Monsoon Madness

Two rainy days in succession makes for great weather to pull weeds from our gravel driveway and to save lupines from certain smashing.

I grew up in the Ozarks with many native plants: thanks to the U.S. Army, I've lived in many different plant zones but I had never experienced the beauty of a lupine until moving to AZ. I first viewed them along the Carefree Highway mixed with other wildflowers. What a surprise it was to find one thriving in a brushy area at the back of our property. Blowing wind is constant here in our little mountain village and we now have native lupines all over Badboulder's trails and iris beds.

A friend from California calls them lupins (short i) and another from Texas says they are definitely lupines(long i). Webster says long i if it's a noun, short i if it's an adjective, so I'm going with my Texas neighbor. I've read The Lupine Lady, by Barbara Cooney, to a multitude of children and don't want to spend my retirement thinking I've led them astray. The book is a great piece of children's literature, by the way. I don't remember a single primary student who didn't like it. NC, if you're not acquainted with it, try a quick read.

Lupines bloom here at Badboulder in spring along with the iris; however a good monsoon season with enough rain can bring about a few late bloomers. We have a lupine with bloom pod in our driveway.

Our gravel driveway is a most inhospitable planting bed but that's where several new lupines have sprung up. I'm taking advantage of overcast , rainy, monsoon days to do transplanting. Lupines are wonderful companions for yellow iris with their blue, spiky blossoms, and neither requires much irrigation here in the high alpine desert. So, that's where the driveway lupines are going.

FROM THE KNOTHOLE: Hey, remember me, I'm the guy who lives with the lady who transplants lupines. Lupins with a short i, lupines with a long i, please, they are everywhere on our property. They are taking over. Badboulderlady cannot endure the loss of a single living plant. We have a potted lemon tree that is 11 years old. We have geraniums that are over 20 years old. We have a rubber tree that is older than the geraniums. We have old jade plants, old mother-in-law tongues, old daffodils, old miniature palm plants. We never dispose of any living plant. We are being pushed out of our home by plants. Please, can somebody help me?

parting shot from bbman: don't buy airline stock.