There was one four-sided pot left to work on. This time I decided to try to make some recognizable flowers, natives or course. Well, mostly natives. I wanted to show flowers that I love and that are growing on Dreamfarm Road. The first 3 choices were obvious, poppies, daisys and foxglove. The CA poppy, or Escholzia californica is the CA state flower and has been almost weed-like since I scattered my first packet of wild flower mix in the newly landscaped lower yard. They are infrequent uphill from the house but ubiquitous below. You couldn’t guess how many people have told me it’s illegal to pick them…or pull them out by the roots! You have got to be kidding. They would overpower every other plant on the property. Thankfully they are beautiful when they bloom and they bloom A LOT in west Marin.
The second obvious pick was foxglove. There are many species. Ours were here before we were and are probably Digitalis purpurea . They are all over the property, in walk-ways, the edible flower beds and spreading all the time. We pull them when in the way, but again…pretty flowers almost all the time.
The third choice had to be daisies. Ours came with the aforementioned wildflower mix and have been voracious. I don’t really love them on Dreamfarm road; they get really tall and leggy. However, the daisy has been a sentimental favorite of mine since the 70’s. My grandmothers ashes were scattered in her precious daisies in Michigan. By Michigan I mean the property on Lake Bellaire we call Harmony Hall of which I am a 1/6th owner. My grandmother loved her daisies and it was one of the first plants I could identify…probably right behind grass ;).
So three choices were easy and the 4th came quickly because we had just had the second flowering of a native bulb I planted near the hot tub. I did not write down the name of this bulb, but I did take a photograph that I will try and recover from the archives.
With all four side of the pot decided I penciled a rough free hand sketch on each side. I started piecing out the daisies right after finishing the patio table tiles. How hard could this be. Well it sat for many months. Then about once every few months I’d make a little progress. Piece out the stems, glue parts in, think about the background. I do have to be in the correct state of mind to create art….
Finally with the daisy side done I gained some real momentum. I started the poppies with some ideas the web and still worked a little at a time, but the time between parts was shortened and I sailed right thru the digitalis,,,so to speak. By this time I had not actually seen this native bulb in flower for a year or two. This coincided with the realization that the tanoak supporting the Buddhacat was rotting. The BC quickly had to be relocated and we are now scrambling to figure out how to support the Rosa banksii. I needed to immortalize the BC…that had been my blog cover photo for the first 5 years! Side four was decided.
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