Killing flowers.
Boldly flirting and flaunting like incoming freshmen college girls. The old bags ignored.©
Again.
Ripped out by their crowns.
Screams must have been felt.
Confused wailings,
“You loved me then. Picked me out of the colorful crowd. Cuddled and cooed all the way home. Settled in comfortably. Happily. Then you lost interest. Looked to other beauties while I weathered storms and remained constant. A little beaten down by time, but revitalized with Spring. Hope of sweetness returning.
Yet this brutal treatment. Tossing me aside. Replaced by a newer model. She’s so fresh. And here bagged, unquestionably dumped. Worse than abandonment. Completely destroyed.
With what energy left weakly pleading for an explanation, “Why? What did I do wrong?”
Hurriedly, the landscape crew stuffs them out of sight into black bags – quickly, roughly – to hush the guilt from this ruthless seasonal landscape change from velvet winter pansies to frilly spring pastels.
Killing flowers doesn’t seem right.
To invite them home, bed them, then rip them from your lives.
If it can be so easily done with defenseless ones who only bloom to please – can it be such a surprise if such cruelty and thoughtlessness is directed at other living things?
Thought. Connected? Maybe, maybe not.
But I hate killing flowers.
Love. Love not.
Could we likewise be weeded?
Hope’s knot.
Phil, the Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge.
Noticing, they’ve been noticed, they preen in the sun. Gossiping among themselves while watching the watchers – like teens at the pool in the summer.©
Usurpers. As smug as Anne Boleyn.
“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
Old time is still a-flying
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.”
(Read Robert Herrick’s poem here.)
Innocent, yet killers. ©
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Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge 
I feel bad too to @kill@ flowers. I kept my primroses from last year and used it this year again… they are alittle small but still alive
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Our native pink primroses that grow wild will be showing up soon in fields and anywhere they wish. Molly likes them for 2 reasons, bees and butterflies hover around them (so more fun: leap and chase!) and she munches the leaves. I think she tried to munch the pot of impatients, too – they were managing the winter and all the rain, then suddenly they were topless and folded over. Molly insists it was the German who stood on them trying to grab the squirrel. Stuff here has to be pawproof. Thanks for digging up a comment
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Sigh, so sad that the old but still alive flowers have to be discarded. Could they not be donated somehow? Perhaps some flowers for the poor?
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We finally got it across to those who make decisions that it was totally unnecessary to redo the entire landscape multiple times a year. Now there are roses and bushes for background with a small part of seasonal blooming plants put in 3-4 times a year (depending on weather). Our weather has wide seasonal swings so few flowers can manage to survive the whole year: winter, rainy season, extreme heat and sun. You have to know when to plant what. Pansies go in around Nov (or it will be too cold/wet for them to get established) and now it the time for spring/early summer flowers. Realistically those flowers were nearing the end of their lifespan and in decline because while it’s been cool and rainy, the summer temperatures are already here – and they have to get plants into the ground quickly so they have a chance – the ground is already baking hard and cracking. with luck these plants will make it to mid July before they give up. In August, plants/lawn will go a bit dormant – just too hot and dry for much growth. If you notice the change out, they will give you some old flowers, but even with care they won’t make it long. Guess it’s a dilemma whether to watch them slowly die and become bedraggled or replace them. At least this company monitors growth and doesn’t switch plants just because they want to make some money. (We think the last company who was constantly pulling plants was giving someone in charge a cut) It’s still sad to me, though. Telling a living thing, “Sorry, your time is up.” Karma. Thanks for pausing to smell the flowers (hope you are doing well)
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I’ve always felt that way too. Have you ever noticed much of landscaping is creating work to mimic nature?
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Sustainable landscaping with regional natives should become more the norm. Water is a precious resource. Mandated lush green lawns don’t make sense everywhere. The whole concept of landscape “beauty” needs a redo. Thanks for planting a comment, Rumpy
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I agree–killing flowers doesn’t seem right. We only have flowers in the late spring and summer. Well, for a couple weeks anyway. Until the deer and bunnies eat them all. But hey, at least they’re another animal’s nutrition that way. 🙂
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Providing snacks for deer and bunnies! Supplementing the animal menus constantly does take up a lot of time and energy. The least they can do is pose and look cute. Thanks for snaring a comment to leave
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I never catch them replacing our town flower pots, or I’d beg them for the leavings! I rarely grow things that don’t keep living year after year. Imagine if I ever moved, I’d dig up the whole garden to take with me!
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Pretty much have plants that take care of themselves now – just a bit of trimming, spring cutting down to size and some pots that I fill with flowers -usually from the they are dying so really cheap racks in a couple of nurseries…they just need water and proper location! (and move the pots to what ever location needs protection from Molly’s games – propping up a palm she’s tried to relocate, redirect hide and seek paths through bushes. The German will jump bushes, Molly barrels through them and tears off branches with her teeth if they get in her way.) I always take cuttings and plants with me when we move – just can’t abandon some of them – some come the farm/houses where we lived as kids. Keeps links from where I am to where I was. Thanks for leaving a blooming comment
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Guess I’m lucky that our patch is so small that Neko can barely get up a good head of steam before slamming to a halt and churning up the grass! She’s been known to pick a tomato or two and eat them, but otherwise she leaves my greenery alone. Then again, she’s spoilt rotten and thinks inside, where it is clean and dry, is the only place for a dog of her caliber.
