THE NINEBARK, AND A DIVERSIONARY ATTACK

SCREATIVITY IN FOUNTAIN GARDEN PARK

NINEBARK...

BLOSSOM

Thursday, 8:00 AM.  60 degrees F,l wind WNW, dead cam at present.  The humidity is 75% and the sky is filled with black rain clouds. It feels like rain.
    Ninebark, Physocarpus opulifolius, in the rose family, is a shrub native to southern Canada, the upper Midwest and the northeastern US. It grows in a variety of poor soils; mostly gravelly shores and thickets. I can’t say that I see much of it in the wild, but it is a common and utilitarian landscape shrub. It makes a good hedge, trimmed or untrimmed, blooms well and has a rather decorative exfoliating bark reminiscent of paper birch.  In order for the latter characteristic to be apparent, the growth of new young stems must be encouraged by yearly pruning.  I find it a useful border or rough hedge plant, but it can have a rather unkempt appearance if not kept pruned and controlled.
    Political commentary: Attorney General Erick Holder, being under attack in Congress for the administration’s high level security leaks to the press and the Fast and Furious gun scandal, has responded with a diversionary attack on the State of Florida’s voter registration law, which was enacted to purge illegal immigrants and dead people from the voter registration rolls.  It certainly looks as though he is proving his worth and loyalty to the President and the Democrat Party in hopes of not being “thrown under the bus.”  However, his liability to both entities now arguably being greater than his assets, I predict he will suddenly leave, either resign or fired, and soon.