A Shasta Daisy and The Fibonacci Sequence

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul.” – Luther Burbank

With no rain in sight, my plants are becoming thirsty and I have to water them so they don’t dry out. I stopped for a minute to contemplate the droplets on a perfectly perfect Shasta daisy.

Nature is amazing. Everything is related to everything. Nothing is simply what it seems.

Many flowers exhibit a petal count that corresponds to Fibonacci numbers. Shasta daisies have twenty-one. This is something I didn’t even know about until recently. If they taught it in school, it’s another one of those days when I wasn’t paying attention.

In the 13th century an Italian mathematician, Leonardo de Pisa, better known today as Fibonacci, published a book called Liber Abaci. He introduced a number sequence that became known as the Fibonacci sequence. Starting with 0 and 1, each new number in the sequence is the sum of the two before it.  0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377.

The golden mean or the golden ratio is a special number found by dividing a line into two parts.

The golden mean and the Fibonacci spiral are connected to life, even spiritual life. They can be found in nature in the number of petals of flowers, the way the tiniest stem
unfurls, in spirals in seashells, and more. 

The golden proportion of 1.618 is found in key proportions of the body in humans, animals, insects, and in DNA. Our perceptions of beauty support that phi is a factor in what we find attractive.https://energeticgeometry.com/

That’s a pretty weighty concept for my brain to absorb or even understand. The possibilities seem endless, one more mystery of the universe.

I’m an uncomplicated person. All I know for sure is that I love the way Shasta daisies spread to fill in the empty spaces like they fill my heart and make me happy.

“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.” – Theodore Roethke.

Stargazing

After being subjected to the real world for a while by the trial and guilty verdict of an ex-President — as I shake my head and wonder how ANYONE could have voted for that narcissistic orange blowhard, it’s time to recover with the simple, joyful, garden beauty of a Stargazer Lily — like a palate cleanser, but instead for my brain.

I’m super allergic to the alluring fragrance of most cut flowers in a vase, but I can enjoy them in the garden without sneezing. Stargazers return every year; this is the first bloom to fully open, but you can see all the others waiting their turn.

May’s Full Flower Moon

The Flower Moon reminds us that the most beautiful blossoms have deep roots — as this lunation is receiving a motivating push from subterranean planet Pluto, which could catalyze some deep emotional excavation. 

To honor this beautiful full moon, which the Lakota call “Moon Of The Green Leaves”, here are some of my favorite flower photos…

All photos by Enchanted Seashells

(Some content curated from Bustle)

Dogwood and Lilac

“Come spring, in the shaded forests near my home
Blooms the elegant and lovely dogwood tree…” — Shakespeare

“In another world and another day.
Moonlight turns the purple lilacs blue.
..” — Conrad Aiken

These are two of my favorite flowers. I really wish they thrived in Southern California, but sadly, they don’t. I have to see them in photos from the Pacific Northwest and try to recollect the alluring fragrance.

The Lilac Fairy, Cicely Mary Barker

darkness

“If everything around seems dark,
look again, you may be the light.”
Rumi

Credit Enchanted Seashells

Sometimes all we need is the perfectly petite flower of a fragrant geranium to change darkness to light; sadness to joy — and sometimes WE are the light.

Dawn’s Beauty

Up at dawn, the dewy freshness of the hour,
the morning rapture of the birds,
the daily miracle of sunrise, set her heart in tune,

and gave her Nature’s most healing balm.
~ Louisa May Alcott

Because of all the rain we’ve had, spring blossoms in the garden are exceptionally lush. My Cup of Gold vine (Solandra guttata/Solandra maxima) is bursting with flowers and this gigantic dinner-plate sized golden chalice looked right at me as if to say “good morning.”

What a spectacular way to greet the day!

Enchanted Places

“There is a garden in every childhood,
an enchanted place,
where colors are brighter,
the air is softer,
and the morning more fragrant than ever again.”

Quote by Elizabeth Lawrence
Art by Jessie Willcox Smith (1863 – 1935)
Curated from Ravenous Butterflies

Surveying a Joyful Garden

Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.” – Goethe

Sometimes we don’t notice the beauty we’re surrounded with until we look with fresh eyes.

I was focused on a major cleanup project in the garden when I finally took a breath and looked up. It was only then that I noticed being surrounded with the joy of color. Everywhere I turned, I was greeted with the wonder of nature.

Blooming calendula…

Felicia amelloides variegata: ‘Variegated Marguerite Blue Daisy’…

“Let us come alive to the splendor that is all around us and see the beauty in ordinary things.” — Thomas Merton

 Yellow Marguerite Daisy…

…and prolific white daisy groundcover…

There’s so much to be grateful for!

Acacia in bloom…

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” — A.A. Milne

You’re totally right, Piglet!

All photo credit to Enchanted Seashells

Forget-Me-Not

I was at a free expo a couple months ago and grabbled a package of forget-me-not seeds. I tossed them in a planter and forgot about them until today.

This is their first flowering!

Forget-me-nots symbolize true love, fidelity, and respect. It’s also associated with Alzheimer’s disease, and has (weirdly) been adopted as a symbol by the Freemasons.

Germans coined the most common name used for this flower, das Vergissmeinnicht, because of the myth of two lovers who first saw the bright blue flowers as they walked along the Danube River. The man retrieved the flowers for the woman but was swept away by the river. As he floated away, he told her not to forget him.

Whether the story is true or not, it’s certainly made the forget-me-not a lasting symbol of remembrance.

Myosotis sylvatica readily reseeds, so I’m hoping to grow more and more in the garden because the blue is so valiantly BLUE and truly unforgettable.

Small But Colorful

No, I’m not narcissistically describing ME, lol, but this little Thanksgiving cactus (zygocactus) with its dazzling, almost glowing, salmon pink showy blooms, is all dressed up to become the centerpiece at dinner.

Up close.