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Neko sounds like the German. We do end up with some banked curves when the ground is soft. The yard is narrow but U shaped so they if you don’t see them, you’d better watch out, they’ll be rounding the corner at full speed.I think they’ve got assigned seats on the couch…especially during the summer – and it looks like we going to skip spring and go straight into roast.
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The city sometimes does that around here – I don’t get it. What a waste of money and beauty.
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At least it’s just the front part of the flower beds now. I don’t know any flowers that can maintain a put together floral appearance for long in this climate – and keeping anything alive in from July 4- Sept is difficult. Plants manage for a bit then die from heat, too much or too little water and then there’s the frosts. This crew is pretty good about not pulling them out until they are pretty ragged and giving up. RIght now it’s 3-4 times a year depending on weather/water. A few years ago they were replacing plants constantly – I think one of the board members must have had relatives in the business or something. Slowly people are getting used to using native regional plants. Water is becoming a precious resource. Thanks for picking out a comment to leave
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The City of Sydney has lovely “Living Colour” displays in huge planters made up of individiual pots which when it’s over they give away http://whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/events/12247-free-living-colour-plant-giveaway-this-weekend 🙂
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I love those huge planter displays. What a cool idea to hand over the colorful plants. Many business and places here are beginning to place giant planters in their areas instead of flowerbeds. Makes a great deal of sense here: raised beds don’t get as waterlogged, in dry times you can water a container more easily…and people/dogs don’t get too up close and personal with them – easier to weed, too. Thanks for that gorgeous link!
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Killing flowers is wicked. I’ll never understand that special municipality mentality that compells gardening committees to only plant flowers they’re going to dig up and throw away in a couple of months. Why do they not plan proper gardens, plant varieties that will settle in for good? If they hate petunias so much why plant them in the first place? Plant lavender or marguerites or something that will come back the following year.
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Far too many want that Disneyland perfect scene, I guess. It is wasteful, costly, and plants do feel and anticipate pain as research has now shown. While more and more people are searching out native plants that do better in their regions, nothing is going to survive and bloom here in this climate year round. (But does it need to? People will have to decide.) This is a coastal prairie area. More prairie grasses are being planted in landscapes.(and really look great – some of those do not survive the freezes, though) Designated wild flower areas are expanding in suburbs, cities, as well as along highways. Lavender doesn’t grow here. There is a nice little feathery Mexican heather with small purple flowers that bees love which is popular and adapt and comes back most springs – and a flowering vine that is called “Mexican daisy’ that will take over everything – it has to be trimmed constantly but is often used in public areas where nothing else grows when the ground bakes and cracks – it dies but returns.
It would be good for people to rethink – Water is becoming a monitored resource in many areas (in dry summers we may have water rationing – no matter how wet the winter or spring floods). Small patches of decorative plants and large containers of plants work just as well as constantly changing flower showcases.
Thanks for gathering a lovely bouquet of comments
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Only planting what is indigenous is sensible, and as you say nothing flourishes all year round. I live in a region where the roses bloom through December, poppies bloom all year as long as there’s no hard frost (and there rarely is) and the sprlng plants like primroses and pansies flower naturally from January/February. It still doesn’t stop the council planting, digging up and throwing away several times a year, just for variety. The gardeners are happy to give the plants away to anyone who wants them. They hate seeing them go for mulching too!
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I love poppies, but they won’t grow here. Our Knock-out roses are a type that blooms almost all year round and make small bushes or hedges and are disease resistant. Since they became available, people have started using them a great deal. Pansies are winter plantings that go in end of Oct/before Thanksgiving and usually manage to last untilFeb/MArch before getting leggy and giving up totally.
The big thing here is that it’s a resort area. When people arrive at the conference center/marina/lakefront, they expect tropical. So the hotel area has to look spiffy – but even they go into survival mode in Aug.
It’s nice when the gardeners offer the plants to people. Sometimes a little water/shade can revive them. APpreciate you sitting down to chat
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Funny what you say about people wanting tropical. Everybody here has a palm tree in their garden and the municipailty is forever sticking the horrible things in tubs to decorate some favoured street. Thing is they don’t like this climate (oceanic and damp) and they look dreadful. Like olive trees and bougainvillea. Everybody insists in planting them because they are Mediterranean, and who grows Mediterranean plants must have a Med climate. Silly.
I like talking about plants and the stupidity of local councils 🙂
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I know someone who had to move to Philadelphia area – and took a palm tree with them for their front yard. Every winter construct a plastic wrapped structure around it with heat lamps blasting. It’s like airport lighting bright. Don’t know what they are going to do as the darn thing is now reaching the second story level.
