The Naked Lady: Reprise and Reprieve - Part 1

They stood tall in their naked beauty, now faded into old age, reflecting a cycle of life, all nature demonstrates, birth, life, death, and rebirth. See Summer Nudity Has Arrived.....

If these Naked Ladies could speak, what an interesting witness to history they might be. The Naked Lady bulbs (NLBs) occupied our property when we moved here in May, 1980. A previous owner planted common day lilies, field daffodils, Arkansan wildflowers, flowering quince (Japonica), yucca, climbing miniature roses, lilac bush, mock orange bush, native strawberries, blackberries and blueberries and NLBs, some of which exist to this day.

The surviving plantings include a few strawberries, field daffodils, yucca, japonica (produces quinces), climbing roses and NLBs. The survivors have a strong will to live as my husband(H) does not garden; cutting grass is his full time job. I suffered through gardening in the resistant northern Arkansas rocky soil (residium of sandstone, siltstone, shale and/or limestone) until knee surgeries in 2002, 2003. Gardening and knee prostheses do not amicably co-exist.

In August 1980 a strange single stalk (pole) erupted and grew several inches overnight; I asked a neighbor what it was, and he grinned, "Naked Lady." I missed Act 1 in 1980, the bulb's spring showy prelude of dense greenery, i.e., thick leaves similar to other spring bulbs, but no flowers. But Act 2 was spectacular as 5-7 pink trumpet shaped flowers adorned a single stalk; I was hooked. A very descriptive web site about Naked Ladies, in Arkansas is here.

I separated and transplanted the onion-sized bulbs several times over nearly 30 years,until all available locations were filled with Naked Ladies, or so I thought. Not only were these Ladies promiscuous, they proliferated and moved about my yard to locations I never planted. At first I blamed squirrels, but I have come to believe they, like Japanese honeysuckle in Arkansas, have naturalized and possibly sprout from seed, which is not normal. This year was a bumper crop in northern Arkansas.

Since I look for every day happenings as subjects for blogs and photos, quite naturally a post was right under my nose, waiting to be written and posted. The result: Summer Nudity Has Arrived...

Unexpectedly the post drew a lot of comment and inquiry, including Pat - Arkansas (Pat - AR), of Remembrances of An Arkansas Stamper, who loves lilies, and weekly posts beautiful photos of lilies and other flowers as part of a meme. If you are a rubber stamper, she also has a blog, Rubber Stampers - Visionary People.

Pat -AR had missed a couple of opportunities for NLBs. Learning that my beds were packed with bulbs which needed thinning she offered to dig NLBs. Sounding like a winner to my back, bones and knees, not to mention allergies and COPD, I eagerly exchanged several e-mails where we arrived at a date compatible with every one's schedule, including NLBs: August 27. The NLBs' blooms would be gone by this date, we estimated.

I was excited to meet a blogger, actually one of the first to be a follower of my young blogging efforts. Bloggers do sometimes meet,but I never expected to meet anyone so soon in my short blogging career. Arkansas Patti of The New Sixty posted such a meeting in a blog entitled Meet and Greet .

Who would have though NLBs, which I planned to discard, would be a common denominator in bringing two bloggers together?

It just goes to show one person's trash is another person's treasure. I'd been through this separation/thinning routine in 2002. I couldn't give the NLBs away, so I pretty much planned to throw this crop away!

Part 1 is the Reprise (repetition of a phrase or return to a theme).

Part 2 Reprieve (for the NLBs) who will witness another chapter in their history but most important, my delight in meeting a fellow blogger, her daughter and granddaughter all of which had a triple bonus in meeting H and Luckie, too!Things are fixin' to be more fun..well everything but the diggin'!!!

[ First 3 photos, Naked Ladies and bulbs ( my photo). Last (4th) photo: Pat, left; Carol right; photo courtesy of Pat - AR]