Garden Flowering Log - July 2010

As you would expect flowering is slowing down in terms of the number of new species, but many of these summer perennials flower over a considerable period providing long displays. July has had a lot of hot and steamy weather, more than usual, and the trend has carried on into August, sadly. This isn't just summer weather, but really oppressive heat and humidity, the kind that melts your sneakers into the blacktop, the kind that is only pierced by the shrill calling of cicadas, the kind that tropical plants love, but that cook plants from cooler climates. For this reason a small conifer, Siberian cypress (Microbiota decussata), while hardy to zone 2, it suffers in this kind of summer heat. But plants at the northern end of their ranges, like the Magnolia virginia, seem quite happy. Having missed the last bit of July and the first bit of August, one or two flowering events might be mis-logged, but those things happen. For absolute certain another 19 species flowered in July bringing the year's plant flowering total to 252. Mrs. Phactor thought we might hit 300, but that seems a bit high. Her perennial bed is big, and you count on them for summer color, but there's also considerable redundancy. So far the champion in terms of longevity remains the Sinocalycanthus, which is still in flower having started on May 1.
July 2 - Purple prairie clover
July 4 - Bottle brush buckeye
July 6 - Globe Thistle
July 7 - Leadwort, Bouncing Bet (soapwort)
July 8 - Culver's root
July 10 - Gladiolas, Sacred Lotus, Black-eyed Susan
July 13 - Phlox, Sneezeweed, Chaste tree (Vitex)
July 14 - Summer sweet (Clethra alnifolia)
July 17 - Cardinal flower, Prairie Beebalm (Mondarda fistulosa)
July 18 - Hydrangeas - several varieties
July 20 - Joe Pyeweed
July 21 - Magic "lily" Amaryllis
July 22 - Summer sedums

Home Again

Vacation and meetings are over, and the Phactor is back to the midwestern flatlands. As usual for August, lots of things need water, but not as badly as some years. Pennsylvania really loved us; based on the number of long, frustrating construction delays on I-81/80 it was clear their new approach for increasing tourism was to hold everyone hostage. While construction is necessary, constrictions that result in 5 to 10 mile backups are totally rediculous, and no one seems to care how bad it gets. Managed to detour around one long backup, but grimly endured the rest. In comparison similar construction in NY and Ohio was being done, and while it required slowing traffic down, traffic continued to move. Get your crap together PA! On the home front the kitty girls were most happy to have us back. Weather has not improved one bit, and very hot conditions continue, so it was great to have escaped if just for a couple of weeks. But the weather and what it does to our gardens is only one reason why August is so disliked; it means the fall semester is just a couple of weeks away and all kinds of crap will be coming our way. Hmm, maybe time to hit the road again afterall.

August, the academic new year

Those of us whose lives revolve around academia, especially those of us who actually do the work of educating, which almost universally means faculty on nine month appointments, march to the beat of a different drummer, the academic calendar. My point here is not to criticize the calendar, or the 2nd associate assistant vice president whose pitiful job, even though certainly making more money than yours truly, it is to construct this dictatorial beast. So, no cheap shots will be taken. Besides if you start criticizing the calendar twerp, then the monkey who does the campus directory, the one that requires that you know the university's complete organizational chart to find anything, would take a drubbing so severe that it would actually generate sympathy for them, and that would detract from my postitive energy.

Although August is a funny time for a new year, it deserves some celebration, just like New Year's Eve revelries on the Georgian calendar, and most certainly we celebrators of the academic new years often have a drink or three on this hallowed eve. Actually the Phactor likes these beginnings because everyone starts out in anticipation of so many good things happening, and it takes several weeks, about the time of the first exam for the rosy glow to fade a bit, when both parties begin to face the realities that success takes some effort and that not everyone expended as much as required. But that is part of the job.

Ah, but that's then and this is now, and the energy and excitement are something to be enjoyed, although the week immediately before classes is something to be avoided altogether, if possible, because our small city becomes a mad house, as would any municipality whose population increases by 50%, and only in the 18-22 year old category, virtually overnight.

So come next Monday my students will be told that they start my courses fully able to grasp an A, and that my expectations are that they all will. And that is the wonderfulness of new years, a time to set aside the certain knowledge of what will happen, and to hold out hope that this semester will be THE semester when all my students achieve what they are fully capable of achieving if other things did not get in their way. The sad reality is that even reality shows can be a higher priority for some than the best botany course ever. Still some of them will achieve this, even to their own surprise, so the Phactor can still be optimistic and still look forward to new beginnings with new people after so many years in the business. Happy 41st new fall semester from the Phactor. Let's hope it's a good one.