Fête de la Saint-Fiacre—and a prayer too

This past weekend our gardening friends and counterparts in Ireland and France celebrated the Feast Day of St. Fiacre—the Patron Saint of gardening. Although celebrated by other Catholics in other countries, St. Fiacre was born in Ireland and lived his life in France so these two countries venerate him more than others. 

I was quite tickled (to be completely honest) when a long drawn out conversation about the Saint appeared in my Facebook feed early on August 31st. Started by a French plant breeder, talk almost immediately centered on how everyone celebrated the feast (with food of course), and why the date of this feast has been shifting. Although the official day is now set on August 11th, those in Ireland and France still apparently celebrate it either on August 30 (France) or September 1 (Ireland). 

St Fiacre with his shovel.

Yes, I have a statue of the Saint in my garden. I am rather fond of this guy. 

I think he's appeared here on the blog before, but I thought I'd write a little ode to him again now that it looks like I'll be staying here for several more years. I didn't pray to him to help me, but I guess I can quietly thank him. Time in the garden can be so lonely. It's good to have friends.

No, I am not an active Catholic, but I am very much Catholic by culture. I enjoy having a few statues of Saints around me when I'm in the garden. When they are not there, it honestly doesn't feel quite right to me.

St. Fiacre was a healer and worked with herbs. As I'm considering building my first herb garden, he's a good friend to meditate upon. I also like to believe that he was a good and gentle soul determined to help others. We need people like that in our lives. I am all for healing and think about it often.

In his right hand he holds a rose.

 In his left hand, he holds a shovel.

Heirloom Costoluto Genovese tomatoes from my future mother-in-law's garden. 

St. Fiacre is also the Patron Saint of Vegetable Gardeners, but that's of course not what this prayer is about:

Prayer to St. Fiacre

O good St. Fiacre to whom God has given the power to heal

the bodies of men affected by ugly evils of all kinds,

deign to intercede for us with the Almighty Creator,

so that our body restored to health,

can attain eternal glory.

Amen.

As a good Catholic-educated woman I think that 12 years in their educational network allows me to finally write a prayer of my own. Let's leave it as ann-onymous though since we all know that woman were not yet created as equals according to "the Church". 

Prayer to St Fiacre 

By Ann-onymous aka Amateur Bot-ann-ist

St Fiacre, I know you were good, 

and you gardened, and grew herbs. 

Today we celebrate you and your abilities to heal, 

but I celebrate your blessings and I pray for my organic solutions.

I pray to an end to man messing with my foods.

I pray for the bees and the birds 

—and that's not just because I'm a naughty Catholic school girl and it is fun to write that now. 

I pray that we can live in a world where the female is as respected as the male—because infertility can come from either side, and you're the Patron Saint of that too. 

Next year please bless our tomatoes, keep powdery mildew at bay, and try to protect our gardens from deep freezes and a Snowpocalypse. 

Lastly, God bless the florists too and thank you for protecting them. 

Stay fabulous St. Fiacre—eternally. 

Thank you and God bless. 

Going on Now: Labor Day Sale at Cistus Nursery

Gorgeous Hedychium met us in the parking lot.

This summer has been lean and mean for me financially. So when Cistus Nursery posted that they were having a 30% off Labor Day Sale I knew I was in luck. What a great opportunity for me to save some pennies and head on out to Sauvie Island with my friend Billye.

Admittedly, I hadn't been to Cistus since June so that made this visit a bit more special to me. It looked lovely as usual and I was so happy to be back. 

While walking around with all the prickly things I thought about my friend Loree over at Danger Garden. I can still hear myself thinking, "Wow, there's no reason why I shouldn't take a picture of one of these things for my blog. I can talk about these things." Then, just as I leaned in with my camera to get a closer look at the gorgeous Agave americana 'Yellow Ribbons' on the top shelf, the Agave aff. macroculmis T73-99 just beneath it on the bench poked me in the leg. Oops! When will I ever learn? (Both are great plants. Don't let me give any of these plants a bad name.)

I admire those of you out there who can live with these plants and not hurt yourselves. Maybe I would do better with the Nolina macrocarpa sitting beside 'Yellow Ribbons'? Hmmm, I think not. No. Let's be positive. Maybe now is just not my time. 

It really was a beautiful day and I loved looking up above the nursery to see all of the textures from the plantings. I'm so in love with green texture these days.

I was a little bit disappointed that Sean Hogan (the nursery's owner) wasn't around that day, but I hope to catch up with him this winter. He is a good plant friend and very much understands and encourages my seed habit. I like talking to him a lot about seed collecting adventures.

Canary Islands Juniper, Juniperus cedrus.

During this visit I looked at things differently. Sure, I don't have room for this tree, but I liked it so I took a picture. I'm branching out a bit again, learning a few new things, paying attention.

My friend Billye with her new Italian greyhound Tango. 

When you visit Cistus Nursery it's often quite relaxing. This is the kind of retail environment you like to sit around in while you enjoy the sights.

