Dracena frangrans, sunset, inspiration

Good morning Folks ~ I hope that today will be a day filled with hope and love for all of you, no matter where you are. We have a fresh week ahead of us, a new chapter with pages in our books to be written.

It is hard to believe that Christmas is so close already. I know a lot of you are enjoying all of the preparations and that is so much fun. The expectancy, baking, decorating, gifts, and family gatherings.

It is so warm down here that it doesn’t feel like Christmas at all. I did have a wonderful little get-away to a lovely wonderland of Christmas this morning via blogland and Jeri of Hopalong Hollow Gazette. Do go visit her, you will be inspired. I was by one of her photos, so did some tweaking under my tree.

The little boy baby DH picked up at a flea market many, many years ago when we had our antique shop. It was ‘supposed’ to be for sale, but ended up staying in my little collection. I’m not sure where the little bear came from but he’s a cutie. The hand made primitive doll I bought at a local flea market many, many years ago for $2.

The little boy’s head is split from ear to ear, which you can’t see in the photo. I really need to make him some sort of hat. He has one hand missing and the other is being held on with string.

 

The above photos made me want to take a photo of some of my favorite teddy bears.

Here’s a photo of the TB’s sitting on the back of our little sofa.

From left to right they are:

Gift from DH many, many years ago. It’s a well-loved antique. He paid $1.

The little sweetie with flowered hat is one I got in a teddy bear swap. It is a Boyd’s.

Another well-worn bear was DH’s second teddy. His first one fell apart.

The little black one was crocheted by me many years ago.

The next two are flea market or yard sale finds.

The one on the far right is one my DH bought me in Switzerland while we were on vacation there while we lived in Spain during his 4 year hitch in the US Navy. Maybe in 1972. These make me feel happy.

The other evening I went out for a little mood change and while out there I was overwhelmed by a scent. I had a feeling as to where it was coming from, looked and sure enough. The Dracena Fragrans. The scent of this was always too much for DH. A little of it goes a long way, but unfortunately there is hardly ever a little of it. It was almost too much for me this time. I came in for the camera and here are the photos. We have two clusters of these growing. One up front and one behind my shed by the enclosed clothesline garden area. These bloom at night.

Here is the sunset as seen through the bedroom window last night. Excuse the power lines, but that is part of my view too.

Below is an excerpt I found this morning when searching quotes about sunsets.

The Meaning of the Sunset

by Charles E. Jefferson (1860-1937)

“Stand near to a sunset and what do you see? Examine It through the microscope of science and what have you? Vibrations, dust, aqueous vapour, air-currents. That is, all It seems as though these things might have been swept together by the wind, as though it all might be due to a fortuitous concourse of atoms, as though bits of matter might have fallen into a meaningless hodgepodge.

But wait! Stand back! Farther back! Now look at it! A picture! Outlines such as no artist ever sketched; cathedrals, minarets, spires, ancient castles, majestic palaces, towers, domes, more majestic than those of which any architect ever dreamed. And colours oh, what colours! Delicate tints, exquisite hues, artistic shadings, bewitching gradations, combinations of lights and shadows such as never entered into the heart of man to conceive.

Ah, this is none other than the work of God the work of the Infinite Artist

If Moses took off his sandals in the presence of a burning bush, well may we bow our heads and hearts in the presence of a sky all aflame with God!

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Wishing you all love, peace and joy filled holidays. Let God speak to you through His creation. Listen for His still small voice.

Love ~ FlowerLady

Click the link to read more about my life now on The Continuing Journey.

Tatting needles came, little tree is up, more flower pics

Good morning Friends.

Here it is a week since I last posted, where has the time gone?  A blogging friend just posted saying she hoped I was ok. I am, thank you. If you could see my little space here, you would see some of what I’ve been doing, beading, embroidering and crocheting.  I crocheted a sweet little needle book and someone already let me know she wants to buy it, before I even got it into my Etsy shop.  I crocheted another one and decided to keep it for my own needles.  Yesterday I bought some more thread, in ecru, burgundy and a sage green, and started crocheting after I put away groceries and cleaned up the kitchen.  Here’s the one I made that is sold. This took a few hours to do, but I really enjoyed making it. I used an antique button, and one of the laces I got recently.

Yesterday we did our errands, one stop was Walmart to pick up my tatting needles ordered last week.  I barely looked at them just to see that they were what I ordered, then wrapped the pkg. and put it under our little tree.  We don’t really ‘do’ Christmas these days. We have what we need and get things we want during the year. DH suggested I put these under the tree. This year we are counting the restoration of the caravan as a Christmas gift.  DH is doing most of the work, I am his helper, and it is coming right along. Anyway, I won’t be trying my tatting needles until after Christmas.

