"In the past I have been a very enthusiastic reader. In recent years, I have found myself reading plant books - reference books about native plants, Orchids, Peonies. I love these books. In the past I have been a very enthusiastic reader. In recent years, I have found myself reading plant books - reference books about native plants, Orchids, Peonies. I love these books."
So Denis has transposed the literary meme to be a meme about plants. Now, as far as Miss Eagle is concerned that's OK and his plant meme is wonderful. Trouble is he tagged your correspondent. Now she gets to do two memes to his one. And Miss Eagle knows stuff all about plants compared with Denis who calls things by their proper names as well as their nicknames and seems to be on really intimate terms with them.
Anyways, Miss Eagle will NOT be known as a piker. She will struggle on and see what comes out the other end of the sausage machine.
Miss Eagle can't think of a plant that changed her life but here she wants to talk about two plants that live in her memory. When Miss Eagle was but a slip of an eaglet, her school used to have an annual ball in which we little ones turned up in long dresses and suits. Miss Eagle's mother always made her a beautiful coronet of flowers. These were made from crucifix orchids and sacred bamboo which just grew wild in our garden. We didn't yet have a refrigerator so once made the coronet was put on the block of ice in the ice-box to stay fresh.
2. One plant you've planted more than once.
Miss Eagle loves her herbs. It is hard to choose between them but for this exercise she has chosen Italian parsley and has a picture of it growing in her own garden.
3. One plant you'd want on a desert island.
4. One plant that made you giddy?
Miss Eagle thinks the plants that make her giddy are the breathtakingly beautiful ones. She recalls a rose from over forty years ago. It was so red it was nearly black and it was like velvet. And the scent. Miss Eagle longs for a rose like that.
But there are other beautiful flowers. Here is a picture of one, a camellia, from her own garden.
5. One plant that wracked you with sobs.
The ones that wrack me with sobs are the ones that are needlessly destroyed. Miss Eagle recalls the declaration of the World Heritage listed rainforest in North Queensland. It included the Daintree. This area received all the publicity during the campaign to save the rainforest. But the rainforest covered by the listing began just up the road from Miss Eagle's home at Bluewater, half an hour north of Townsville. The National Party was still in power and it, along with its cohorts, fought tooth and nail against the listing. Miss Eagle remembers travelling along a road she wasn't supposed to be on behind the Wallamin Falls near Ingham and seeing absolute destruction - the width of a four lane highway through the forest. No coverage for this. This was out of site and out of mind. When will we ever learn!
6. One plant that you wish had been grown.
Miss Eagle can't answer this. There are so many. The wishlist is best summed up in the Garden Plans ofEdna Walling. Edna's garden, her choices of plants, her designs are the stuff of dreams and wishes.
7. One plant you wish had never been grown.
For a Queenslander like Miss Eagle, this is a no-brainer. It is of course the Prickly Pear.
8. One plant you are currently growing.
Currently this Azalea is in full and glorious bloom. It is a gay plant in the best sense of the word. It reminds Miss Eagle of a wonderful dancing lady in a gay yellow ball gown. It is a joy in this season of Risorgimento.
9. One plant you've been meaning to grow.
Miss Eagle realises her limitations as a gardener and her ignorance as a plantswoman. So she is not meaning to grow anything. It is all she can do to maintain what is there now and replace those that are annuals or of limited life span.
10. Now tag five bloggers.
Alice at A Growing Delight
Tanya at The Purple Giraffe
Mary at Devonhouse Recollections
Jane at yarnstorm
Kali at Enjoying the Journey
4 comments:
Me a Piker? Thanks for nothing!
I shall watch out for flying shovel handles, in the near future.
I liked your post. It is interesting how even simple questions are re-interpreted by different people - eg your being wracked with tears by a cleared rainforest.
The yellow flowered plant is a yellow Rhododendron, possibly "Eldorado". Does it have distinctively hairy leaves, with a bronzish tinge to the leaves? I always like that plant, but don't have it.
I completely forgot about Camellias, when doing my list. Nice photo.
Skipped herbs, myself, though I love them, and always grow some.
So many plants, so little time!
I imagine one could just about do a different list every day, (but that would be obsessive). So, a new list every month.
Denis
Oh joy - I've been tagged. I love being tagged for memes. I am going to do this now - but it may take a while to think about all these answers (and pinch pictures from the internet...). Many thanks for the tag and stay tuned :)
By the way, if you're still hankering for a deep red rose with sublime perfume, you can't go past David Austin's rose The Squire. Heaven.
aarrrkkkkk, I've been tagged!
heh heh...I'm pretty chuffed, though geez this looks like one I'll have to put a bit of thought into.
I will be happy to participate, but might take a while...sometime this week.
Cheers and hope you're having a lovely Sunday Miss Eagle :)
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