Than again, if you're like me, you can park people in the shade while you shop. Billye went for the plants but we all know that we're not always so lucky and sometimes we end up dragging people with us to nurseries. Cistus is friendly for those folks.

While we were there, birds swirled overhead.

Chilean lantern tree, Crinodendron hookerianum. 

As we walked back to pay for our plants I saw this Chilean lantern tree blooming. Mine is still happily growing along but it's not blooming right now. I think I might have pruned it when it didn't want to be pruned. I can wait.

Ashe magnolia, Magnolia macrophylla ssp. ashei. 

My friend and I ventured back into the corner we'd missed. It was fun seeing a big leaf magnolia. These trees really make me smile with their big huge leaves.

Giant Cape Restio, Rhodocoma capensis. 

There were other treats.

Lysionotus pauciflorus.

Up at the register I found temptation after temptation.

Lysionotus pauciflorus.

This one was really difficult to say "No" to but I did. Maybe next time...

Salvia buchananii 'Velvet Slipper'.

I liked this one too.

Looking around it felt great to be back. I wish I could have purchased more but planting all of these plants takes time. I don't have a lot of extra time nowadays. It's good though because I'm staying busy with my garden coaching client. 

Sometime soon I'll be back. I highly recommend you go too if you can do so before now and Monday. The sale was really quite a treat. It's worth the trip. 

In the end I walked away with a few things I'd lost in the garden: Sedum divergens, a pine-scented rosemary, and a Melicytus crassifolius. I also added a few new friends: Carex testacea 'Prairie Fire', Mahonia gracilipes, and my first Dahlia. (It's a Dahlia 'Fascination' and I'm so excited to finally have one.)

Who knows what I'll end up doing this weekend, oh wait, I know: Annual Dahlia Festival. Maybe I'll see you there!

Wordless Wednesday: I giardini delle due donne

Climbing Monkshood (Aconitum episcopale) grown from seed.

Staghorn Fern (Platycerium) in its new home.

Pink Turtlehead (Chelone obliqua) grown from seed. Sadly the plant was eaten a bit this year.

The backyard.

Tradescantia 'Bridal Veil'.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis).

Fuchsia 'Celia Smedley'.

Unknown Rosa.

Unknown cabbage (Brassica). 

Notorious female feline.

Potted geraniums (Pelargonium), with St. Francis statuary, at the home of an Italian woman. 

Houseplant Order from Glasshouse Works: Fluffy Ferns!!!

Nephrolepis exaltata 'Suzi Wong'.

Many moons ago I had a large, fluffy, and lovely 'Suzi Wong' fern—but then I neglected it. Take my advice, this is NOT a houseplant that likes to be ignored or forgotten.

Before you know it, the thing will look entirely toasted if you're not paying attention, and you will regret it. High humidity and lovingly caring for its every need are what work best for this fine-looking specimen houseplant.

This time around my little princess is going to make it because she's a beauty and I'm going to give her what she deserves.

The three ferns I recently purchased from Glasshouse Works. 

For years I've regularly ogled the lists of plants offered by Glasshouse Works. Then a few years ago I ordered plants from them, but I hadn't done so since that time.

This past month I started to think about Suzi again, so I looked her up. Of course! Glasshouse Works sold them, and they had the impossible-to-find 'Verona Lace' fern too. Yes!

Nephrolepis exaltata 'Suzi Wong'.

As you can see, the delicate 'Suzi Wong' fern has already been a bit neglected by me. Since I plan to finally pot her up this week—and am dedicated to giving her whatever will keep her happy—I think this time I'll succeed. Hopefully in a few more years I'll be divining this plant.

We will see.

Protoasparagus plumosus aka Asparagus setaceus.

Admittedly, they sent me an extra (free) plant and I never checked back with them to see if it was some kind of mistake. (I swear they did NOT know I was a blogger.)

Was I pleased? Of course!!!

An Asparagus fern for me? Why yes! Thank you!

Protoasparagus plumosus aka Asparagus setaceus.

I had one of these plants before too but let's add this to the litany of confessions today: I neglected it. That's sad since the last one I had was grown from seed. 

Sometimes I am a horrible plant mommy.

Nephrolepis exaltata 'Verona Lace'.

The other jewel in my order was the 'Verona Lace' fern. Ok, I may have killed one of these in the past but it was before I had indoor lights for my plants. Anyway, it's an absolutely graceful and serene fern. I have only seen one mature plant at my old employer's home and it was the most enchanting thing. It drapes. It sways. It chops the air. It's legend. (It's also famous for growing very slowly, hence, it's rarity.)

Overall, I give Glasshouse Works a huge double thumbs up! I'm a huge lover of houseplants and they offer so many that are really difficult to find. Check them out if you haven't already.

(PS: Where do you like to shop for houseplants and tropicals online? They also specialize in a lot of terrarium plants but I'm looking for some Begonias. Thoughts?)