The Blame

Petals so brilliant they blew my camera's ability to record the color/detail!
Couldn't keep them alive in Portland.

It's all my husband's fault. Bougainvillea is the one flower he takes the time to notice and distinguish from "mother-in-law" flowers, his broad classification for all those things that grow in the yard--pay them no mind.

Tiny bits of tan--baby flowers

So for Father's Day, he received three gloriously vivid Bougainvillea plants. And shortly thereafter, they began to do what the several others purchased through the years had done, they began to drop their flowers, and their leaves.

Even my husband could see that a real
flower was forming.

Since they were a bit of an investment, I hustled to tend them more carefully. And surprise of surprises, they came back. We, that should read "I," watched with amazement as the tiny non-green sprouts started to form.

The second blooming for these brave plants in the high
desert--far, far, far from Hawaii where my husband first
saw them.

If there were a secret in keeping these fairy-winged plants alive, it was water and sunlight. The group took about two quarts a day during the summer. They also received one dose of fish fertilizer mid season. And, yes, the easiest one of all was the eight hours plus of sunshine.

But then, really, their beautiful gift to us came because of a husband with extremely specific awareness about flowers. Let's just call it good taste.