Where did the summer go? I realize that school has started and Labor Day is gone, but I’m just not ready for the fall season.
At least the flowers of summer are still with us. The big blue morning glories are especially beautiful this year. Since we took out the cross fence when we put the new driveway in, we didn’t have many morning glories last year. I missed them.
This year I bought two trellises, one for the pole out front, and one for the end of the new fence closest to the street. The one by the pole didn’t do so well. Makes me wonder if morning glories can be mad at Sprint too. The white trellis by the fence is covered. At regular intervals I have to go out and wind some stems back around the trellis. They look like they’re ready to wrap right around the Jeep when we pull in or out of the driveway.
Bill’s windmill is being threatened by the ones I planted in a bucket underneath it so he couldn’t get them with the weed-whacker. Shortly after I planted the seeds I discovered the squirrels were planting the peanuts we thought we were feeding them in the morning glory bucket. Bill put a screen over the top so the plants could get out, but the squirrels couldn’t get in.
The morning glories climbed right up the base of the windmill and through a tiny hole at the top. Now they keep trying to choke the blades on the windmill. I go out daily, pull them back and wrap them back down the base. If the windmill is stopped I’m sure the morning glories will get whacked.
Some volunteers came up by the base of the tree I tried to get them to grow around last year. They won’t climb the tree, but they look so pretty on the ground. Of course you have to look quickly. They disappear on lawn mowing day.
I had some extra seeds, so I planted them in the flower boxes out front. I thought if they could climb up, they could also fall down the wall that forms the terrace. Wrong. They spread out through the ivy. Now the morning glories and the ivy spend happy hours trying to choke each other out. But, the big white-throated blue flowers look lovely among the green ivy leaves.
The most amazing blue glory display is on the right side of the house. A few years ago I decided it would be neat if morning glories would climb up the old television antenna. I tied a medium sized dirt filled flower pot about two feet up the antenna and dutifully planted the seeds. Bill watered them when he remembered, but they didn’t flourish. They seldom got higher than the second floor and they didn’t bloom much.
This year I didn’t bother to plant new seeds there. Bill thought I did, so he watered as usual. I was the only one surprised when he said the plants there were growing. Not only did they grow in the flower pot, but also on the ground under the antenna.
Those on the ground get mowed off regularly, but the ones in the pot have proven to be real climbers. They are all the way above the eaves and still climbing and blooming in beautiful blue glory. They deserve the name Heavenly Blue Morning Glories.
We also had great luck with gladiolas this year. At the height of the season they just marched right up the driveway in absolutely magical colors. Once they start blooming they just go on and on. When the wind or rain finally bends them over, I cut them off and put them inside in a vase. One glad makes a bouquet by itself in a bud vase.
I made a slight mistake when we planted all those bulbs. It never occurred to me to kill the grass first. Why kill grass where it never grew before. Well it grew in abundance this year. Bill was able to restrain himself from mowing the grass along the flower strip, but something has to be done before next spring. It just wouldn’t be fair to interfere with a man’s lawn two years in a row.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This column was first published in the Greenville Advocate Sept. 21, 2005.
