Enchanting Essex

Tag: The Flower Hour

  • The Flower Hour #48: STUViewing In Essex County

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    STUViewing In Essex County The woods awake in April showers,To host a quirky hour of flowers.First Springbeauty wakes up bright,To carpet forest floors in white.Then nodding Trillium takes the cue,With triple petals, clean and true. But look! A strange, inverted sight:An “Upsidasy”—blooming, right?She grew askew, head to the dirt,A cheeky, woodland floral flirt!Thank goodness Valerian…

  • The Flower Hour #47: The Sunflowers

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    Fun Fact: Vincent van Gogh is probably most well-known for his paintings of sunflowers. Indeed, they were a “lure” of sorts, for his good friend Paul Gauguin. When Van Gogh rented his famous “Yellow House” in Arles, France, in 1888, he desperately wanted to create a communal artist colony. To that end, he invited the…

  • The Flower Hour #46: PQR – One of Each

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    A single little wildflower standing bright and free,Is all the floral beauty our Flower Hour needs from me! Fun Fact:  Because it blooms early in the spring, it is a critical food source for butterflies, when many other plants are still dormant, specifically Swallowtail Butterflies. Fun Fact:  Legend says Queen Anne pricked her finger with…

  • The Flower Hour #45: Absolutely no advice whatsoever from the Wild Sunflowers of Essex County!

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    Here in Essex County we have three varieties of wild sunflowers: Woodland or Rough Sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus): Sunchoke or Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus): False Sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides): At this time of year there are glorious, orangish-yellow pops of colour seemingly everywhere – roadsides, meadows, woodlands — you simply cannot escape their vibrant beauty (and why…

  • The Flower Hour #44 M, N, O — Quaint Quadrilles

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    Wild and Free Soft grass bends beneath our feet.Milkweed smells so cool and sweet.Thistles form like little drums.Bees fly past with gentle hums. Trees stretch high to catch the sun.Silver brooks gurgle and run.Asters wear their sapphire ring.Bumblebees begin to sing. Petals brush our wandering knees.Oxeyes flutter in the breeze.We are wild and we are…

  • The Flower Hour #43:  Random August Amble

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    My Green In-Between Beyond my pillow and my desk,Lies something grand and picturesque!A secret lane where bees carouse,And nodding blossoms gently drowse. I snap a picture of a bee,Chat with any neighbours I see.No longer strangers passing by,We watch the busy Hoverfly. Away from chores and indoor care,We weave our stories through the air,A little…

  • The Flower Hour #42:  Six Steps Through the Alphabet Garden

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    A lens, a challenge, a creative quest,To find the blooms the alphabet blessed.Right in the middle, where letters align,Six pretty frames of botanical design. The journey began with the letters of J,Where wild Joe-Pye Weed was swaying away;Beside it, the Japanese Peony grows,With layers of silk in a stunning repose. An herbaceous perennial of the…

  • The Flower Hour #41:  Hardly a Planter to be Found

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    Welcome to the Dead Plants Society.† Full disclosure:  I have two “black thumbs” — I’ve managed (usually quite rapidly) to kill the plants in any and every planter we’ve ever had.  Forty-two years’ worth!!!  Ergo, there weren’t many pictures to choose from but yes, Terri, I do dare! This is a scan of a photograph…

  • The Flower Hour #40:  GHI — A Triple Trio Gone Wild!

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    Wildflowers are the stuff of my heart.* Where wildflowers bloom, so does hope.1 Thanks to Terri for another Flower Hour challenge, her weekly reminder to be sure to notice the flowers along the way (borrowing from the great Walter Hagen2).  Please take a few minutes to read Terri’s lovely post and see her purely amazing…

  • The Flower Hour #39:  Orange you glad?

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    Orange is the happiest color. [Frank Sinatra] Knock, knock.“Who’s there?”“Orange.”“Orange who?”“Orange you glad Terri picked this challenge?” [Sorry! Couldn’t resist.  Favourite childhood joke, bar none.] Thanks to Terri for our weekly glimpse at floral beauty – quite the loveliest weekly challenge of all, IMHO.  Please take a moment to view Terri’s post and admire her…

  • The Zing of Zinnias

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    ‘Though many consider them boring and ho-hum, nothing makes my heart zing more than the sight of the first Zinnia blossoms of the summer.  I tried to capture the joy of these oh-so-vibrant flowers and their oft-overlooked charm. The Zing of Zinnias Some call them simple, stiff and plain,But they are magic in our lane.Bright…

  • The Flower Hour #38: DEF – initely a fun challenge!

