Cleome, Queen of the Garden

Cleome.


Pretty flower for mid-late summer bloom.


It's also called the "spider flower" but I don't like spiders. So I'm calling it cleome - when I remember it's name at all, that is.

I bought one last year for the first time. It's very tall, blooms at a time when there's very little else blooming, and it lasts a long time. 


Mom and I were talking about it this past spring and I decided to get a couple more for the summer. Off to the garden shop the Man and I went.


Hmm, I wonder what kind of flower that was?


I described it to the very nice man at the garden shop and he knew exactly what I wanted.


Yay, Garden Shop Man!


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This post is mainly to help me remember NEXT year when I decide I want the same flower. So if I see you next spring, and ask you - What was the name of the flower that I love for mid-late summer? - you can tell me.


Cleome.

Clever little clover, popping up in the middle of the grass.

I had no idea that corn had hair.

Or that it needs a shave.


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I'm sitting in my cozy, comfy chair watching the Olympics and writing this post. J walks in all hot and sweaty from playing tennis with K. He's been teaching her how to play and getting her out to practice with him. 


Good exercise. Fun exercise.


J and his friends are a bit obsessed with tennis right now, did I mention that? As in, they play ALL THE TIME. For hours at a time. They find strangers on the courts to double up with and play against. They eat, breathe, and drink tennis this summer.


They are constantly looking for newer, better tennis rackets and buying cans and cans of tennis balls, water bottles, looser shorts, sweat bands, and so on. Obsessed, I tell you.


So I'm sitting in my cozy, comfy chair and the Olympics are on. John McEnroe is interviewing the American women's beach volleyball team. While J and I are chatting, he keeps looking at the TV. Finally he says, "Who is THAT guy? He looks so familiar."


The Man and I say, "That's John McEnroe, the tennis player."


J looks relieved, "Oh, yeah, I knew he looked familiar." Well, of course he does, he's one of the most famous tennis players ever.


"He's on all my tennis ball cans."


I wonder if John knows how famous he is.