Jul 30 2008
Unexpected
Last fall, I picked up some bulbs at the nursery - just a little whim to add some color to my front yard. We don’t usually plant “non-functional” plants in our yard, favoring sustenance plants instead. I didn’t think the bulbs were going to do anything, and honestly I kind of forgot about them. Until now.
It was the perfect time to see them too. After a week of uncertainty and apprehension, I needed the unexpected beauty of these gladiolias to calm my nerves. And for that reason, they are very functional, maybe just not in the way I was expecting.
Hey, I hope the health thing is going to get resolved. I know its been a rough time since the tick bite. I’m thinking of you, friend.
What a lovely surprise! Sometimes the world sends you a beautiful thing for balance.
It’s comforting that you could find the beauty in this right now. I love that you always look for the positive, Lolly.
As if they knew it was the right time for them to show up for you… I hope they are the prelude to more beautiful things to come. Take care, Lolly.
So pretty! You’re in my thoughts! xo-S.
Very pretty! I hope that everything is okay and that you’re feeling better soon.
Beautiful! The last few months have been full of unexpected surprises in our garden (since we didn’t live here in the Spring last year and didn’t know what the previous owners had planted). It’s so nice to have a bright dash of color to greet you outside your house, I think.
Gladiolas are lovely flowers. But perhaps I’m biased by the fact that I played one, in a community theater musical version of Alice in Wonderland
I hope you are doing well.
Have you considered adding some flowers to attract beneficial insects? Being one for function, I understand not doing things because “they are pretty”, but there are flowers like Golden Margurite and Lavendar that smell nice and attract the bugs you DO want in your garden (and they look pretty too!).
By the way, I LOVE your site!
~Lisa
Gladioli are my mom’s favorite flower, and for that reason I love them too. The color on those is magnificent!
Great Color….those kind of surprises are always welcoming!!!:D
Don’t you love that; when prayers are answered in the most beautiful way that you NEVER expected. I’m sorry you’re having a rough time right now - my prayers are with you.
Beautiful! What a nice surprise.
I’m glad the gladiolas brought some delight to your day. They are beautiful! Love that cheery orange color.
They brought some color to my day too. Our garden is really hurting right now. After prolonged drought, we have had too much rain and the poor plants just don’t know what to do. So, they’ve turned all sickly yellow. Not a good look for a garden.
the flowers are beautiful! i hope your week gets better and things start looking up for you!
The gladiolas are lovely! Regardless of their nourishment function, sometimes a little colour and beauty are just what we need.
so pretty lolly!! such a great little inspiration for your day
i hope things brighten for you too!
Glads are one of my favorites, though I’ve never tried growing any! Thank you for sharing yours. A little beauty goes a long way when times are tough I think - hope your days get better soon.
Beauty, like truth, can have a very important function!
It wasn’t by accident or coincidence that you bought those bulbs last year… all things are planned, even though we don’t know it. I love those surprise miracles
What beautiful blooms - & how lovely that they arrived in your yard just when you needed them! I have glads in the flowerbed; however, they have recently been trampled by kids visiting the upstairs neighbors - so I don’t know if I’ll see any blooms. But the gladiolas & sunflowers bouquet i picked up at the farmer’s market on Saturday is providing me some much needed cheer this week.
Your appreciation of the beauty around you always makes reading your blog a joy. Best of luck, health, and peace!
Those are beautiful… Glad they were unexpectedly functional.
Those are beautiful! That is awesome that they cheered you up. I hope everything turns out ok.
Lolly, the word beautiful is not enough!! Beautifulllll!!!!!! Lovely color, beautiful, very pretty. Hope you are fine. Wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing,
Stunning!
The colours are pleasant!
I hope that things start to turn around for you soon. . . . . thinking of you and keeping you in my prayers
In one of the Anne of Green Gables books, Anne says that a person cannot live on bread alone. It’s true–our souls need as much nourishment as our bodies. Beauty does that, I think.
what a lovely surprise, isn’t it wonderful how plants can touch us
Sometimes something as beautiful as a vibrant flower is sustenance for the soul. Feeding a body doesn’t touch the soul, but feeding the soul can soothe the body.
I love a good mix of functional and beautiful plants, hell the functional is often the same as beautiful. Bulbs are eternally giving and those are stunning.
I bought some “unknown bulbs “at the local dollar store and put them in the ground last year-although I didn’t know what colors they’d be, I did THINK they were going to be glads, and I loved each of them–they’re too easy to rasie; even I couldn’t kill ‘em!
WOW! great colour! i had tiny tulips in that colour…
Love the color, hope your feeling better soon!!
Sorry to hear you’re feeling down this week.
This is our first spring and full summer in our house and the gardens have been one delightful surprise after another, from the hundreds of daffodils to the gladiolas that just finished blooming (some pics are on my Flickr page). I get a lot of contentment just from spending time in this garden and getting to know it. I’d like to add some flowers that attract butterflies.
Hope you’ll feel better soon
The flowers are, of course, beautiful. Very cheerful - I wish I had some (we’ve had summerly fog since friday. Grey, cold, wet fog)
Orange you glad you planted these glads?
Man, I’m SO FUNNY.
Absolutely stunning, Lolly!
Those are beautiful!
I wish you all the best.
Beautiful flowers!
Pretty pretty. Hope the days improve!
It’s great that you can get sustenance from these beautiful plants of the soulful, rather than physical kind. I do hope you get better soon.
If you are down to your last two coins, buy a loaf of bread with one and a lily with the other.
-most likely highly-bastardized Chinese proverb.