Singular Fleetation

ProfessorRoush was nonchalantly driving through Manhattan Thursday when, near downtown, I passed this tremendous, floriferous display of Hibiscus on a street corner.   My first thought was "Oh, how beautiful!"   My second was "Oh how unusual!"  And my third thought was "There's a message here that I've got to blog about." 

I was instantly captivated by the bravery of the unknown designer; instead of landscaping the corner for four-season structure and color with, for example, a common and unexciting planting of purple barberry, gold-tipped or blue-hued evergreens, and glaring yellow 'Stella de Oro' daylilies, some audacious landscaper or gardener had chosen to make this corner eye-catching for only a brief seasonal moment, for the relatively brief bloom period of this magnificent blushing Hibiscus.   Indeed, given the 95ºF heat and searing sun of this mid-July day, this could conceivably have been the peak hour of this grouping in the entire year, the blooms wilted beyond recovery shortly thereafter.  

These cheery Hibiscus were blatantly placed to flirt with the passing traffic, the horticultural equivalent of sticking a shapely, sheer-stockinged leg out to catch the driver's eye, sultry Sirens luring unwary road warriors off the pavement.  And I was not immune to their allure, braking to grab an iPhone photo, and then circling the block for another, and yet another, risking a collision and not caring, lost in wonderment.

Unusual.  Singular. Fleeting. Flirting.  I hereby dub this and similar displays to be "Fleetations";  fleeting flirtations intended to enthrall passing foot and automobile traffic.   "Fleetation," defined as "short-lived coquetry intended to capture attention." And there it is, my legacy for the world, a new English term perfectly fitting the moment and this display. "Fleetation".

My point is this:  instead of a conventional and ultimately unremarkable landscaping choice, the bold visionary responsible here chose to trade mediocrity and longevity for exceptionality and temporality; to replace apathy and artlessness with passion and perfection.  By doing so, the artist is rebelling against "modern" landscape norms and, why not?  The real purpose of space decoration is to prompt joy, invoke happiness, and display beauty, and all those goals were clearly accomplished here.   It may not be "four-season interest", but it did serve its purpose and it both drew my attention and elicited my admiration.  I tip my hat to thee, unknown genius, and I vow to explore the unique and unorthodox in my own garden; to create a world there more pleasing to me and less encumbered by what others think it should be.

Photographic Evidence

ProfessorRoush is absolutely certain, 100% positively sure, that other avid amateur photographers/ gardeners/ astronomers/ BIRDERS have looked at the countless advertisements for those inexpensive telephoto lenses that can be attached to your phones to take perfect pictures of distant objects and wondered "do they really work?"  I'm a little eccentric, yes, but I am fully aware that I'm not uniquely unhinged and that I'm in good company in all my hobby interests.  Besides, you know as well as I do that if you pause a second at a photo of a bird on, say, Facebook, the social site will then follow up with an ad for a telephoto lens to tempt you, and if you pause again, then God Help You;  you'll be bombarded with similar ads for weeks.

My recent trip to the Quivera National Wildlife Refuge awakened a desire to have a real telephoto lens on a digital camera, to be able in a few months to reach out and photograph Sandhill cranes from across the salt marshes, but I'm just too cheap to spend multiple thousands of dollars right away on a lens for my Nikon.  So, I got to thinking about these little iPhone lenses and soon purchased one:  this one.   The $72 package contained the lens, iPhone mount, lens cap, and a little light tripod.

In due time, it came in and I began exploring what it can do.  The actual 30X lens is heavy and feels well-made, and the mount lets you switch from vertical to horizontal format without detaching the camera.  Surprisingly, if you know a little photography and have a good tripod, the pictures from this thing are not half-bad.  There is a bit of a learning curve, and it is imperative that your iPhone camera is set at 2X or you get a "vignette" photo, but the images are passable for the cost. 

This house finch photo was taken during my learning phase last weekend through the closed kitchen window and I took all the other  photos on the page with the camera and phone on a tripod out the window within a 5 minute timespan yesterday evening.  I was excited when the red-bellied woodpecker made an appearance.  The photo below, taken without the lens through the window and with the iPhone camera set at "1X" gives you an idea of the power of the lens.   I've circled the distant garden bench in red and the near feeder and red rose ('Hope for Humanity") in white.  The yellow thistle feeder is the small one to the right of the red rose.

So, the APEXEL lens is a decent tool and a cheap tool at that, and I got what I hoped for and expected;  a chance to capture reasonable photos of some distant wildlife up close and personal.   I'm satisfied, yes, but I also now know, with certainty, absolutely 100% certainty, that I'll use this lens this fall, be mildly satisfied and yet mildly dissatisfied, and likely, by spring, I'll be the owner of a massive and expensive telephoto lens for my Nikon D3300 digital camera.  

Maybe, however, I'll try to grab a few photos of the next full moon first.  This garden bench is about the same apparent width at that distance.

