Over the past several spring
weeks, it has rained 18-days on The Eastern Shore. Now it is expected to rain another five
consecutive days as a result of Tropical Storm Bonnie making her way up the
Atlantic seaboard.
That needed to be mentioned
because all that sogginess has set my planting clock back nearly two
weeks. But I digress.
A brief respite from
precipitation offered an opportunity to rush outdoors to try to start some
plants that I fully expect to bloom before Halloween.
Over the abnormally-cold and
snowy winter I ardently searched for some plants with a “wow factor.”
To me, a wow factor is something
that makes people stop and look, then look again to ensure they are not looking
at a dream.
In the automotive world, my wow factor
is an AC Cobra, created by Carroll Shelby to compete against Ferraris in the
1960’s. He manufactured these two-seat
beasts out of welded framing on which an aluminum body sat; powering these
devils was a 427 cubic inch engine. But
I digress, again.
Last year’s wow factor plants
were Gladiolus. A variety of colors,
including red, yellow, maroon, pink, white, and violet, helped create a garden
that generated plenty of eye-candy.
Forty of these bulbs returned
this year to, hopefully, reinstitute interest that will invoke more oohs and
aahs from neighbors and passers-by, alike.
In addition, those of you not
familiar with The Shore might want to take note that mosquitoes abound
aplenty. The county sends a spraying
plane over the town to kill they nasty critters, usually just ahead of a good
rain.
You see, skeeter eggs hatch with
the benefit of water; standing water in flower pots, drainage ditches, rain
gutters, and even just expelled saliva in the form of spit, will cause
thousands of these disease-carrying pests to develop into full blown blood
suckers.
To counter this exercise in
exsanguination, I planted an all-natural plant to ward-off these
disease-carrying machines – Yarrow.
Yarrow is used for flavoring
beer, making tea, healing wounds, and killing mosquito larvae. This seemed like a win-win plant as I could
envision myself drinking beer without fear of being attacked by thirsty
mosquitoes.
Two plants made their way into my
shopping cart and were summarily planted into decorative pots. And all was well.
Then I began perspiring after
mowing the lawn. The sweat droplets
hatched a new generation of the blood-sucking nemeses. Short of weaving a suit and matching fedora
from this plant, mosquitoes were not impressed.
This year’s wow factor, however,
is another perennial, Eryngium Blue Sea Holly.
Although it’s too
 |
| Eryngium Blue Sea Holly |
As an aside, Eryngium is grown
for use as food, herbs, and even a remedy for scorpion stings.
Recalling my experiment with
Yarrow, and the bleak results of its ability to repel mosquitoes, was an
important factor in my plant-buying decision.
It’s a very good thing The Eastern
Shore is short on scorpion populations.