There’s nice native plants there – love the plants you are with! (thanks for giggling along)
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Beautiful post! … I second your statements … And will say I might feel guilty as well when “I kill” a flower… Very well penned, by the way! … All my best wishes Aquileana 😀
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People who actually plant themselves seem to understand the foolishness of constantly changing plants that aren’t the best for a spot. Those that simply hire landscapers seem to only care about the appearance of a location. Disneyland has many trained well? (giggles) Hope your weekend is full of fun and color. Thanks for planting a lovely comment here.
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I’m all about perennials where I can use them, partly because they seem more practical to me and partly because I’m lazy. Why keep re-planting the same area if you can do it once and be done with it? My observation about municipalities and neighbors who go hog wild with ever-changing annuals is that this type of gardening has nothing to do with helping the earth or creating beauty. It’s all about the cult of busyness. They. Must. Keep. Busy. And so, tossing a few flowers aside every few months doesn’t bother them, as long as they have something to do.
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Annuals are cool because they are cheap and brighten things up. Some talented people can grow them from seeds (now that’s cool). And most of them beg you to put them out of their misery here in August. Usually I’ll just let them fade on their own while I mix in some fresh plants…in selected locations/pots..until it gets into the 90’s – then the plants are all on their own.
All the frantic flower change-outs is the Disneyland syndrome. Or, as here. Someone on the board has a friend/family in the business- and enjoys spending other people’s money. It’s been dialed back here currently. Landscape now is mostly perennials with small spots of color. The new landscape company actually monitors both the grass and flowerbeds before doing anything. Sometimes they just plug in a few fresh plants here and there – or will take plants from a bed that is struggling and move them to another bed to fill in spots. The landscape looks just as good or better.
You’re right about people finding ways to keep busy and keep getting paid. As budgets tightened here in the past, the city museums, libraries, and public buildings had to rethink and put in low maintenance landscaping. That’s the best place to learn which plants work with minimum effort/water/care. Leaves more time for doing other things.
Thanks for sorting through plants here!
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Don’t get much of that around here. Mostly xeriscape stuff. Perennials, grasses, etc., for desert climates. I confess I did enjoy the annuals that the grounds crews put in at the apt. complex where I lived for two years. (Never thought of it as killing flowers, but then I never saw them actually pulling stuff out.) Either way, none of today. It’s snowing.
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Snowing? That must be one of the 2 fronts headed this way a day or two apart. We’re windy, overcast and sneezing from pollen.
I always liked the way Estes Park and Boulder used seasonal plantings plopped in pots and around natural rocks. Just enough to look pretty but not Disneyland. Of course in CO restraint has to be used due to hungry deer and the like. Flowers there don’t fade (also known as giving up and cratering from heat) as fast as here. Watering might be the big issue. Snow brings water…and CA is going to be grabbing a lot this summer. Stay warm and watch out for tourists on the roads. Thanks for hiking by
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Oh, Philmouse, we don’t like this either. Besides that the flowers are beautiful, they are also living things, but unfortunately some people don’t care about nature and some think it’s COOL to… harm them…. 😦
Pawkisses for an eggstra Happy Easter and hope your Easter Bunny Day is filled with fun in every way 🙂 ❤
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Flowers are so happy and bloom so much it’s really ungrateful to rip them out because someone is tired of them or wants a change. It has made me think more about what plants I buy and try to remember they should be placed where they can thrive and live in peace happily. Which may sound silly to some, but after seeing the research how plants are aware and do physically/chemically/biologically know fear, anticipate, and react to painful stimuli…you have to think a bit.
RC Cat and Molly had had their Easter brushing and are excitedly sending paw waves and wishes for the hoppiest Easter ever to you!
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I am lucky here. I’m not in a neighborhood where yards and flower gardens are expected to be “just so”. If anything survives the Oklahoma heat bearing down on the sandy soil, it deserves to live, and I let the annuals reseed. I divide and replant perennials that thrive here. We plant all sorts of wild things that multiply… and if invasive, then I transplant it in the woodlands. Surely something appreciates the cover or shelter, or seeds/fruits. I buy just a few colorful annuals each year, to put in pots and an old bathtub used for decoration. Most of my flowers reseed themselves from year to year. All I have to do is weed. Nothing is uniform or color coordinated. It just grows wild!
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We live in similar climate even though you are inland. Hot is hot and few plants can survive August. Sticking with the hardy ones and relocating “volunteers” (as my dad called native plants that showed up in the wrong place) is a smart move. A few annuals here and there to live out their lives as they see fit – you never know, they might tell their friends. Thanks for seeding in a blooming comment
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That is pretty sad to rip out perfectly alive flowers. I didn’t see much of that in Phoenix – the neighborhood I was in stayed with desert landscaping so there wasn’t seasonal change out. Then again, there aren’t really seasons in Phoenix, haha!
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One long endless summer! Makes thing easier. This landscape company is pretty good about not doing a change out until needed. My pansies have just sagged and are begging for replacements.May be a while if it rains as much as they predict the next couple of days. Thanks for gathering up a comment to leave
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