ArticlesReader.com

 

ArticlesReader.com Menu
Newest Articles
Most Viewed Articles
ArticlesReader.com RSS
Submit Article
Login
Signup
Search the articles

Articles Main Categories
Advice
Animals
Automobiles
Business
Career
Communications
Computer Programming
Computers
Entertainment
Environment
Family
Fashion
Finance
Food
Health & Medical
Home & Garden
Humor
Internet Business
Internet Marketing
Legal
Leisure & Recreation
Marketing
Other
Politics
Reference & Education
Religion
Self Improvement
Sports
Technology & Science
Travel
Writing
Subscribe
Receive alert message from us when new articles submitted to our site for free.

Enter your name

Enter your email

Syndicate

















Related Products
Home::Environment

Desert Four O'clocks

Author : Lin Ennis
When Clara recovered from the headache of spending $100 and a day of her life planting “blacklisted plants,” she shifted gears. What plants were friendly to the desert Southwest? As she looked around when first moving to Northern Arizona, observation indicated the thing to do was to bring a little of “home” to the desert—Minnesota, Missouri, Massachusetts? She wondered if only people from “M” states desired verdant gardens…It took awhile to remember neighbors from Wyoming, Wisconsin and Washington—all “W’s”.



“This is insane!” she grumbled. “How am I supposed to know what to do? I don’t remember any county, city or homeowner association guidelines that explain the state’s ‘banned botanicals’! Where was the page that said gardening would be so hard?”



She laughed out loud, catching herself whining about playing in the dirt, the most primitive and benign of all pastimes, useful for its contemplative qualities as well as its products.



Just then a beautiful photograph caught her eye. Such a profusion of fuchsia she imagined could only exist in the tropics…She picked up the nursery insert…”What are these? They seem vaguely familiar.” She flashed back to her grandmother sitting on the front porch snapping beans in the late afternoon, around 4:00.



“That’s it! Four o’clocks!” Pleased with her natural recall, she scoured the ad for confirmation, just in case! Mirabilis froebelii, Desert Four O’clock. It was so similar to the four o’clocks she’d known as a child, she wondered about the word “desert.”



Clara quickly looked them up on the Internet, just to make sure they were native. Being misled once by well-meaning nursery professionals was enough for her. As with healthcare, she calculated she was the only one responsible for her environment.



“Hmmm…look at this, Hon,” she announced. “These flowers don’t have petals. The ‘flower’ part is actually part of the sepal. Can you believe that? I wonder if you can cut them and put them in a vase?”

“Why don’t you read more about it?” asked Syd, hoping to get back to the morning paper.



“Yes, it says there are 5-7 buds in each star-shaped green cup. The leaves are heart-shaped on sticky stems. How romantic is that?” She was careful to wonder silently whether they smelled as good as her grandma’s did.



In fact, she thought she’d seen some in the neighborhood, but hadn’t known then what they were. The article said they grew from seeds or tubers…maybe she could strike up a friendship and save $3. (Her Scottish blood ran close to the surface.)



“Attracts humming birds and butterflies,” she mouthed silently, remembering her priorities differed from her partner’s. “Blooms not according to the clock, but rather according to sun, shade and temperature approximating 4:00 in some locations. In parts of N. Arizona, it may be seen blooming both morning and evening.”



“Ahhh…there is a God,” Clara sighed joyfully. “Now where can I get my four o’clock starts for April blooming?”


Lin Ennis is a freelance writer and amateur naturalist in Sedona, Arizona. Please email your comments or suggestions to nature@linennis.com.