Lily Daze

These are the days when ProfessorRoush stumbles out each morning and is dazzled by the sight of his tall, statuesque Oriental and Orientpet lilies, lured to them around the corner of the garage by their strong fragrance carried on the morning breeze.  My daily first chore of letting Bella out and making sure she attends to her business away from the house is much more pleasant while the lilies are in bloom.

The Orientpets and Orientals and Trumpet lilies bloom with the daylilies here, temporarily stealing the show from their more diminutive cousins, the former groups taller, larger, more fragrant, and simply more voluptuous than the latter.  One can look into these bountiful blossoms and lose oneself in their perfection as they open.  Lost too, you can become, if you breathe in that heavy perfume too deeply; it is overwhelming up close and cloying and some say almost sickening.  I myself enjoy the fragrance of Oriental lilies and Orientpets outside where it is diluted by flowing air, but one blossom inside a room can be too much for me.

I think of all these lilies pictured here as Orientpet lilies, but, in fact they're not.  'Yellow Dream', prevalent in the picture below, is just a tall and tough Oriental lily, while 'Purple Prince', pictured above, is a bonafide Orientpet cross.  The pure white lily here is perhaps an Oriental whose name I've lost, but I also have some "Lily Regale Album', a mostly white Chinese Trumpet lily with a very light yellow throat.  

'Yellow Dream'

As I view these lilies, I feel only sorrow for the unimaginative breeders who chose the name "Orientpet" for these crosses between Oriental and Chinese Trumpet lilies.   Viewing them, one wants a better name, more memorable, more intense.  Offhand, however, I can't do any better.  "Marvelous Lilies",  "Wondrous Lilies," Astounding Lilies" and just plain "Gosh Wow Lilies" are the best I could think of.

They're here and they're gone, fabulous flowers fading, browning and dropping and then the dark green foliage become merely a backdrop for the daylilies that outlast them.  Thankfully, they're nearly trouble free here in Kansas, untouched by disease, left alone by rabbits and beetles, and viewed as a moderate delicacy only by brave deer.   In my front yard, near the house, they're safe, but in the far beds of my yard the buds are eaten before they bloom.

What I need more of, perhaps, are 'Kaveri', which seems to be one of the least troublesome of all the bulbs I grow.  I'm still not crazy about the brash colors of this Asiatic and Oriental lily cross, but it has proliferated on its own and maintains a presence in my backyard even in the shade of a volunteer Redbud.  I'll give the glaring red-orange-yellow a pass, lighting up the shade as it does, but it still lacks the fragrance and elegance of Orientals and some "Gosh Wow" Orientpets.

Maybe, just maybe, I also should be less picky and more thankful for what survives the Kansas climate. 

  

Addendum:   And just this morning, fully opening after a small rain shower, the luscious watermelon pink of Orientpet 'Robina'.  The photo doesn't do this plate-sized bloom enough justice!

Popillia Repopulation

'Marie Bugnet' with Japanese Beetle

Once again the annual plague has returned, defiling, defecating and fornicating in ProfessorRoush's garden; the Popillia japonica, better known as Japanese Beetles, are back along with the summer heat.  This time, however, I am ready for the hell-borne horde.

I saw my first, a lone male, just 6 days ago, a single beetle on 'Blanc Double de Coubert', and easily hand-picked from the bush.   I carefully placed that advance scout lovingly onto a nearby stone and then stomped it to oblivion.  I've been scouting, watching and waiting, and here it was at last, the waiting over, the battle enjoined.  This year I'm also cheating early, because the bushes that await them are, I hope, poisoned platforms for them, luring them into the embrace of waiting, long-acting pyrethrins that promised 3 months of protection on its label.  I sprayed them 2 weeks ago in hopes of eliminating the first hatchlings.

'Lambert Closse' with Japanese Beetle

Yesterday, despite my hope for a low enemy turnout, I noticed the full army had arrived and, in twos and threes and fours, were staging orgies in the best rose blooms available all over the garden.  I had vowed to trust completely in the residual action of a pesticide that promised death of and is specifically labeled for Japanese Beetles, but when I found them still alive and copulating, on pure, virginal 'Marie Bugnet' and perfectly pink 'Lambert Closse', I abandoned my resolve and I confess that I resprayed the most prolifically-blooming roses, bolstering their protection and acutely killing the indecent squatters.  

'Lambert Closse' 06/26/2025, pre-beetle

I've already become quite fond of 'Lambert Closse', you see.  In her first nearly mature summer, she has, so far, bloomed continually, keeping those clear pink flowers on display (yes, I'm aware the namesake of this rose was a famous male Canadian explorer, but the bloom is female to its core and it even forms hips after it blooms).   She's a lanky rose, a tall, awkward lass, with several massive canes sprawling in all directions, but she is beautiful nonetheless and I can overlook her poor posture as long as she blooms and stays healthy.  And I refuse to allow a bunch of bugs to make her their simultaneous coital bed, toilet and food pantry.

Pray with me, please, that Japanese Beetles don't evolve and begin to include daylilies in their diets.  No matter their sins, no gardener deserves such horror.