DOGBANE, HYDRANGEAS AND LISTEN TO THE MUSIC

DOGBANE FLOWERS...

...STEM AND LEAVES

P.G. HYDRANGEA, WHITE FLOWERED

...BLUE FLOWERED

Thursday, 7:45 AM.  61 degrees F, wind WNW, light.  The sky is clear with the usual haze in the east. The humidity is down to 70% and the barometer is up, at 30.13".  Yesterday afternoon was quite warm but it cooled off well last night, which was almost as bright as day under a full moon and cloudless skies.  Today should much more comfortable than yesterday and I will have no excuse not to do garden and yard work.

   The genus Hydrangea is of very great importance in ornamental horticulture.  Most of the species and varieties are quite hardy and trouble-free, have spectacular blooms, and bloom mid-summer into fall, when few other shrubs are in flower.  There are some species native to the southern US, but most of those used in landscaping are of Asian origin.  These plants have been hybridized for a very long time and there are many different varieties, and some have been further hybridized to the point that there can be a great deal of confusion as to proper nomenclature.  The old familiar P.G Hydrangea, Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora, now comes in a lot of different colors and forms, and if you want a particular plant you had best pick it out when it is in bloom so you get what you want.  Hydrangea flower colors are sensitive to soil pH (acidity and alkalinity) and formerly some varieties would produce blue flowers with alkaline fertilizer and pink flowers with acid fertilizer, but newer varieties are more true to color despite soil pH.  Our own big "mop head" Hydrangea is not blooming as yet, weeks late this year. Use the blog search engine to read previous blogs about these plants.

   Dogbane, AKA Indian hemp, is a native sub-shrub, not quite woody but not really herbaceous either.  There are several species, this one is probably Apocynum androsaemifolium, in the dogbane family.  They grow in waste places and woods edges, and unfortunately in gardens.  En mass they are not unattractive but they will take over an area completely given the opportunity.  The latin name refers to its reputed toxicity to dogs, and one would infer to humans as well, as it causes heart arrhythmia if ingested.  Its stems are very tough and supple and were used to make rope by native Americans, thus its common name, Indian hemp.

   The recent "thrill killing" by three teenagers in Georgia reminds one of  Leopold and Lowe, two University of Chicago law students who killed a fourteen year old boy in an attempt to "commit the perfect crime," back in 1924.  Add the senseless murders by Bonney and Clyde and Charles Starkweather.  These type of crimes reminds us, if we should forget, that there is indeed such a thing as pure evil, and that it does occur and reoccur in society.
   History seems now to be repeating itself, with thrill killing, gangsterism, substance abuse, narcissism  and all sorts of  gross immorality pervading the culture, just as it did in the 1920's.  The Roaring Twenties ended with the Great Depression and eventually World War Two.  Did the social  regression of the Western World in the 1920's precipitate the tragedies of the '30's and 40's, or was there no real connection? The same societal dysfunction occurred on nearly the same scale in the 1960's; remember Charlie Manson,  the drug scene, gratuitous riots, and finally  recession,  the Vietnam War and hyper inflation? ? Is our culture in a precipitous downward slide today that will come to an end only with economic collapse and war?  Listen to the popular music.  It usually tells us where we are heading.