Spam emails More free articles

Related articles


  1. Dear our beloved crying planet...
  2. Can sustainable development work? What then will be the impact on business and what will be the impa
  3. How You Can Give Better Holiday Gifts AND Be More Environmentally Friendly
  4. IT'S STILL A "JUNGLE" OUT THERE
  5. Avoiding Allergies by Use of the Right Native Plants in the Landscape
  6. Cottonwood "cotton" is flying/ Bad Company
  7. NLR: CONNECTICUT'S ONLY DEP PERMITTED MERCURY LAMP RECYCLER
  8. Can bamboo flooring really help save the worlds' environment?
  9. Real estate construction revolution - Epilogue
  10. Computer e-waste recycling now fueled by lack of Australian legislation.
  11. Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Mudslides: Extreme Events - What do they Mean?
  12. Ten Steps to Avoid Mold Problems and Lawsuits in the Rental of Residential and Commercial Real Estat
  13. Maguma has integrated support for the eBay Acellerator Toolkit for PHP (PHP-AT) in their PHP IDE Mag
  14. A Simple Way To Offset the Environmental Effects of Driving Your Car
  15. The Weather Forecast on Your Computer
  16. How Specialty Gases Differ from Industrial Gases
  17. How to Ensure Quality Control with CO2 Analytical Support
  18. The Cost of Inaccurate CEM Calibration Gases
  19. Mosquito Control: The Best Ways to Effectively Combat Mosquitoes
  20. Another Doomsday, Another Dollar: Shifting Science Towards Peace and Ecology
  21. Customer service 101- What You Absolutely Need to Know
  22. Employ passive solar energy and start saving electricity today.
  23. Dallas Contracting Co., Inc. Completes Concrete Aggregate Crushing Project
  24. There's a snake in the yard! -- What to do (and not do) when you see a snake.
  25. Environmentally-Friendly Earth Homes
More related feeds
desert four o’clocks
four o’clocks!” pleased with her natural recall, she scoured the ad for confirmation, just in case! mirabilis froebelii, desert four o’clock. it was so similar to the four o’clocks she’d known as a child, she wondered about the word ...

Desert Magic
A fair bit of it flowed beneath the earth off the slopes of the nearby mountains in the last few years, or fell directly onto the gravely soil of this alluvial fan, sank into the earth after quenching the four o’clocks, the tortoises. ...

Composite Quotes
beyond morning glories, day lilies, four o'clocks up there to the dream she keeps lifting, where it's noon all day. -Frank Steele, Sunflower Heliopsis helianthoides (false sunflower) The Sunflow'r, thinking 'twas for him foul shame ...

Those Wild Wild Pigs Javelina
Yesterday morning I awoke to find all my potted plants in the backyard, as well as the four-O-clocks had been rooted up. It was distressing to see the over-turned pots and uprooted flower bed. I left it as it was, but this morning I ...

Gardening for Hummingbirds and Butterflies!
Agastache; Bleeding Hearts; Columbines; Daylilies; Heuchera; Kniphofias; Lobelia Cardinalis; Monarda. Cleome; Desert Four O’clocks; Impatiens; Mexican sage; Morning Glories; Pineapple Sage; Salvias; Scarlet Sage ...

Zanthan Gardens | Lurid Fall Pinks
Maybe I should be glad that planting queen’s wreath three times didn’t work, or that my four o’clocks died, because those magenta pinks sure don’t go well with autumn or Halloween color schemes, do they? ...

CC fanfic 6: How to Disappear
Moonflowers, four o'clocks and white angel's trumpet release their strong and soapy smells, mingling with the scents of dittany and mandrake. Through the roof Harry can see the winter stars, shades of coldly burning blue and icy green. ...

Half-Week of a Million Dreams, in Four Parts
As in o’clocks. Which time it will be at midnight, when I finally make it back to Auburn in time to get the kids up for their first day of school tomorrow, my body thinking after a half-week in California that it is 3:45 am ...

my journey to the high plains
four o'clocks that bloom in the morning. at bandelier national monument. a morning visitor. in town, at jackalope (for the kids!). other malls have a play structure. this market has a prairie dog community. endless entertainment!

desert four o'clocks
as a native mid-westerner, i am very familiar with 4 o'clocks, my grandmother grew them every year. but these are lovely and good in dry ole' utah, and just a bit different than what i was used to. i will have to get some of these and ...