix Caprea Pendula - Weeping Pussy Willow} | previous post by me from March 2, 2013

Thursday, August 29, 2013

{IMPACT and AFTERMATH of TROPICAL THUNDERSTORMS}

Officially it is hurricane season and that has also an impact on part of the United States. Living in the south east of the USA is great, related to the climate but sometimes we do pay a high price for sunny weather as things tend to go wrong. Tropical storms, disturbances and heavy thunderstorms with buckets of rain are a high price we often pay.

On Sunday afternoon of August 18, we were making the rounds over our estate and we first hand could see the damage that was caused by a severe thunderstorm on Wednesday, August 14, with a tremendous downpour that caused flooding.

You can see that lots of soil got washed out from underneath the bridge's ramp... gone!

The wooden bridge got beaten up too and lots of debris laying around everywhere.

That's the last of our three bridges and that too got beaten up and lots of soil washed out from underneath its ramp.

But what can we do?

You see that white chevron, it is pointing towards debris, leaves and such that left a trail from where the flood line was on Wednesday, August 14.

Our Spunky girl is even impressed and looking at it... seen center right.

In the far distance comes our Smokey boy; they join us for the usual 'cat walk'.

When we had gone inside on Sunday, August 18, for having our tea, another heavy thunderstorm came up suddenly and we had a tremendous downpour. This is ONLY 5 hours later!

We were quite shocked and worried about our bridges, our trees, shrubs and plants...

Tropical weather like that is so harsh on the elements!

Murky water comes roaring down.

Our Spunky girl usually stays in our wood garden; that's her domain but now I worry as she cannot cross the bridges or she might get swept away. This is AFTER the rain and of course most of the racing water had already passed and is now receding rapidly.

Such a sad sight...

This also leaves behind a very thick and stinky mud.

And this we watched now week after week, for nearly three months in a row... Our kind of summer for 2013.

All the hard work, all the woodwork, the painting and treating of the bridge with wood preservative.

Husband Pieter did just finish this bridge on August 1, and it has been under water numerous times since.

Just sad... Look at this little lake!

Foaming water that keeps racing down hill...

Just hoping for the best...

Water from the creek comes running down from across the road as well...

The flooding across the road, alongside the creek is even worse...

Look how much creek water is still running over the road, not being able to pass through the huge pipe, underneath the asphalt. That pipe is not wide enough to handle all the excess water in the creek, which accumulates fast from higher areas.

In the distance you see our white picket fence. Behind me to the right is still part of our wood garden, a total length of 200 meter we got alongside the road.