Botanicals

I confess I'm not a G.R.I.T.S. That's a Girl Raised In The South for you Northerners.

I am a G.W.I.T.S. That's a Girl Wintering In The South.

One of the best parts of spending the winter in South Carolina is enjoying the gardens. Having spent my first 20 years in Southern California, I recognize many of the flowers: camelias, gardenias, hibiscus. And, of course, the hardy annuals: pansies, snap dragons, flowering cabbage and ornamental kale and parsley.

But I don't recognize this. I was so captivated by the berries that I tried to dry them and take them home with me one year. But they wouldn't dry. They rotted. Darn.

So can anyone identify this shrub and it's berries? I think it might be a type of philodendron. Do they ever bloom? Or are these green berry clusters the blossom?



Any gardeners out there???

Late at Night While You're Sleeping.......

No, this is not a post about anything you need to hide from your kids. Nor is it about anything scary.

Unless the thought of poison ivy scares you.

About two weeks ago I awoke with what I thought were insect bites on my knee. No big deal, bites are not uncommon around here in the summertime. They expanded within days...more it seemed and they were swelling, some as large as a dime. Spider bites I thought!

Hydrogen peroxide followed. Then "smears" made from water and crushed aspirin or baking soda or salt. The itching was relieved but the "bites" were looking really ugly. I will spare you the details and will definitely not be posting any pictures. Trust me, it's really, really gross.

I was terrified to go to bed thinking there was a colony of insects lurking somewhere close by, waiting to feast on me during the night. Everything in my bedroom was scoured and disinfected.

More investigation followed (what did we do before the internet?) and I discovered that my ailment was possibly not insect related but perhaps plant related. I had been pulling weeds in the garden...had I found poison ivy or poison oak??? I have been weeding this garden for 15 years and had not run into the stuff but this has been a wet year and the weeds are thriving. I wear gloves so my hands were not affected, but perhaps I had kneeled on/near some poison ivy and then had transferred the toxin from my gloves to my thigh! Yikes!

Now the rash has spread to my other leg. My Honey has it on his knee and hand (he doesn't wear gloves!)but very minor compared to my outbreak. I am applying hydrocortisone cream half a dozen times a day and am ready to call the doctor tomorrow if there isn't a drastic improvement soon. I only hesitate since I took a course of prednisone and antitbiotics in May for that

nasty bite

(Poison ivy?) on my finger and I don't like to overdo on the drugs.

So now I am obsessed with cleaning every surface I might have contaminated with the poison ivy toxin. It could have been transferred from my gloves or the clothes I was wearing, my shoes, what touched my skin before I washed, is it in my house!?!?!?

And that old song keeps playing in my head:

Late at night while you're sleeping
Poison ivy comes a creeeping around!