Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

In My Rain-Battered Garden — Nothing Is Forever, Not Even Those Poppies

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camellia blossom in rain puddle. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall
A camellia — one of the dozens that hit the pavement during the rain.

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Jerome, that famously abstemious fourth- and fifth-century scholar and saint, is said to have kept a human skull on his desk to remind him of his mortality.

Those of us with gardens don’t need a skull. We’ve got stuff dying on us every day.

wind poppy beaten down by rain. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall
The wind poppies — beaten down by rain today. Will they revive tomorrow with a little sun?

Last week I had pansies, wind poppies, camellias and star magnolias strutting their stuff in my sunny front yard. Today a heavy rain blasted through our canyon, and last week’s hopefuls were pounded back into the ground by the weight of all that water.

The elegant wind poppies  whose pictures I posted last week? They’re face down on a rock.

Photos by Barbara Falconer Newhall

 

White and purple pansy drooping in rain. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall
Pansies — last week so proud and starchy, this week disheveled.

 

Raindrops on green leaves. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall
I took these pictures in the rain. Good thing I didn’t wait for sun. Within hours, the rain and the raindrops plopped on these leaves were gone. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall

 

Blue flower, green leaves, rain drops. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall
I mucked around in the soil beneath this blue beauty, but I couldn’t find the Annie’s Annuals ID stick. Anybody know what this is? Don’t be fooled by the strawberry leaves. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall

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  1. More notes from Jillian:
    The wind poppies will probably reseed. It’s time for clarkia and baby blue eyes and tidy tips and more, especially clarkia, which blooms for a long time. Hope your blue-eyed grass is flowering!
    I’ll post some pics at http://www.garden-artisan.com/ — of a meadow I planted in Livermore that is full of blooming flowers including wind poppies which are still going.

  2. Jillian says the pretty, bell-shaped flower is Clarkia, aka Farewell to Spring. Some of the flowers popped back up, but two glorious Wind Poppies are goners.