32. Wild Roses, Green Peppers, and Possibly Strawberries?
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Please excuse the lack of newsletter last weekend! It was a long weekend here and I decided to reset a bit in nature. You can follow here, if you don’t and you want to, to see more about what goes on when I am not fervently sweating over my laptop, getting distracted by plant pictures and somehow end up daydreaming about the tropics of the Amazon or down some rabbit hole about pitcher plants.
Roses, Everywhere
It is rose season here in Amsterdam. I have only ever attempted to grow two rose plants, both of the mini and average corner florist variety. One was a yellow rose bush last summer in France, stashed in my purse after being purchased at said corner florist type shop. It was carried all through Paris and did not end up at its intended destination due to being too entranced by the sunset in Buttes-Chaumont and one too many cocktails at Combat. This yellow rose bush ended up being toted back to Amsterdam and babied through winter, but it wrinkled at the humidity up here, and positively gave up during the intense lockdown bleary winter this past February.
the blooms as they died down last autumn
For Valentine’s this year, Nico gifted me with a burgundy rose bush and to my surprise, perhaps because it has not witnessed Dutch winter, it is enjoying a little dormancy period on my balcony and will hopefully bloom again in a year after a snooze. I admire the mature rose bushes tucked here and there throughout the city here and wish one day I will be able to achieve in coaxing out beautiful blooms in my own garden. In a meantime, I will definitely indulge in a walk through the Westerpark secret gardens and enjoy their awning across the pathways.
Pepper Plants continue to blow me away
We have two gifted pepper plants from a friend of a friend (Hey Zach <3 we miss you come back), which were honestly forgotten by the front living room (North-ish facing) for most of winter. I watered them when I remembered and fertilised them when it seemed any chance of frost had dissipated. I moved the pair to a sunnier window a few weeks back and we noticed they were blooming the cutest tiny white flowers.
What followed were some skinny green peppers, which we have yet to try but will soon <3 why is it always that the most forgotten about tend to be the strongest? I mean that isn’t always the case, but I doted over a pepper plant a couple years back and could hardly get a bloom before it shrivelled up.
Strawberries?
I just saw these on my run (ahem, jog slightly) yesterday and they remind me of the arbousier tree. A tree I became obsessed with last year during our road trip up the Atlantic coast of France. There were no gardeners strolling about, so I could not ask around. In the secret gardens where I run, the gardeners are on the level of Monty Don fashionista, which is a great alter ego for an aspiring gardener. I will try to sneak a photo of these Dutch gardeners in action at some point.
Although these were more strawberry bush than strawberry tree, their shape was more spherical like the arbousier. The leaves looked similar to a regular strawberry bush, but I still couldn’t be sure. If you know, please let me know! And, if they are some extremely common Amsterdam wild strawberry that peeks out between all park bushes and are a known fact to everyone - excuse my ignorance at coming up blank. More embarrassing if they are absolutely normal strawberry bushes and I was just overthinking their shape and existence (and missing France’s Atlantic coast), but oh well there you have it.
Also, no I did not taste them, even though there were no gardeners around to ask - these gardens for sure have some ghosts watching for any overzealous visitors. So I didn’t dare.
Arbousier last summer in Seignosse, a place I highly recommend visiting if you want to see the most beautiful fauna against a powerful Atlantic backdrop.
Some things nourishing me this week:
Open air opera performance in Erasmuspark on Friday
Lulu’s first sail
anything with vermouth in the sun
the babies in the guestroom (it is off limits normally, which means it is their favourite room), with the pepper plants in the background
my first passionflower, which I did not end up taking a photo of because I thought I could do it in a day or so when it was sunnier. Unfortunately, it did not last long enough, and I kick myself for not taking the photo earlier. It was so gorgeous, you will just have to believe me. Sorry guys.
When my dad and I were in Portugal, we met the gardeners of the property we stayed at. They gave my dad a little tour and bonded over oxalis, my dad wanted to try to grow the yellow ones back in Canada, but it wasn’t the time to forage for seeds just yet. Filomena, one of the gardeners, offered to send the seeds to me once harvested, and I would give them to my dad when I saw him next. They just arrived in the mail a couple weeks ago, in time for my dad’s birthday. It made us both tear up, sometimes humanity is just the sweetest thing, I intend to send her some seeds back as a thank you.
Happy Pride Month!! This is a vibe I hold dear to my heart, obviously. Embrace the rainbow, shop it, donate to it, lead with love and compassion and be there for your loved ones <3.
I just love this one of my parents, taken a million years ago, thought I would share:
Happy Pride <3 Thank you all for being here, if there is anything in the plant world you want to hear more about, shoot me a DM and I’ll see what I can do! See you next week and Happy Strawberry full moon!
it is also peony season, but peonies deserve their own post so that is coming soon..