I had a Walmart gift card and a little $ tucked away, so while at Walmart, I looked to see if they had crochet thread in the size I wanted, they did, plus some sewing needles and straight pins. Then I wanted to see what they had in Christmas lights. Our lights have all finally croaked, either whole strings, or parts of the strings.  We can’t even remember the last time we had to buy lights, eons ago it seems and were a bit surprised at the prices, and they don’t have the old ones, they are all LED’s, which are energy efficient these days.  I bought a small 50 lite strand, multi colored and it was just right for our little tree.  I’ll take pictures later as I’m still decorating the tree. A tree comes to life once the lights are on and lit, and only gets better with the decorations.  Yesterday I saw a beautiful huge decorated tree at one of the local large Hispanic grocery stores that we go to, and some of the multi lights were purple.  Oh boy, would I love to have that, they might have had orange in the mix too.  Really pretty and different. The colors of ours are red, blue, green and gold.  The blue and green being the more vibrant colors.  I love the blue.

Since we don’t shop retail all that much, seeing the prices of things is a shock.  Holy cow. We really don’t need to add more ‘stuff’ to our over stuffed little cottage, and we don’t use our credit cards to purchase things just because we want them. That’s how so many end up in debt that they have a hard time paying off.   I am thankful for all that we already have and for the good deals that come our way, whether sale items, curbside shopped, or gifts given. I am thankful I can take cuttings from plants and sometimes have them become rooted plants. I am thankful for seeds that sometimes grow too.

The past few nights the scent of Dracena fragrans has been filling the air.  It is too much for DH, and I wouldn’t want to stay outside and smell it for very long either, but from a distance it is tolerable.

These are the blooms before they open. This plant is on the back side of my shed, probably at least 10’ tall.  There are roses, a hamelia paten, and bougainvillea all growing up and over my shed.  I loved these blooms with the roses.

Now for some other blooms around here.

Blanket flowers with Mexican tarragon blooms.

Copperleaf shrub..

Once again, I have forgotten the name of this hibiscus.  I need to make a tag for it to help me remember.

This is sweet Kathleen, with a hint of poinsettia behind.

La Marne roses.

Sweet Maggie.

Mm. Laurette Messimy

Old Blush.

I bought this many years ago, and have since lost the tag and don’t have a clue as to what it is. I am in s.e. FL

This is an unknown orchid, given to me by a friend many years ago.

This is Vincent Godsiff.

That’s it from Plum Cottage. I do hope you all are enjoying the Christmas season.

FlowerLady

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Let us all remember ~

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How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!

how great is the sum of them!

If I should count them,

they are more in number than the sand

Psalms 139

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Dracaena fragrans

Good morning everyone.

This post came about because this plant is in full bloom right now,
blooming at night and the scent is so strong
I can hardly stand it and I love nice strong scents.
This one is a bit overwhelming with so many blossoms though.

So, I took some pictures and found some info to share here.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_Plant

Dracaena fragrans (Corn Plant, Cornstalk Dracaena)
is a flowering plant species in the family Ruscaceae,
that resembles a corn stalk in habitus.

It is native to West Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Dracaena fragrans has rosettes of glossy, green leaves, broadly striped
and banded with light green and yellow down the center.

It is a slow growing pole shrub
and the leaves can reach up to
3 feet (1 m) long by 4 inches (10 cm) wide.
When plants are grown in the ground,
they can reach about 20 foot tall (over 6 m)
but their growth is limited when they are potted.

Cornstalk Dracaen has white flowers that are highly fragrant,
hence the specific name fragans.
They are popular with insects,
and in the Neotropics get rarely visited by a few generalist hummingbird species
like the Sapphire-spangled Emerald.

Dracaena fragrans is propagated by cutting off segments of old canes
so that they are 3-8 inches long.
These are allowed to dry off and inserted into moist sand
until they have rooted and new growth comes from old leaf scars.

Fragrans can be either grown as a low shrub form,
by rooting tip cuttings,
or a tree form, by rooting mature canes.

The 'Massangeana" variety is the most popular,
due to its dramatic yellow variegation running down the center of its leaves.

The temperature requirements for fragrans is a comfortable 75 degrees
and the water requirements are low.
Dracaenas are one of the plants used in the NASA Clean Air Study
and has shown to help remove Formaldehyde.

Dracaenas have wide leaves that do accumulate dust.
Wipe leaves regularly with a damp cloth to remove dust.
Although most Dracaenas have few problems with pest,
occasionally mealy bug and scale can attack the plant.