Wordless Wednesdays: 12 Views of Foxglove

 

 

 

Foxgloves

Foxglove growing in an alley near our house

“‘There’s a foxglove, foxglove in my pansy patch,’ I sing,
‘Decked so brightly by the rain, there never was its match.
It is made of velvet petals, russet blots and lovely smells,
And the wind he is the ringer for its peal of bells.'”
— Esther Freud, Mr. Mac and Me

Watercolor sketch of foxglove

 

A Trip to Janet’s Flower Farm

Zinnia, J Foss Garden Flowers

I took advantage of the lingering sunny summer weather to take a drive south to J Foss Garden Flowers of Chehalis.  I met Janet a couple of years ago and had dreamed of someday wandering her flower fields with camera in hand.  This has been an unusually dry summer, and that presented challenges this year for flower growers.  But farming is like that.  I saw much beauty in the flower beds on Janet’s farm.  I think you will agree.

Delphiniums in the greenhouse

Delphinium shadows

Clear blue delphinium

Zinnia bed

Zinnea

Limonium latifolium hybrid

Clematis

Clematis

Clematis

Celosia cristata ‘Cockscomb’

Brain-like cockscomb

Boltonia ‘Lime Dot’

Foxglove

Foxglove

Cosmos

Achillea millefolium terracotta

Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemums

J Foss Garden Flowers

Van loaded with cut flowers, ready for the market

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quietly Seeing Into the Heart of Things

“With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony,
and the deep power of joy,
we see into the heart of things . . .”
— William Wordsworth, “Tintern Abbey”

Foxglove

 

The Spirit of the Foxglove

Foxglove at Molbak’s Nursery

“The foxglove bloom, all those bruised openings . . .”
— Barbara Daniels, from “Foxgloves”

“It is impossible to resist the spirit of the foxglove; its whole expression is one of aspiration.  Every one who has the rudiments of an imagination in him thinks at once of church towers and bells.”
—  Prof. F. A. Waugh, from “Little Monographs” for the “Garden Magazine”

Watercolor sketch of foxglove flowers

 

 

A Chaos of Beauty

“What a chaos of beauty there is upon a June morning.”
— Louise Beebe Wilder, Colour in My Garden

And here are a few snapshots taken out of the chaos of color and beauty in Seattle right now:

Diaphanous pink Shirley poppy and bud

Pink Shirley poppies

White love-in-a-mist

Blue love-in-a-mist

Globes of allium

Allium

Clematis (I think?)

Foxglove

Foxglove and window curtains

Foxglove: A Thimble Stall for Fingers

Finger-sized foxglove blooms

Foxglove arrangement

“Though the corolla dangles upside down,
Nothing ever falls out, neither nectar
Nor loosening pollen grains: a thimble
Stall for the little finger and the bee.”
— Michael Longley, from “Botany”

The foxgloves are blooming.  They are rather difficult to photograph because they are so tall and I can’t frame the whole flower in my shot and still show the detail I want.  I also find them incredibly difficult to paint. . . but I try, and try again.

Foxglove in the morning light

Glowing like a miniature lantern

Foxglove with posterized effect. This helped me to simplify the flower for painting.

Foxglove with posterized effect

They’d make scratchy thimbles!

Watercolor sketch of foxglove blossoms

Another watercolor sketch of foxglove — I’m getting closer to the kind of painting I want!

 

 

Foxglove: Cascading Bells

Foxglove, little bells in a row

The foxglove grow like weeds around here.  I like the pattern of repeating bells that cascade down the stalks.

Foxglove, backside view

Foxglove in the morning light

Foxglove's speckled bells

Watercolor sketch of foxglove

Watercolor sketch of single foxglove blossom

Another watercolor sketch of foxglove

White Foxglove

White foxglove in the morning light

Purple foxglove is more common here, but this year I am seeing white foxglove as well.  I like how the morning light edges these white bells in a soft glow.

I’ve read about the concept of keeping a daily gratitude journal.  I haven’t followed that path, but I do find this blog serves something of the same purpose for me.  If I can find and notice and appreciate just one thing in my day, then I feel fulfilled.

“White foxglove, by an angle in the wall,
Secluded, tall,
No vulgar bees
Consult you, wondering
If such a dainty thing
Can give them ease.”
     — T. E. Brown, from “White Foxglove”

Foxglove

Foxglove in bloom

Foxglove flower

“If you have a nice clump if foxgloves in your back garden you cannot ever be bored.  There is the echo of all the sweet and liquid sounds of the country in their pale bells.  In addition, I am told that their roots, if boiled and added to the soup, are guaranteed to make your most disagreeable enemy expire in considerable discomfort within twenty-four hours, but I have not tested this personally.”
     — Beverley Nichols, Down the Garden Path

Cascading foxglove bells

Foxglove

“The peacock has a score of eyes,
With which he cannot see;
The cod-fish has a silent sound,
However that may be;

No dandelions tell the time,
Although they turn to clocks;
Cat’s-cradle does not hold the cat,
Nor foxglove fit the fox.”
     — Christina Rossetti