The Flower Hour #28:  In The Ripples of the Water

First and always, thank you so much to the wonderful Terri for continuing this most enjoyable weekly prompt.  Nothing makes me happier than to see the beautiful floral images posted by everyone!  Please check out Terri’s post- as always, it’s very interesting, and her pictures are exquisite:

The Flower Hour #28: Flowers in Water

I apologize for my slow start this week, but here goes:

Where the water-lilies go
To and fro,
Rocking in the ripples of the water^†

Here in Ontario there are a lot of wild, flowering, aquatic plants and they all have one thing in common (besides, of course, water) — they’re all a happy “discovery” whenever we stumble across one. I’ve done my best to find a good variety.

↑  Swamp Smartweed (Persicaria amphibia)  ↓

↑  Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris)  ↓

↑  Flowering Rush (Butomus umbellatus)  ↓

Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)
This one’s a rebel; they don’t usually grow in the water.

This one always makes me smile because of its similarity to a medieval weapon — the chain-mace, or flail:  

↑  Little Bur-reed (Sparganium natans)  ↓

↑  Yellow Pond-Lily (Nuphar lutea)  ↓

↑  Nodding Beggarticks (Bidens cernua)  ↓

Swamp Dodder (Cuscuta gronovii)

Fragrant Water Lily (Nymphaea odorata)

American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea)

Only the water-lilies go
To and fro,
Dipping, dipping,
To the ripples of the water.^†

’Til next time, y’all…

^†A.A. Milne, opening lines of his poem “Water-Lilies” — page 1325, from “When We Were Very Young (1924) in his anthology “Complete Works Of A.A. Milne”.

Water-Lilies

Where the water-lilies go
To and fro,
Rocking in the ripples of the water,
Lazy on a leaf lies the Lake King’s daugher,
And the faint winds shake her.
Who will come and take her?
I will! I will!
Keep still! Keep still!
Sleeping on a leaf lies the Lake King’s daughter. . . .
Then the wind comes skipping
To the lilies on the water;
And the kind winds wake her.
Now who will take her?
With a laugh she is slipping
Through the lilies on the water.
Wait! Wait!
Too late, too late!
Only the water-lilies go
To and fro,
Dipping, dipping,
To the ripples of the water.