#bugs with flowers

[get-back-homeward]

The Beatles, Flowers, and Love

A white sport coat and a pink carnation I'm all dressed up for the dance A white sport coat and a pink carnation I'm all alone in romance

Once you told me long ago To the prom with me you'd go Now you've changed your mind it seems Someone else will hold my dreams

—A White Sports Coat (and A Pink Carnation)* (1957)

I send you flowers but you don't care You never seem to see me standing there I often wonder what you're thinking of I hope it's me and love love love

—Hello Little Girl (1957)

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers That grow so incredibly high

—Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds (1967)

Find me in my field of grass Mother Nature's son Swaying daisies, sing a lazy song Beneath the sun

—Mother Nature's Son (1968)

Songs that lingered on my lips excite me now And linger on my mind Leave your flowers at my door I'll leave them for the one who waits behind

—Goodbye (1968)

Some call it magic The search for the grail Love is the answer And you know that for sure Love is a flower You got to let it grow

—Mind Games (1970, 1973)

Sweep through the heather like deer in the glen Carry me back to the days I knew then Nights when we sang like a heavenly choir Of the life and the times of the Mull of Kintyre

—Mull of Kintyre (1977)

All through the summer, I have followed you around Bringing a rose for the winter that's coming Now the snow is on the ground... Love awake to the day When we can make our love awake

—Winter Rose/Love Awake (1978)

You want a love to last forever One that will never fade away I want to help you with your problem Stick around, I say Coming up, coming up, yeah Coming up like a flower Coming up, I say

—Coming Up (1979)

If you'll forgive me my little flower princess Never too late unless you can't forgive

Time is on our side Let's not waste another minute 'Cause I love you my little friend I really love you

Give me just one more chance And I'll show you, take up the dance Where we left off

—Forgive Me (My Little Flower Princess)** (1980)

After hours  Late in the bar  By a darkened corner seat  Faded flowers wait in the jar  Till the evening is complete 

—Take It Away (1981)

She sprinkles flowers in the dirt That's when a thrill becomes a hurt I know I'll never see her face She walks away from my resting place

That day is done, that day is done You know where I've gone I won't be coming back That day is done

—That Day Is Done (1988)

[zegalba]

[yourskye]

If you were a bug and i were a bug would you hangout on a flower with me?

[julianplum]

🌿 🌹 🌱 🥬 ✨ // nasturtiums // gouache on hot press paper

[unacunatura]

june22🌱2024 | eyes of Lina

[beegs-bugs]

“You are all I need.”

Delloso De La Rue, Court of Wonder, Mistrex of Ceremonies

[onenicebugperday]

Spiny flower mantis (captive pet), Pseudocreobotra wahlbergi

Photo by Nicky Bay // Website // Facebook

Shared with permission; do not remove credit or re-post!

[heartnosekid]

hummingbird clearwing moth (hemaris thysbe) | moanrchmanorfl on ig

[kavaleyre]

“After 200 years, you can forget how much color there is in the world.”

[jebastijan]

[ichimakesart]

There is something peculiar in this bouquet in my Study.

[malaierba]

My unpopular (why) opinion is that Toshiro's and Falin's relationship (platonic obviously) is quite beautiful and if fans weren't so odd about shipping they'd see how very sweet it is that Toshiro started liking Falin when he realised she's an odd but gentle person, when he felt a sense of kinship that he likely never felt before.

From what we see they got along, Falin has a positive opinion of him, on the few instances when we actually see them talk (beyond just memories of them talking but no actual dialogue being shown to us) it's obvious she feels comfortable enough to be completely honest and transparent with him, while still minding his feelings. She likes the guy well enough, she doesn't want to hurt him.

The marriage proposal is actually so interesting... The way they communicate with each other. Falin let's Toshiro down gently, and reveals something so intimate about herself, how she's behaved until now, what she wants to do in the future, that she'd like to visit him again!

And Toshiro is so gentle. He obviously cares about her so much (and water is wet BUT im talking specifically about how it's portrayed in this scene). If what Maizuru says is true, that was the second time he made a "selfish" request ("marry me and come with me") but he simply asks this from her and offers reassurances, "I'll make sure you're comfortable", but he's not you know the Hardass some people pretend he is.

