Saturday, July 12, 2008

Succulent color!

I went over to Moms for the first time today after getting home from our little trip, and found this large pot of portulaca, or purslane in full bloom, and just mounded up so gorgeously! The flowers grow at the ends of the stems. and they come in an array of bright, beautiful colors; purple, scarlet, yellow and pink are just a few. There are both single- and double-flowered varieties. I stole a picture when Mom wasn't looking! LOL. I love this hot pink variety of bloom.

AND...I had forgotten all about this Crown of Thorns, or Euphorbia milii I bought the day before I left...which I found still covered with these pretty white-green flowers. I really like this color just because it is so odd to see (I think) as opposed to the red or pink blooms. E. milii has flowers that are small, subtended by a pair of conspicuous petal-like bracts, variably red, pink or white, up to 12 mm wide.
What are your favorite colors?

And I leave you with these beautiful words and thoughts:

"Who can estimate the elevating and refining influences and moral value
of flowers with all their graceful forms, bewitching shades and combinations
of colors and exquisitely varied perfumes? These silent influences are
unconsciously felt even by those who do not appreciate them consciously
and thus with better and still better fruits, nuts, grains, vegetables and
flowers, will the earth be transformed, man's thought refined, and turned
from the base destructive forces into nobler production. One which will
lift him to high planes of action toward the happy day when the Creator
of all this beautiful work is more acknowledged and loved, and where man
shall offer his brother man, not bullets and bayonets, but richer grains,
better fruit and fairer flowers from the bounty of this earth."

- Father George Schoener (1864 -1941)

9 comments:

  1. love the blooms...and the quote!

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  2. That purslane is a cheerful plant, and they're really hardy, even in the heat... I've never grown crown of thorns.

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  3. I like the coral variety the best. I didn't realize that white had flowers that were bigger. I'll have to look for one.
    Aiyana

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  4. My Crown of Thorns ask nothing of me, only that I admire their beauty.. and I do.

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  5. I didn't know they had white flowers either but now you have me wanting one. :)

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  6. Ooooops, meant to say that I loved the quote too. :)

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  7. Julie, I love that shot of the pink purslane blooms - they are so healthy and cheerful looking! And funny you should mention these creamy colored euphorbia. I just saw some at a store recently and wondered what they were.

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  8. Such beautiful healthy looking flowers. Me? Pink.
    Beautiful beautiful words also

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  9. I love all shades of yellow.

    One day maybe we will be able to exchange grains, fruit and flowers and not bullets with each other. But I am afraid we will have to wait for that until God puts an end to all war. But it will happen. We have his promise.

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