A beautiful and sad event unfolded in my garden this evening. I've admired the Liriodendron tulipifera flower from afar since we lived in Arkansas. The tree grew in the deep woods with it's light green foliage, unusual shaped leaves, and it's flowers which were always hidden from view. I knew the flowers were there as I had studied horticulture for years. Colored with the same fresh green of the leaves and a line of ripe melon color in the center, the flowers were always unobtainable, since they were high in the tree and hidden from view by a thick canopy of leaves.
This evening I noticed my small sapling had put on a flower and I wanted to record it with my camera and thought to share the illusive beauty of the flower with you here. I obtained a step stool from the garage, but it wasn't tall enough. So I hurried down to the barn before the light of day was gone to fetch a ladder in hopes of reaching high enough to see the flower.
Still the ladder was a bit too low, but I bent the branch down to show the flower with my left hand and with the right I held the camera. I took a photo but thought the light wasn't quite right so I bent the branch a little further down and took a few more photos. I saw a small bug had nestled itself in the petals in a cocooned and restful sleep for the night.
All at once the branch that held the flower gave way and I knew I had bent the branch too far. A great sadness overtook me at my careless and selfish desire to obtain the beauty of nature for myself with my camera. I brought the branch inside to take a few more photos. And yet as I review the photos here, I see the best one was the first I took from the ladder in the tree.
Sunning flower. Sorry the branch broke. Glad you are ok .. up on ladders????
ReplyDeleteThe tree will forgive you; the flower was a gift to us all. Thanks, Joan t
Hi Joan, thanks, I've got to take the bug outside now and let him go. It truly is a beautiful flower. I guess to immortalize it, I might have the photo enlarged onto canvas. I've done that with other photos and they look quite nice that way. I get it done at Kinkos.
ReplyDeleteI'm my own worst enemy. I'm really careful when I get up on the ladders and I never do it when I'm alone, in case I fall and no one knows I'm lying pitifully on the ground.
I'm sorry the branch broke. I hate when things like that happen. You just wish you could turn back time. It is a stunning flower. Might the tree put out another one? I noticed you are making notecards from your photos. That first one would be a really beautiful card - with the bug in the flower.
ReplyDeleteI love tulip trees, and always wanted to grow one here. We haven't really got room now as every conceivable bit of space has several trees of many kinds on it. That is a beautiful photo of the flower and the little bug. Sorry that you had the misfortune to break the branch, but..., I must say I read your most excellent account (you write very well) with my anxiety levels rising as I pictured impending disaster to your dear self as, Icarus like, you plunged to the ground from your quest to fly too close to the sun. (OK, you used a ladder, not home made wings with feathers and bees wax and Icarus plunged into the sea, but the literary allusion seemed poetic!). So your sadness at the breaking of the branch was mixed with my relief that it was not you that was broken! And it was nice of you to return the bug to the wider world. Believe it or not, I rescue fallen and exhausted bumble bees by placing them on suitable flowers, and generally try and put flies that get trapped inside our place, out into the world again where they can fly free as nature intended (although I have been known to loose my temper and swat them if they don't co-operate within reasonable time!).
ReplyDeleteTo Happy Times, Peter
I love tulip trees, and always wanted to grow one here. We haven't really got room now as every conceivable bit of space has several trees of many kinds on it. That is a beautiful photo of the flower and the little bug. Sorry that you had the misfortune to break the branch, but..., I must say I read your most excellent account (you write very well) with my anxiety levels rising as I pictured impending disaster to your dear self as, Icarus like, you plunged to the ground from your quest to fly too close to the sun. (OK, you used a ladder, not home made wings with feathers and bees wax and Icarus plunged into the sea, but the literary allusion seemed poetic!). So your sadness at the breaking of the branch was mixed with my relief that it was not you that was broken! And it was nice of you to return the bug to the wider world. Believe it or not, I rescue fallen and exhausted bumble bees by placing them on suitable flowers, and generally try and put flies that get trapped inside our place, out into the world again where they can fly free as nature intended (although I have been known to loose my temper and swat them if they don't co-operate within reasonable time!).
ReplyDeleteTo Happy Times, Peter
Thanks Barbara, I would like to use that one for sure. The tree puts them on sporadically. I just hated to break any branch off of it as it has so few. The tree actually is struggling in it's location. After I had it planted a few months I read it doesn't like wind and it gets really windy where it is, but today I read it likes acid soil and I know I have alkaline, so I am going to give it some TLC to help it along. They truly are beautiful trees. Look at the leaf in the next to last photo where it looks like the end is cut off, that is the way the leaves grow, they are really unusual. Yes, if only to turn back time, oh well.
ReplyDeleteHi Peter, oh how much fun to be reminded of Greek mythology, which has been rising it's head recently for me on other occasions. Thanks about the writing. I had my husband read this before I posted and he was saying I need to be paid for my writing; it sure would help pay the bills. Newspapers are going out of business, but online newspapers are beginning, perhaps I'll think along those or magazine articles. I've often thought of writing a book, mostly children's books though. I too carry the bugs outside, the other night I brought a lady bug out which flew to the computer screen, I suppose I brought it in on my sleeve; spiders I encourage to climb onto the end of the broom which I carry out, then tap the handle and they fall off and walk away. As I was mentioning to Barbara above, I hated to loose even one branch of the tree as it has so few in relation to the time it has grown there. But now I'm thinking I need to help it along a little more which I have neglected. So as it turns out, perhaps this little event was meant to be, after all.
I am happy you did not fall!
ReplyDeleteStay off those ladders. We want to keep you around.
It’s all Greek! Icarus (reference Peter) is entirely correctly inserted into your amazing story. I think you are experiencing moments of epiphany with this and your last entry, epiphany from the Greek meaning to show; epiphaneia - appearing and phainein to show. It must be the new moon. I try and work with the moon phases like the gardeners do, I recon pot making is very similar to growing, after all its all done in the mud. But one thing is for sure, things happen when the moon is new. Earths water is drawn towards the moon, today we are waxing, 3% of full, so the earth is exhaling and releasing. Energy is drawn to the uppermost part of the plant (no wonder you were driven up the ladder it was the energy that attracted you). So to pluck (all be it accidentally) a flower from the top of the tree yesterday was most auspicious, it was gift and it was just for you.
ReplyDeleteHi Meredith, I am really careful when I go up on ladders, but is it is so nice and it's also a warm and fuzzy feeling to know you want to keep me around. Thanks so much.
ReplyDeleteMy new modem is the pitts, it disconnects me, looses my posts and is ever so slow. I may have to farm it out to the recycle bin.
ReplyDeleteHi Kitty, I used to follow astrology when I was in college many moons ago and now I think this is coming full circle as these experiences often do. I loved Greek and Roman mythology and they are resurfacing more and more lately. For years now I said and felt that fantasy and myths were something to discount, but now I see they are a reflection of how our lives actually are in the present day. I was definitely drawn inexplicably to the top of the tree to see and record the flower. I must get back to my artist statement one of thes days; there is a statment about the ocean tossing me to and fro. I feel the pendulum swinging me on my passage through the universe and the intricacies of life's forces. Thanks so much for your insightful post.
ReplyDeleteBummer about the flower and fall - Hope you're okay. This can only mean good things for future years though, right???
ReplyDeletehi linda, is that the same as tulip poplar here in kentucky?
ReplyDeleteHi Cynthia, I didn't fall, I only broke the branch while standing on the ladder. But yes, I think it means only good things to come.
ReplyDeleteHi Jim, yes the tulip popular is the same tree. Here they are landscape plants, but in the southeast they are native trees.
Gotcha - it really is a most beautiful flower!
ReplyDelete