Amy Stewart, in her book Flower Confidential, says that florists practically invented Mother’s Day. It was actually invented in 1908 by a woman named Anna Jarvis who wanted the celebration to be on the second Sunday in May because it was the anniversary of the death of her own mother. “Crowd it and push it,” she urged florists, noting that May was a month when flowers are plentiful and therefore cheaper. Florists jumped on board, and Jarvis’s idea worked as people saw it as a chance to honor their mothers, as well as daughters, wives, grandmothers, and friends who were mothers. Jarvis, however, became upset with the floral industry because she wanted white carnations to be the exclusive flower of Mother’s Day. This was because the holiday actually began as a day when children (both boys and girls) would honor their mothers by wearing a white carnation in their buttonhole. Florists, understandably, were in favor of using a wider variety of flowers, partly because their suppliers couldn’t supply sufficient quantities of white carnations.Mother’s Day is now a truly floral holiday, and flowers can even be wired world-wide.
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Death of a Flower
Many of us who love to grow tulips in our gardens have visiting deer who love to eat them. It seems to be such a violent death for a bud or flower. The poet E. J. Scovell, when she wrote the following poem in 1991, must not have had deer in her garden because she describes a more gradual demise. Here are some excerpts of her poem: I would, if I could, choose Age, and die outwards as a tulip does; Not as this iris drawing in, in-coiling Its complex strange taut inflorescence, willing Itself a bud again—though all achieved is No more than a clenched sadness, The tears of gum not flowing. I would choose the tulip’s reckless way of going; Whose petals answer light, altering by fractions From closed to wide, from one through many perfections, Till wrecked, flamboyant, strayed beyond recall, Like flakes of fire they piecemeal fall.Most of us prefer tulips in a vase when they are closed or just partly open, rather than splayed outwards, wide open, just before the petals fall. Though perhaps, opening wide, is their last defiant gesture of farewell.This is Moya Andrews, and today we focused on the death of a flower.
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Deadheading Spent Blooms
Deadheading spent booms on plants is important, especially with perennials. Many modern annuals have been bred so that the plant will keep blooming without deadheading. Wave petunia was the first annual where breeders managed to achieve this, but now it is rare for any type of petunias to need deadheading. However, this is not the case with perennials, where deadheading makes the plants bloom longer. Otherwise, many perennials will waste their energy producing seeds. After a main stem has finished flowering, cut it down to the base. Many plants will then send up a second smaller set of flower stems. With plants that have many flowers on one stem, pinch off individual flowers as they fade. With fall flowers, such as asters, you can cut off clusters of the faded flowers so that the plant can produce more. With plants that produce just one plume per stem, such as Shasta daisies, cut off each spent flower stem at ground level. With flowers that produce large numbers of tiny flowers, such as wood asters, shear off all spent blooms with shears or scissors after the main flush of flowers is spent. Dead flowers turn into seeds, and unless you are collecting seeds, don't allow your perennials to waste their energy producing them. This is Moya Andrews and today we focused on deadheading.
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Native Sidalcea
The genus Sidalcea is made up of species from western North America, and the best of the species is Sidalcea malviflora, so named because the flowers resemble mallows. The scientific name is actually a combination of two related plant forms, “sida” and “alcea,” because it resembled both the mallow and the hollyhock. The most used common names recently are miniature hollyhock and prairie mallow. Other common names in the past were checkers and checkerbloom because of the alternate placement of the flowers on the stem. The flowers are cup-shaped and grow on spikes and have five pink petals. The plant adapts well, though it prefers afternoon shade in warm climates, and tolerates most types of soil as long as it is well watered. More flowers are produced if the dead flower stems are cut back.
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Our Native Sidalcea
The scientific name Sidalcea is actually a combination of two related plant forms, “sida” and “alcea,” because it resembled both the mallow and the hollyhock. Common names are miniature hollyhock and prairie mallow. Other common names in the past were checkers and checkerbloom because of the alternate placement of the flowers on the stem.
South Africa