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    Daisy:  Becky Shasta Daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum) Echinacea:  Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) Foxglove:  Foxglove (Digitalis) Thanks to Terri for another enjoyable weekly floral challenge.  I’ll bet there’ll be lots of Echinacea this week!  Please take a moment to visit Terri’s site and enjoy the three beautiful pictures she’s featuring today:   The Flower Hour #38:…

  • The Flower Hour #37: Patriotic Florals

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    Thanks to Terri for this sweet and timely prompt. Please visit her site to see her lovely take on Patriotic Florals: The Flower Hour #37: Patriotic Florals ‘Til next time, y’all…

  • Wildflower Wednesdays – #1 Daisies

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    Terri Webster Schrandt recently launched The Flower Hour photo challenge on October 7, 2025, after it was discovered that Cee Neuner closed her blog permanently.  Cee Neuner was the originator of Flower of the Day (FOTD) photo challenge and posted the challenge all 7 days of the week. After our beloved friend and amazing photographer…

  • The Flower Hour #32 – Dogwood Delight

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    The Flower Hour #32: Going to the Dog-Woods This week’s prompt makes me positively euphoric — it is one of only a very few (so far?) when I have actually had some images of Terri’s chosen flower.  I’d have shared a picture of me doing my happy dance but I’d have surely frightened everyone away! Here…

  • Project 365 – #24

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    ‘Til next time, y’all…

  • Project 365 – #21

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    I’ve been encouraged to link my flower posts so, fingers crossed, here goes: Spring Festival 2026: Week #9~Buttercup Field Floral Friday – Last days in the garden using the tripod for my flowers The Flower Hour #31: Local Lilacs and Lupine ‘Til next time, y’all…

  • The Flower Hour #31:  Lilac is more than a flower…

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    My trusty friend, The OED, tells me that the colour “lilac” is a moderate to pale grayish-purple or a light purplish-pink.  With apologies to Terri, our Lilacs have finished here in southern Ontario, and the only Lupins I know of are in the Monty Python sketch “Dennis Moore” —  “Give me all your Lupins!” —…

  • The Flower Hour #30: A Wealth of Lilacs

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    A wealth of lilacs have I here,Their mystic whispers stir my ear.Their lovely fragrance fills my heart,As memories their blooms impart.* Lilacs are synonymous with home for me.  My dad planted a row along the two sides and back of our yard to make a privacy  hedge, and, this time every year, their fragrance was…

  • The Flower Hour #29:  Vis Medicatrix Naturæ* 

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    Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.2 Tramping through the woods at Wheatley Provincial Park yesterday, nature’s peace did indeed flow into me and, happily, there were windflowers galore! Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give…

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

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    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…

  • The Flower Hour #27 – Pussytoes

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    Pussytoes fledgling new blossomsantennaria spreading‘tho cold spring breezes blow Thanks to Terri for another Flower Hour post that made me smile. Please take a minute to visit her site and enjoy her gorgeous images and the stories behind them, you’ll be glad you did, promise: The Flower Hour #27: Daffodils Celebrate Earth Day ‘Til next…

  • The Flower Hour #26: Lucky Flower Shots – Lucky Me

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    You know what luck is?  Luck is believing you’re lucky.† Yesterday was meant to be my first solo outing of the spring.  We’ve established a very nice little routine for those days, Cam and I:  He drives to the golf club and leaps out (actually, at our ages, “leap” is the tiniest of exaggerations), I…

  • The Flower Hour #25: Coneflower Conviviality

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    This beauty is a non-native, robust, pollinator-friendly herbaceous perennial. The etymology of Echinacea is the ancient Greek word ekhinos (ἐχῖνος). The modern Greek word, achinós (αχινός) translates to sea urchin, and has become a fundamental noun in both botany and zoology, where it is used to describe plants and organisms that are thorny, spiky, prickly, barbed, or spinous.…

  • The Flower Hour #23:  Phorest Phloxy Phlorals*

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    The Flower Hour #23: Spring’s Phloxy Florals Thanks as always to Terri for another Flower Hour reminder.  She chose Phlox this week and — ta da — this is actually a flower I have in my collection.   Here in south-west Ontario, and especially at Point Pelee National Park, we have a species of wild…