Jewel Weed - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - Jack Johnson

One of my favorite summer flowers is really considered a weed, a wild weed. It belongs to the same family as the annual garden impatiens and meets several of my criteria for "good" garden plants. It can easily withstand the dogs running through them; although it's an annual plant, it seeds itself and grows rapidly; the flowers are a pretty orange color; and the bees - especially bumble bees and wild species bees - love it. Most importantly, it flowers when the baby hummingbirds leave their nests and seek out nectar on their own so there are always plenty of immature hummingbirds flying in the flowers. 

                                                 (Clicking on photos enlarges them.)
Yes, it is rangy, rank, and grows tall which makes my yard look 'weedy' to people who don't know better. It's easily worth it and I will be taking seeds up north this fall as soon as they 'set' and are ripe. The seed pods resemble pea pods but are smaller. When the seeds are ripe and ready to be released from their pods, at a touch they explode into the air. The seeds lie dormant through the fall, winter, and early spring and finally open their large cotyledons around May in my area.

My Royal Oak garden has gotten away from me this summer probably because of the trips I've been taking up to Sans Souci/San Salvatore. My soil is extremely rich as a result of never removing any plant material; everything is recycled. My yard is actually about three inches higher than the neighbors on all sides because I allow things to add to the fertility of the soil naturally and have done so for the more than 40 years I've lived here. Of course, I will miss my yard - lots - but change is exciting and 'good'. My trees were three or four inches tall when I planted them! Most of my perennials have been with me for more than forty years. Several were passed down to me from my Grandparents so are older than I am (70!).

One of my favorite artists is Jack Johnson who was influenced by Jean Dubuffet and Jean-Michel Basquait who died on August 12, 1988. I wish I knew where Johnson is today! I've heard he is no longer painting which would be a real shame. I have several paintings by him and love them all. There must be something about the middle of August; Jackson Pollock died on August 11, 1956.

My apologies to Jack Johnson for the blurry photo of his painting above.

Rev Ike was a local minister decades ago.