For the past month, Gail has been picking flowers every morning and filling Mason jars with colorful arrangements for visitors to take home for their enjoyment or to pass on to friends. I sold a nice arrangement yesterday and then watched Pay It Forward in action as the customer handed it to a new-to-the-farm young woman with two little kids. So nice!! Lately, the arrangements have included zinnias, Verbena bonariensis, ageratum, 'Lemon Queen' helianthus, vibrant orange-red tithonia and some peony leaves for filler. As we enter further into September it's always a guess as to when an abrupt weather change will bring a single night of frost and many of the annuals will be finished for the year. But as for now we are enjoying the colors and watching various bees fly into our display area and work the flowers in the very same arrangements. We all get along!
I have mentioned writer Mary Holland many times. She comes from down Hartland, Vermont way and she writes about all things nature. I love her writing and always learn something. Today she writes about the relationship between bumble bees and the flower Bottle Gentian. It's worth reading. Earlier this week when I was brush hogging a backwoods road on our Peacham property I noticed that the gentian was in bloom. The wild gentian is shorter than the hybrids but their blue color is so very beautiul I always stop the tractor and just gaze at the blue blossom. If you have a chance to get into the woods soon, keep an eye out for the gentian. We have blue and also white growing wild on our property.
https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2021/09/09/a-win-win-situation/
