Exotic and Every Day
I grew up in rural southwestern Wisconsin. Everyone had a garden of vegetables–tomatoes, carrots, beans, potatoes, cabbage. With long days of sun-light, things grew like crazy–along with ragweed. Corn grew so fast you could hear it growing–always a good field crop if it was knee high by the Fourth—-a traditional photo for many farmers.
But everyone also planted flowers–zinnias and marigolds. Marigolds supposedly repelled rabbits and other things that liked to sample garden vegetation. And then zinnias–so colorful and so easy to grow. Both will reseed themselves given a chance–much to the dismay of one of my sister-in-laws in Virginia.
But then there are orchids–here they are exotic and raised in fancy greenhouses or in my case on my dining room table and back-yard. But where they are native–they grow like crazy in the wild–cross-pollinating themselves.
This past Sunday, the local orchid society met–and there were so many lovely blooms to be seen–all grown by other orchid afficionados.
Sylvia Weir Art 