Black Plants for World Goth Day

Black Mamba Petunia

Midnight Oil Iris (winner)

 

Raven ZZ

I have not been the best blogger lately and have not been posting my gothiest plants and flowers on my blog but I'm pretty good about sharing them on Instagram (sort of) if you want to take a look at my recent Black Iris competition. I've determined that the Midnight Oil Iris is my personal winner as it seems (to my untrained eye) to be the blackest of the black iris blooms, it has a gorgeous shape, and the fragrance is lovely. 

Here are the current black plants in bloom (I have three Raven ZZs. This is the largest and he enjoys hanging out on the front porch during the warmer months). 

Oh Hell...ebore- a quick garden post

In folklore, hellebore is used to call forth demons and curse enemies but who has time for that these days. In the Victorian language of flowers, the secondary meaning for hellebores is hope. These flowers bloom in dark winter days and are the loveliest reminders that spring is on the way. There's a bit of pareidolia in this first picture. It's perfectly normal to make voices for one's plants, right?  

Looking back on my blog, I realized that I haven’t really shown off these black beauties! Last year was the first time that one of the black hellebore plants bloomed. I think I bought six or so in 2019. This year, more have come in. I was told that it would take about 3-4 years for them to bloom so they're right on target and they are completely worth the wait! 

Of course, like the smartest gardener ever, I put the tags in the soil believing that I will simply recall the names of each. Nope. No idea. I usually drop pictures of tags in Facebook because I do know myself pretty well and that is a way for me to try to help future me. But I haven't found those photos. Anyway, they're hellebores and they're pretty darn black to dark purple to maroon to a more blue-black. I already had the hellebore blooms that begin with pink and age into a gorgeous green. 

In fact, I have little plants popping up out of the ground and I cannot for the life of me recall what I planted. I did move the Bela Lugosi daylilies around last year after finally splitting them. All the new black iris bulbs were unfortunately eaten by voles (even while being planted in the metal baskets) or attacked by bugs. I still have some Dracula’s Kiss irises that seem to have made it. 

This morning I did notice just the tiniest sprouts of the Bleeding Hearts. The Valentine Bleeding Heart that I left in a pot is already a noticeable size. The one in the ground is thimble size. We had snow a few days ago and the hellebore blooms were completely not affected. In fact, I think the snow just watered them. Here's a look at a few. 

 

 

...The harvest and enjoying ourselves OUR way...

The colors of the Canna are very fall.

This is the season to consider the harvest. The garden is still very much behaving like it is summer although I am presenting that the fall colors are not tropical plants. It has been a good garden season and I actually plan to go out to my back porch and do some reading for this week’s classes.

Pumpkin People!

Thinking of my own personal harvest, this week I completed my last read-through of my book, Women Writers Buried in Virginia that comes out on November 15, 2021. This is my last chance to change any content. After this, I can only fix typos. It’s stressful because I want to get everything as right as possible. I don’t want to misrepresent anyone or any place. It’s scary and exciting. Overall, I’m very proud of being able to share these women’s stories. I’m also proud of myself for focusing on the kind of scholarship that I have wanted to focus on for some time now.

Giant pumpkin vine without any pumpkins

It should be easy—cemeteries are an important part of our history; yet, people still put them in the spooky Halloween season, which perpetuates the myth that they’re scary places to frequent. They’re not and discussing them should not have one’s colleagues questioning one’s research interests… but that actually happened last week. After a conversation, a colleague actually told me that they now saw me as someone with more depth than just cemeteries, spooky things, and goth. I can roll my eyes and go on with my work-life because I have the privilege of being tenured and a full professor but it is still incredibly annoying. I am held to the same standards of teaching, scholarship, and service as my peers. Why can’t I just be myself and enjoy who I am without the passive aggressive criticism?

Black Coral Elephant Ears

One of the woman writers featured in my forthcoming book, Julia Magruder, who was a novelist who wrote for popular magazines such as Lippincott’s Magazine and the Ladies' Home Journal, wrote essays that addressed serious social issues, such as child labor laws and the changing roles of women. In 1907, she also became the first American woman to be awarded the “Order of the Palms” by the French Academie, conferred on those distinguished in the literary world.

She said, “Most of us are so afraid to enjoy ourselves in our way” (The Star Press Muncie, Indiana, Jun 24, 1907, 2). Ain’t that the truth!

 

...aromatic herbs, wreaths, and cocktails...

 

Mountain Mint

At the start of the pandemic, I could only get mountain mint which didn’t work for their intended purpose- my fella’s mint juleps. At the end of the season, after they looked dead in their pots I dumped the pots into the garden. Oops, I’ve heard mint can spread. They’ve mostly stayed in their places and yesterday, thanks to a post on aromatic bundling, I decided to make an aromatic herb wreath with mostly mountain mint, some sage, lavender, and spearmint. It’s all set to dry now.

I’ve also been having fun with cocktails. During the Association for Gravestone Studies conference cocktail, I created a variety of cemetery-themed cocktails. This one is called Country Cemetery, a traditional chocolate martini with spearmint from the garden.

Sweet mint from the garden

A Country Cemetery cocktail with spearmint from the garden

I’m trying to make the most of summer and I’m trying not to look at my countdown of days before I have to return to my university campus. I wish I had known that I would have had 400+ glorious days at home. It’s been a reflective time for me and I’m hoping that some of the boundaries I’ve been working on will stick. For now, I’m officially on vacation until August 16^th when my academic contract resumes.  

...solitude and self-reflection- blooming where you are...

 

Black violas grown from seeds

Last week, on World Dracula Day with a full moon (which I couldn’t see because it always seems to be cloudy during full moon nights), a friend stopped by and gifted me with black violas that she grew from seeds. They weren’t supposed to be black viola seeds and she isn’t actually my friend. I don’t think we have had a one-on-one conversation by ourselves ever before that morning but it was a great chat and we have so much in common.

She contacted me on social media and let me know she was vaccinated. That’s important to me because if you know me in real-life, you’ll know that I didn’t physically leave my house for 100 plus days and my first outing was to an isolated cemetery. For another 300 days, I have limited all physical contact with people, and it’s been such a relief—no lies, no excuses about not wanting to go out because people are exhausting. As a professor, I walk in the classroom in my best extrovert guise but when I leave, I retreat to distancing to catch my breath. The pandemic has let me truly relax for the first time ever.  

The area around the spooky shed is filling in nicely.

Fourth of July roses

Coral Bells

The truth is- I don’t think I’m good at connecting with people when it isn’t work-related or organization-related. I’m amazing at building place, developing student engagement, and establishing community; I’ve conducted research on this. But when it comes to friends, I am not always good at reaching out.

If Brenda were here, Brenda- she’s my therapist. I often say WWBS (What would Brenda Say), she would ask me how this affects my life. I guess it gives me more time with plants? (enter half smile)

Black Mirror iris

Dracula's Kiss iris

For 445 days, I’ve been home and it has been a year of reflection and connecting with my dead women writers and my amazing garden that is starting to feel like a garden and less like the land that came with the house we bought almost three years ago. This week is our house anniversary!

Happy anniversary to our home!