Last night around 9pm as I was coming in from watering the garden I noticed it was dusk. Still warm, but the night sky was definitely gathering and the birds had quieted. It was only a few weeks ago that this moment of the day didn’t arrive until closer to 10pm. Clearly we’re on the downhill side of Summer and once again I’ve missed my chance to plant a flower clock. I say “missed” because many of the plants need the long, lazy daylight hours of high summer to play their role in the floral timepiece. What the heck am I talking about??!? Read on:
The renowned eighteenth-century botanist, Carl Linnaeus, father of taxonomy, was obsessed with the idea of a flower clock or “watch of Flora” as he referred to it. He compiled a list of forty-six flowers that opened and closed at predictable times throughout a 24-hour period. The resulting garden – believed to be conceptual rather than a reality due to the climatic limitation of his northern European garden in Hammersby, Sweden – contained plants from throughout the world.
Following Linnaeus’s lead, in the nineteenth century it became popular for gardeners to plant up actual clock gardens. Circular flowerbeds were laid out in twelve segments to represent the face of a clock, with each segment containing flowers that opened at the time represented by its placement within the garden. Such a garden might contain:
5 A.M. Morning glory vine
6 A.M. Daylily and catmint
7 A.M. Dandelion
8 A.M. African daisy, scarlet pimpernel and red catchfly
9 A.M. Gentian, marigold, ice plant, chickweed, and moss rose
10 A.M. California poppy
11 A.M. Star of Bethlehem and sweet peas
Noon Passionflower
1-3 P.M. In the heat of the day the garden pauses; place a bench to signify repose.
4 P.M. Four-o’clocks
5 P.M. Evening primrose
6 P.M. Moonflower, flowering tobacco, and angel’s trumpet
An excerpt from Hortus Miscellaneous, my first book.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Lorene, I love the flower clock! I love the ongoing hummingbird narrative
(So curious to hear YOU, the once anti-hummingbird girl, going on and on about
your sweet little babies!) Love it! Sorry one of the twins has departed. Talk about the
empty nest syndrome! Symbolism here, what with your baby going off to college….
Guess where I am anyway? I’m sitting in Kathy LaFleur’s guest house overlooking
her awesome rosemary parterre – yup, the very one! Bruce and I are on a kid-free
weekend away to visit his college friends in LaJolla and the LaFleurs offered us
their guesthouse. Pretty nifty, huh?
Missing you~ Deb
Oh dear…”anti” hummingbird?!? Isn’t that rather like anti-Bambi, or anti-kittens? My secret is out.
I know something’s seriously wrong with DC’s current weather pattern. My Morning Glories and my Moonflower are both open right now (8:45 AM), and they both open in the evening, as well.
In my brother’s Ft. Worth neighborhood, the Sunflowers are all facing different directions.
At my age, I find this disconcerting.