And what I love the most... When she rejects him not only does he accept it gracefully, he's inspired by her declaration that she wants to be more independent. Why did Falin say that? To spare his feelings further? Or because she knew that this realisation, which meant so much to her, would resonate with Toshiro too?

Gonna get personal but. I'm aroace, hello. I've had a few friendships go to shit because someone confessed to me and I rejected them. And exactly one where the person accepted it gracefully and our friendship, after surviving an awkward moment, blossomed.

Like. Relationships CHANGE, and they can develop and deepen and strengthen in many ways, regardless of the dynamic they take on. When aspecs say "friendship can be as important as romance" one of the things we mean is, allow romantic love to go back to platonic love and be stronger regardless OR EVEN because of it.

Like. How beautiful, that these two recognised a bit of themselves in each other, and knew how to approach the other. How beautiful that Ryoko tells us "their friendship survived a rejected proposal, when the commonly used trope would've made their friendship unviable from then on".

How beautiful that narratively Toshiro's sacrifice is never played for laughs or made fun of or devalued because """he didn't get the girl""', but instead the manga says "it didn't pan out but it wasn't a pointless sacrifice because Toshiro genuinely cared for Falin as a person, and always did what he thought was best even when it went against his normal behaviour." How beautiful that Falin wants to meet his friend Toshiro again, that she thinks to tell him "I'm going to start being an active participant in my own life" and Toshiro thinks "I think I need to start doing that too".

How beautifullll that a rejection ended with a promise to meet again, it's so beautiful am I insane? Can someone hear me hello?

The love was there and it mattered, but it's even better. The love shifts and survives because the care is genuine, because when you truly care about a person you'll want them in your life in whatever dynamic suits everyone involved the best. Because love, whether romantic or platonic or a mix of something else entirely, is selfless.

[celestialmacros]

Bumble Flower Beetle (Euphoria inda) on a blueberry bush

May 1, 2024

Southeastern Pennsylvania

[get-back-homeward]

I've gone through several stages of processing this Double Fantasy as a flower story and trying to verify it has turned into its own rabbit hole with no easy answer. So sharing some links from my journey.

Someone named Rob (Sheffield is that you??) asked about this on the UBS Botantical Forum in 2007 and got this answer:

RHS Plant Finder does list Freesia 'Fantasy' and mentioned the flower in their publication The Garden; page 333, May, 2002. It appears to be in the News section, so I don't know how much info it gives about the plant. Many of their articles are available online, but that article is not, so you would have to find a print copy. (We don't have it. I don't know what the article says.

So a double freesia named Fantasy is known. In a 2005 Royal Gazette article, Bermuda Botanical Gardens seems to support this:

We have not been able to get the exact Double Fantasy freesia since the 1980s. It used to come from a Dutch bulb seller and then the Department of Agriculture stopped the importation of bulbs from Amsterdam, she said. We now get Dutch bulbs via the US and were trying to get the original freesia, which was a double cream colour. The Double Fantasy freesia is the number one question that is asked by people coming to the gardens on bus tours.

The difference between single and double freesias:

Freesias come in both single and double flowered forms. The single flowered freesias have a more simple and elegant look, with one set of petals surrounding the center of the flower. The petals can come in a variety of colors, including red, pink, yellow, blue, and white. On the other hand, double flowered freesias have an extra set of petals, which gives them a more full and fancy appearance. This makes the double freesias look more abundant and showy compared to the single freesias.

Closest match I can find for a double cream freesia is something between these two (left being a double white, right being a single cream):

Which is surprising as it's not all that showy for a flower. I'm not familiar with it myself but gardening blogs tell me the novelty of growing freesias is their fragrance, a striking citrus-y scent.

