Indomitable

Lilyturf

My sister, the horticulturist, has given me many, many plants over the years. Her yard is lovely. Of course, she waters her flowers regularly and pulls out the weeds.

I am a bad plant mom and hope for rain so I don't have to water the flowers. I weed a bit when it's not too hot. I struggle with the over-abundance of hungry deer who eat everything I attempt to grow—even the plants that are poisonous. And yet, the deer don't always win because some of the plants are indomitable.

Echinacea

 In the top photo, you can see where the deer nibbled away at the green leaves of the Lilyturf. I was surprised when the flowers appeared despite the leaves getting chopped off.

The deer nibbled the echinacea down to about three inches. But while the flower isn't as lush as it could be, it bloomed anyway.

My sister had given me seeds for brown-eyed susans years ago. For a while, I had lots of those bright flowers. But the deer enjoyed the taste of them as well, leaving me no seeds to gather.

Or so I thought.

Brown Eyed Susans

One brown-eyed susan plant came up this year between the blacktop and the edging beneath the hedges. I left it there and surprisingly it bloomed.

Montauk Daisies

Then there are the Montauk daisies. I bought root hormone and nurtured the baby plants and when the roots appeared I put the small plants into the ground. The deer came along and bit them down to the dirt.

So I figured that was it. Then after one rainy week, I noticed the plants were doing their best to recover from being pruned by the deer.

There's hope.

Maybe next year I'll have more flowers.

💖