Thursday, June 6, 2013

JUNE IS BUSTIN' OUT ALL OVER

     



                                                                    JUNE

                                                            The day is warm
                                                            and a breeze is blowing,
                                                            the sky is blue
                                                            and its eye is glowing,
                                                            and everything’s new
                                                            and green and growing . . .

                                                            My shoes are off
                                                            and my socks are showing . . .
                                                           
                                                            My socks are off . . .

                                                            Do you know how I’m going?

                                                                                    BAREFOOT!

-          Aileen Fisher

Yes, as the song from Carousel goes June is indeed bustin’ out all over. It’s a month of exuberance with everything green and growing, a month of weddings – although truth to tell it’s been a long time since I actually went to a June wedding. School is out now and it’s a month of graduation open houses,  picnics, barbecues with swimming pools opening and Father’s Day, too. The first day of summer is June 21st, although where I live I think June 1st is the beginning of summer but it may be different farther north and much before that farther south. June also brings roses.


Harrison Yellow Antique Rose




 A sepal, petal, and a thorn
 Upon a common summer’s morn –
 A flask of Dew – A Bee or two –
 A Breeze – a caper in the trees –
 And I’m a Rose!

-          Emily Dickinson




          
Roses have been around for thousands of years and from earliest times it symbolized love and passion. In Ancient Crete, roses were being painted on castle walls in 1600 B.C. and in Egypt roses were portrayed on tombs. The Persians called it gul which meant  flower, close to the word ghul  meaning spirit. The Greeks associated it with the blood of Aphrodite’s beloved Adonis, and the Greek poetess, Sappho called it “The Queen of Flowers.” If the Greeks might have been the first to grow them in gardens, it was the Romans who loved them so much they spread the petals on their floors and in their beds. The name for rose comes from the Latin word, Rosa meaning red. They used them for food, medicines, perfumes and wine. Eventually the image of feasts and orgies using rose petals, became transfigured to an emblem of Christian mystical and spiritual love connected with the Virgin Mary, with Christ’s blood, and with the crown of  thorns.


John Cabot Rose with the clematis Ernest Markam,
It was the Romans who first  took roses to Great Britain, where they fell from favor once the Roman Empire fell. But a few of the hardier roses survived like The Apothecary rose ( Rosa gallica the Latin name) and now roses are much loved there. From what I’ve observed from my visits to English gardens, they seem to thrive in English weather.

Because I love roses and quite likely have close to seventy roses and probably more – I don’t have time to count them - it was reasonable to feature roses in my first mystery, The Blue Rose, especially since my Catherine Jewell Mystery series is on a monthly timeline starting in June when roses are at their most beautiful.


Although roses come in a huge variety of colors; reds, whites, yellows, pinks and so on, there has never been a true blue rose propagated although people have worked on it. There are roses out there with blue in the name like one of my favorites, 'Outta the Blue' but it’s more of a deep rose lavender color. And that is the reason for the murder in my book. Someone propagated the first true blue rose, and  there is doubt as to if he was the real propagator. Thus someone ends up dead because of a blue rose.

A little aside here. How many mothers would ask their sons to pose as a dead body? I did and he did, but without the garden fork in his back. My granddaughter, who designed the cover added the garden fork and blood.

What is your favorite flower?


What particular thing you love have you included in a book or story?

16 comments:

  1. I tend to prefer wild flowers to domesticated ones, but I have had flower gardens in the past. Bearded irises are beautiful and easy to propagate. Roses take a lot of work, but I favor the more traditional tea roses, like Lincoln. Snow drops let me know winter will soon be over and the smell of hyacinths used to fill my house.

    ~ Jim

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  2. Thank you for the pictures and the fascinating mini history of roses. What a wonderful garden you have.
    I am partial to peonies and gardenias - love the scent - but in my own tiny garden the Stella D'Oro lilies are the Most Valuable Players - they come back every year and stand up to the heat.

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  3. I used to love daffodils, Gloria, but now that I know how poisonous they are, I'm may have to reassess. My favorite that I've included in fiction? The beach, of course.

    Thanks for the books. Since I'm at the beach now, I will have great reads!

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  4. I love wildflowers, too, Jim. I look with anticipation on my morning walks in the woods each spring for new wild flowers blooming. Because I'm over extended, I don't pay as much attention to my roses as you'd imagine. I haven't fed them in quite a few years and only trim off dead branches here and there. Some aren't as hardy, but I have ones - especially the old antique varieties - that have lived for years. Irises are lovely, but I have a bit of a problem with iris borers with them. Still, I do love to see them blooming each June.

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  5. For anyone wanting a large variety of blooms, especially in July, and a plant that is one of the most hardy out there, it is daylilies. I can't resist them for the varieties and colors they come in. Also, nothing much bothers them; insects, slugs, lack of rain, too much rain or groundhogs and other critters. You can also plant them in pots, Shari, and they'll even winter over here in the NE Ohio.

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  6. E.B. they're only poisonous if you decide to munch on them or their bulbs. I have a feeling they don't taste all that good, anyway. It's one of the reasons they spread so well and survive. Chipmunks and squirrels somehow know they're nothing they should eat. They certainly brighten up the landscape early in spring. I love them.

    I hope you enjoy the books. I'm glad they got there in time.

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  7. Beautiful pictures, Gloria. I love pink and purple sweet peas.

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  8. Hi Mom, Foxglove, red columbine, and self help are some of my favorite flowers and you posted foxglove in your picture today! Oregon is covered with Foxglove and it is so beautiful to see it growing all over the state so wildly. Foxglove is a source of digitalis which is used to treat some heart conditions. No wonder I am attracted to it, being the cardiac nurse that I am. :)
    I have many favorite flowers. I am excited to explore the wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest soon!











    Red Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) native--Wildwood, Oregon.
































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  9. I confess that roses are not my favorites, for me to grow anyway. I love to see them in other people's gardens. Daffodils and daisies are tied for my two favorites and, since they bloom at different times, I can love both equally.

    Are these pictures all of your own flowers? They're gorgeous pix!

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  10. Beautiful photos of your garden, Gloria.

    I love roses because they remind me of my mother. We moved many times when I was growing up and she planted a rose garden at every house. Double Delight is one of my favorites because of its fragrance.

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  11. Paula, I love sweet peas, too. I planted mine a little late this year, but they still should come up.

    Mary, I love all those flowers, too. Foxglove is also a poisonous plant often used in mysteries to murder people.

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  12. Kaye, I love daffodils in the spring and also Shasta daisies in late June or July. But the ox-eye daisies that I use for flower arrangements, grow rampantly everywhere and as much as I like them they do become quite invasive so they're one of the flowers I treat like weeds just like buttercups. Even the ponies won't eat them.

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  13. Kara, I don't remember my mother having any roses, but I know she had irises, four o'clocks and blue morning glories climbing over the back porch of our house. I had Double Delight once, but it didn't make it. There are some exquisitely smelling roses, but just as many with little or no scent.

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  14. I suppose it's a reflection of a sophomoric sense of humor to admit that the line that follows "June is bustin' out all over" in my obviously adolescent mind is "June better get a bigger bra."

    I love the pictures of your gardens! We've had a very wet spring and everything (weeds included) are growing like crazy. I don't have that many roses, but the little pink fairy rose bushes are covered with buds.

    June 21 is the summer solstice, which is the official start to summer.

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  15. Thank you for my laugh of the day, KM. We had a rather wet spring, too. I only have one fairy rose, and it's not blooming yet. Yes, I know when the official start of summer is, but I choose to ignore that fact. It's summer here, because I say it is. :-)

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