Part Four Of: Summer Scenery On Campus

Sorry it's been a while since I've last posted! My birthday was last week, and I have been working basically nonstop, so I've been busy. But I have returned to show you some tropical touches on campus, and some flowers that are just as sweet by any other name.

 

One day I was bicycling to work when I saw a Landscape Services truck carrying these trees through a parking lot. They looked even healthier than they do in this picture, and I couldn't help but wonder what they were. I had no idea where they had been taken, either. However, when I went around campus looking at various planters, I found them. They seem to be handling the Midwestern summer just fine.



 

So what are these exotic plants? Carica papaya, more commonly known as papaya trees. While I doubt they will flower and put on fruit in this climate, I sure wish they would. I've never eaten a fresh papaya before.

I found these hydrangea bushes a little farther down the path. Their mops look pretty angelic there, floating above their foliage. I know the acidity of the soil affects hydrangea flower color, but I also know that there are different cultivars which apparently can influence color as well. I'd love to know how these plants were manipulated into producing white flowers (as I would love some of these plants in the moonlight garden I dream of creating).

I've seen these bushes all around campus; little did I know they are also hydrangeas. These are Hydrangea quercifolia, or oakleaf hydrangea. I like them a lot. They usually have subtle flower colors, which keeps your eyes from being overloaded when these are placed near regular hydrangea.

Here's a closer shot of the blooms. This is one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken.

Onto the roses! Rose season had started ending when I took these pictures, and it's even closer to over now, but I wanted to show them regardless. Campus has pink and red roses...

...and a few white roses.

Actually, there were a lot of white roses. Stay tuned for the next post to learn more. These were the best-looking clusters of the bunch.

Next post: roses and daylilies.

The Dawn of Summer, Part II



Today we continue our journey through the beginning of the bountiful season. Let's start with the reason I initiated this journey: irises. Irises fascinate me. Their many colors and elegant shapes, propped upon tall, slender stalks have resonated with me all my life.

 

Here are a couple of iris bushes, though shot from afar. Also, note the peony on the right.

 



This beautiful, buttery iris was in a cemetery near my house. I must be hungry (even if not, I've always got food on the brain)--this flower reminds me of popcorn.

Even if a patch of land is unkempt, irises always spruce it up, as shown here.

Another elegant plant nearby was this yucca.

But what's this? That, my friends, is the start of a beautiful bounty in the form of blooms. Yucca flowers, as I've said in other posts, are completely edible. You'd better believe that I'm going to scavenge some when they arrive. I don't exactly know what these flowers taste like, but I can see myself sautéing them with onions, garlic, corn, beans, and jalapenos, then serving that over rice with some pork brisket for a Southwestern dinner. That sounds excellent. Maybe I am hungry.

This passageway is an example of the great aesthetic feats plants can accomplish. No other material, organic or otherwise, could make this area look so inviting and mysterious. It reminds me of The Secret Garden.

Here's another yucca inflorescence stalk (read: stalk where flowers will grow) forming, this one farther along. If I knew what yucca tasted like, I'd almost be able to taste the flowers already.

I noticed a lot of weeds on my walkabout. These two plants are buckhorn plantains (Plantago lanceolata). Why are they significant? They're edible! Young leaves can be included in salads, and older leaves can be cooked like any other leafy green. Yes, I want to try this, and yes, I will post about it when I do.

A few years ago, this cemetery (which was originally a "colored cemetery" dating back to the Civil War) got a nice entrance gate and some landscaping around it. While it was a nice gesture, and it does look much better, there are silk flowers adorning the gate. However, there are also these pretty rose bushes. The peachy-pink blooms are unique, at least in town.

What evidence of summer have you found?

Next post: probably more moments in summer's morning.