Blessed are those who volunteer to make the world a more beautiful place. It seems to be a rarity in this increasingly harsh world we call home.
Smoke from those terrible Canadian wildfires hangs over southern Ohio like a wet wool blanket. I was off work a little early yesterday and had packed my hiking bag only to realize the air quality was unsafe for prolonged outdoor activity.
So I came home to do some inside chores and ventured outside long enough to water and deadhead a few flowers. I was struck by how pretty this patch of volunteer flowers is in the edge of my yard. While I work so hard to convince others to grow, these little ladies thrive even though they are basically ignored.
Then there are these beauties. We call them Flags. They are orange Day Lilies that go by many aliases including Tiger Lily, Corn Lily, Fourth of July Lily and even Ditch Lily.
They grow prolifically along southern Ohio roadsides and are striking in that environment. In a flower bed, though, they are downright invasive. I have spent hours of my life attempting to dig them out of flower beds but it seems to only make them multiply.
Did I mention that I have never planted the first one?
All the same, they are beautiful and I’m grateful for the softness they bring to an otherwise heavy, smoky day. Blessed are these volunteers for they make our world better simply through their existence.
That’s so funny you have volunteer day lilies. People have different perceptions of flowers depending where they grew up. Once an employee dug up and threw away all the crocus bulbs we had planted and cultivated for years at the condo complex. His excuse was that they were “weeds” where he came from. A friend staying with me for a couple weeks dug up all my oriental poppies and announced that she had rid my garden of thistles! Sigh.
Oh no! How terrible! Crocus are such pretty little flowers! These lilies are beautiful but a single bulb can multiply several times over. Once it finds its way into your flower bed, you may as well just abandon the flower bed idea and start mowing them because they will choke out everything in the area.
I spent some time tonight trying to dig some out. Mind you, I have already dug down a foot and covered the patch with plastic and mulch. They are literally pushing through the plastic like it’s not even there.
I have a hillside where I wish they would grow but they aren’t taking hold yet.