Daisies Don't Tell ...

   “If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for a moment.”

                         ~ Georgia O'Keeffe

                                    ~ 1887-1986

The popular 1950s catchphrase says “Daisies Don’t Tell,”  but this lone wild daisy along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail), Slatington, Pennsylvania speaks of spring with its sweet and simple beauty on a May afternoon.

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

Slatington, established in 1864, is the designated Blackboard Capital of America.

Background texture by Jai Johnson added for artistic effect.

The Town In The Window ...

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”

                    ~ Henri Matisse

                              ~ 1869-1954

 Beautiful flowers pop with color in the window of Fragrant Designs Florist, Belvidere, New Jersey, greeting the town reflected in the window on a rare warm February afternoon just after Valentine’s Day.

Belvidere, one of my very favorite places, is a charming Victorian town on the banks of the Pequest and Delaware Rivers.

Confederate Rose ...

“Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.”

                     ~ William Faulkner

                           ~ 1897-1962

     ~ Southern American author,

                  Nobel Prize Laureate

The grace, beauty and memory of The Old South dreamily bloom in this beautiful pink Confederate Rose on an October morning in the Lowcountry of Beaufort County, South Carolina.

The Legend Of The Confederate Rose

Once the Confederate Rose was pure white. During the Civil War, a soldier was fatally wounded in battle. He fell upon the rose as he lay dying. During the course of the two days he took to die, he bled more and more on the flower, till at last bloom was covered with his blood. When he died, the flower died with him. Thereafter, the Confederate Rose (or Cotton Rose), opens white, and over the course of the two days the bloom lasts, they turn gradually from white to pink to almost red, when the flower finally falls from the bush.

The Confederate Rose or hibiscus mutablis is actually a Chinese import. Brought into English gardens in the 1600’s, it is said to have gained favor in the South due to its ease of cultivation during the hard financial times after the Civil War. The hibiscus mutablis is a member of the hibiscus family which includes both the tropical hibiscus and the hardier Rose of Sharon. It is considered a large bush or a small multi-stemmed tree. The plant roots easily from cuttings and grows vigorously during the summer. Once established it is drought resistant. The blooms appear in the fall.