Garden Flame.

Of today's purchases, I know not which brought more joy.

The pupae tucked in cups?

The puff of cassia bush?

The pentas times-two with buds like a spring promise?

Or was it the Mexican flame vine? A first-timer in the garden, this vine is a sturdy climber with intense, orange flowers, like daisies on fire. Butterflies love it, too, like moths to a bright-orange flame.

 

 

For years, I've eyeballed this vine, passing it over for  bushier bloomers, or other  climbers that caterpillars like to eat, like maypop and pipevine. So, this year, it has a home and an invitation to climb the lighthouse weathervane. With its addition, three varieties of vine will play backdrop to the garden.

And its bright orange hue complements the yellow flowers of the cassia and groundcover, and the red of the pentas. It'll be like a desert sunset in a scape of greens and browns.

All the day's planting made me hungry. How 'bout some guacamole with cilantro, diced onion and a squeeze of key lime... and a pork tenderloin with black beans and mango salsa... and sangria with apples, oranges, and lemons soaked in brandy... served on the back porch while the sun sets over the garden.

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Gloom.

I suspect the threat of a South Florida freeze has passed. But this weather, this weather. It's gloomy and putting me in no mood to buy plants for the garden just yet.

And I like gloom.

I embrace gloom.

I have gargoyles in my butterfly garden. I buy red roses for my house on Poe's birthday. I read his poetry every October to honor his death day.

I make road trips to old houses, I visit cemeteries on vacation, and this weekend, I'm driving three hours to see The Woman in Black in the perfect company of a woman once described as "more goth than most goths."

So why is it I need sun to put me in the mood to garden? It's actually better to garden on a gloomy day. It's cooler and there's a chance for rain to water the newly planted.  It's just that...on gloomy days...there aren't any buuutttttterfliiiiiies (read that as whiny as you possibly can.) When I finally bring home some fresh old-fashioned pentas and milkweed, a cassia, a maypop, and a flame-vine, I want bflies to descend immediately like they did on sunny days past that I brought home new plants. That's enough to brighten even the gloomiest day.