Fred Seaman's account does not mention a color for the freesia, although colorful irises surrounding it are named. Instead, it focuses on the sign that grabbed John's attention:

However, some people in Bermuda have called into question whether the flower John saw could have been a freesia given the time of year he visited and when freesias normally bloom. Here's an updated article in Royal Gazette from 2011:

Masterworks plans to erect a statue designed by local artist Graham Foster next June to commemorate Mr Lennon’s visit complete with a picture of the flower on it. But Mary Lodge, principal of St George’s Preparatory School in St George’s, has her doubts that Mr Lennon ever saw a freesia at the Botanical Gardens. She lives near the Botanical Gardens and walks there frequently. “I have several points that make me think it wasn’t a freesia,” Ms Lodge said. “In the early mid 1980s there was one of the little black signs in the park that clearly labelled a hibiscus bush as ‘Double Fantasy’. “Lennon was here in June and July and freesias don’t flower at that time.” This variety of freesia, would have been cultivated, rather than wild. “The only way it would be there is if they planted it,” said Ms Lodge.

The Royal Gazette contacted former director of Agriculture and Fisheries, Edward Manuel, who worked with the department for more than 40 years before retiring two decades ago. He said he had no recollection of seeing a Double Fantasy freesia at the Botanical Gardens. But he couldn’t remember seeing a Double Fantasy hibiscus there either. “June and July would have been too late for freesias to bloom,” said Mr Manuel. Ms Lodge said if the flower Mr Lennon saw was in fact, a hibiscus, it would only be to Masterworks’ benefit. “The Double Fantasy hibiscus is gorgeous,” she said. “It is as big as a dinner plate.”

If there ever were Double Fantasy freesias at the Botanical Gardens, chances are, they weren’t there for very long. Double Fantasy freesias were first grown in Holland. Unfortunately, double freesias, in general, are notorious for having fertility problems, and it is probably for this reason that the Double Fantasy freesia is extremely rare today. In 1971, two scientists, J Baer and O Kho, wrote a paper about freesias called ‘An Investigation into the Cause of Sterility in Double-Flowering Freesia Varieties and the Possibility of Restoring Fertility’. They found that this flower tended to produce single flowers rather than doubles when grown in conditions exceeding 20C (68F). The average temperature in Bermuda in June is 27.2C (81F). Even in the winter, the temperature in Bermuda is at the limit for the flower with average temperatures being between 15.5C (60F) and 20.5C (69F) in January, February and April. However, if a mistake was made, it was made by John Lennon himself. Perhaps, to speculate, he saw the label left over from when the flowers bloomed there in the spring, and imagined the flower that went with the label.

This theory is based on average temperature. But was June 1980 an average June for Bermuda?

It looks like 1980 did have a cooler June than normal, but it still was not cool enough to be in that optimal 60-69 degrees for freesias. Could there have been a hardy plant that lasted into early June? Perhaps, if that was when they visited the garden, but according to Seaman's timeline, it was later in the month.

If the flower John saw was a hibiscus, it's not clear what color it would have been. But here's a white-based double hibiscus to compare:

Which flower is more likely to inspire an album title?

In the end, the sign designating the name was probably more important than the flower itself. For the sake of details, it's too bad there's little agreement about the type of flower that had the sign Double Fantasy in the garden. As it is, the most we can say is that the album title is inspired by a flower and that's probably all that mattered to John.

"One day, John took Sean to the Bermuda Botanical Gardens where, under a cedar tree, he came across some delicate white-and-yellow flowers called a Double Fantasy. "It's a type of freesia," John explained, "but what it means to us is that if two people picture the same image at the same time, that is the secret." And then one night he wandered into Hamilton and, curious to find out what kind of music people were listening to, he went club-hopping — something he hadn't done since the mid-1970s in Los Angeles — and ended up at a spot called Disco 40. "Upstairs, they were playing disco," John would later tell me, "but downstairs I suddenly heard 'Rock Lobster' by the B-52s for the first time. Do you know it? It sounds just like Yoko's music, so I said to meself, 'It's time to get out the old ax and wake the wife up!'"

ㅡ From Jonathan Cott's book "Days That I Will Remember: Spending Time With John Lennon And Yoko Ono", 2013.

[spiritofthemeadow]

ig - afternoondreams

[lionfloss]

Spiny flower mantis