Unfortunately, as I've admitted in the past, I’m not the
greatest gardener around these parts. I have some plants that I can grow fairly
successfully. I don’t always know the names of flowers or plants—I do always
know what I like. And I’ve always liked lantana. (Okay. Okay. True Confession: I didn't really know what it was until twenty years ago. Sigh.)
My Sweet Hubby (MSH), on
the other hand, never liked lantana until about two years ago. He said
it looked like “weeds.” (No. No, it does not, MSH. Sheesh.) I planted some at
our wellhouse many moons ago and it comes back, bigger and better, every year. (I’ve put pictures of
this lantana on our blog in the past. ) It blooms from May-ish until October or
even November-ish. Thank You Lord. Because MSH has decided he can handle my obsession with lantana without complaining.
At the same time TLC and I
bought some moss rose plants from Biscuit’s pre-school’s fundraiser in April
(See my post on August 16th: Neither rain, wind, hail, or... ), we bought a few lantana plants. They were teeny-tiny. We
could pick from a couple of blooms—the solid yellow or a confetti-like bloom
that’s pink and yellow. We bought two or three of both.
I put three tiny plants in
two biggish pots (for a total of six plants)—as I did with the moss rose. The same storms that damaged the
moss rose plants affected the lantana in a sad, sad way. About five weeks ago, when the lantana
pots were looking truly pathetic (Oh, how I wish I’d taken pictures of them so you could see their true transformation.),
I had MSH move them from our front porch and out into the garden—where I knew
they’d get more sun. I had no real hope that they’d come back. But here they
are:
You can’t even see the pots! The second picture shows one of the two Monarch butterflies
that have enjoyed our lantana, hanging out around the pots and the lantana in
the ground at our wellhouse, for over three weeks.
Y’all know how much I’m
amazed by Mother Nature. She shocks me. Confuses me. Entertains me. Challenges
me. (Yes—sometimes she angers me. Just being honest.) Our experience now
with the moss rose and lantana plants that seemed, for certain, to be goners,
has given me a renewed faith in Her. I sure do need renewed faith, don’t y’all?
God’s blessings to each of
you, wherever in the World you are, this weekend…and forever…
