Queen of Mystery

At Mars’ behest I have created an archipelago of Queen Anne’s Lace islands in the grassy sections of our yard this summer.  It actually looks much more orderly than you might think.  We’re not just turning over our property to the weeds.  But we are giving some of the members of the Daucus carota family the opportunity to display their white lacey umbels in a non-competitive showroom.

             

We both are actually quite fond of – possibly even enamored with – the wild carrot, aka bishop’s lace among other aliases, which has repeatedly insinuated into virtually every part of our modest landscape for at least as long as we have lived in it – surprising us every year with its ingenuity for finding new locations in which to flourish.

             

But Mars and I are still not as enthusiastic as Theresa Roach Melia, whose paper “APlant Study: Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota) parsley family Umbelliferae” I came upon while casting about the Internet for more information on the plant.  The article was “submitted for the 2010 FES [Flower Essence Society] Practitioner Certification Program. This plant study incorporates observations as set forth in "The Twelve Windows of Plant Perception."

            

I have an interest in folklore, and particularly the folklore of plants, which sometimes can tell you things about a flower’s horticulture.  E.g. in a recent post I mentioned what I learned about the negative reaction that our hollyhocks seem to have to excess water from the Polish legend of Malvina.

             

Now I am not quite sure that Theresa Roach Melia’s “imaginative perception” of “This Flower Queen” falls into that category – but to me it is both a both poetic and a spot-on description of the flower’s earthly behavior.  Here are some excerpts

          

“Her colors of face, hair, gown, aura are predominantly radiant white, with blushes of pink, light green, light yellow…punctuated by the mysterious presence of deep purple in an unpredictable pattern that offers life, touched by deep purple moments of infertility.

            

“She wishes to be known by human beings and so she appears in great flower communities wherever human community abounds. She accompanies human communities throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Her physical needs are minimal; she thrives in harsh dry infertile conditions.

             

“Her earthly flowers nod and wave with the slightest breeze. Air is where her strength, grace and power abound

            

“She is a great Angelic Queen and her angel servants are found in the flower faces of her radiant umbels, nodding in the breeze, a companion alongside human beings.

              

"Water appears minimal in her expression; she utilizes it so well, that she appears to barely need any.

             

"This Flower Queen offers sacred geometry, interconnectedness, pathways to use in our approach toward the infinite; and the same pathways lead back to the exquisite structure of her reassuringly commonplace presence in our lives in the airy warmth of summertime, here on earth, in the Northern Hemisphere.

             

"She is a radiant white Queen of mystery in service to us all."

             

This year seems like a particularly good year for the plant in and around our central Connecticut town.  Many of the fields in our town’s Preserved Open Space (former farmland) are covered in white lace gently swaying in the light breeze – as are several smaller areas at our local public golf course.

             

And especially in our yard, where any unusually large number of them have appeared amongst the fescue.  Having more of a tolerance for disorder and overcrowding than Mars I have historically been more willing to put up with large numbers of them – even though wrenching the pale colored root from the ground is one of gardening most cathartic activities.  So Mars’ totally unexpected idea to allow pockets of them to flourish through out the lawn was a surprising suggestion that I eagerly adapted. 

             

I have discovered over the years that eagerly adapting surprising suggestions from your own Queen of Mystery – if you are lucky enough to have one – is generally a good idea.  And makes life much more interesting.