Today is Memorial Day in the United States. The first holiday weekend that kicks off the summer season and honors those who serve and served our country.
Fireworks are a relatively common occurrence on holiday weekends during the summer; the Fourth of July being the primary holiday associated with fireworks. One can generally find some fireworks on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends as well. My gardens have been providing some fireworks of a different sort as the heat of summer starts ramping up.
In keeping with my fireworks theme, I began looking around my garden. I have several Firebush, some volunteers and some I paid for. The Firebush flowers look like firecrackers and further searching located some seed heads of culinary Fennel and Dill, the umbels exploding with seed really look like fireworks to me. Here is the Firebush, the native one. I have learned it is called Hamelia patens var patens as plain H. patens is different. Sometimes I think botanists really need to get over it and just call it something else. Of course, I was not consulted on this matter.
Here is an overhead view, I have to say I like this as it really looks like fireworks:
Included in the vase are the two types of Firebush, the red on the right Hamelia patens var patens, the middle orange one is H. patens and on the left side is Mexican Honeysuckle, the Justicia from last week. The fennel and dill seed heads are in yellow green.
The vase is not a vase at all. It is one half of a set of Dansk candlesticks my husband has carried around since the seventies. Looks pretty good holding all that firepower. It has never held a candle during my tenure, but I may use it as a vase again.
The Shrub Queen 
Excellent job at creating a floral fireworks for the holiday.
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Thank you
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Very dramatic and it does look like fireworks. I pushed the wrong button and erased the comment you made to me. The rain stopped Friday, which is why everyone woke up surprised Sunday morning to find flood water. Most of the water is coming from upstream and could continue to rise.
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Thanks, the flooding sounds terrifying. I hope the worst is over.
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I really loved this and especially the insertion of the seed heads….both my dill and fennel are just starting to grow up here.
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Thank you, Donna, the dill season is rapidly ending here and I have never had much luck with seed saving so they are serving in other ways.
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I don’t know Hamelia at all, but it’s pretty exciting in your vase – the dill & fennel make perfect shapes to set everything off.
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Thank you, Cathy. Hamelia is native to the Caribbean and Florida (south) is a very pretty shrub that bees and butterflies love.
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Interestingly enough, I saw that Pauline, at Lead up the Garden Path has one in a pot! Glad to have been introduced to it!
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The fennel/dill are such a pretty component…and it all works together. On that Hamelia thing, it is odd how a simple little everyday reality of intraspecific variation can get overblown by folks “in the know” who want to toot horns and pull fire alarms. Taxonomists, and I am one, don’t get too excited by hairiness variation within species.
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Thanks, George.
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The firebush, dill and fennel make great floral fireworks. The outdoor fireworks started here last night and will continue at regular intervals now well beyond Independence Day (despite the heightened fire danger associated with our drought). As for the naming issue, the taxonomists are getting more than a little annoying.
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Thank you, not sure fireworks are always such a great idea.About the naming – I think those are two entirely different plants, but the taxonomists don’t!
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Very evocative of fireworks and such pretty colours. Using the dill/fennel was a great idea.
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Thank you
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That last photo reminds me of a modern art painting! Fabulous!
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Thanks, it would make a good painting! I may give it a try.
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Oh, so effective – and the fennel and dill were perfect to extend the firework them. Thanks for sharing
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Thank you, I may be inspired to do a painting of the overhead view.
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Oh yes, you have really captured that fireworks effect with the shapes and colours. Lovely!
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Thank you
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Well, I was sick for a few days, but even so — I missed 3 of your posts! Why am I not seeing them???
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No idea, though I haven’t seen any Canadian hits lately. Been thinking I should get over it and get a .com address, trying to sort that out!! Maybe that will help.
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No – you are on WP, so I should be able to follow you by email! I must be looking but not seeing, as my mother would have said.
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My mother used to say that as well. Or. It’s right there next to the snake bite kit!
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I like that one!! You made me laugh.
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A favorite of my husband as well, who misplaces almost everything.
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