Trumpets On The Pergola

  Posted on June 15, 2012 By George Weaver

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The Carolina Trumpet

From my chair on the porch, I can see the trumpets.  They hang down almost to waist level as I walk the path to Boy’s house.  When we took our spring walk in the garden, I promised that the Carolina Trumpet Vine would be filled with coral trumpets by summertime.  I think it has outdone itself this year.  Blossoms continually appear and fall arranging themselves into surprising and delightful patterns on everything around the pergola.  I only noticed the two bees who came to breakfast after I looked at the photographs!

The trumpets fall and sit softly among the plants as if they are arranging themselves in a vase to please whoever is sitting there.  They fall while they are still in perfect form.  They are making way for the bean that will grow out of the center of the base of the trumpet blossom.

I think they are making mulch for the staghorn fern by design.

Last night, it rained.  There was a lovely carpet of blossoms on the pergola floor, on the path, and around the outside of the pergola.  Some of the bases of the blossoms fall too.  Usually, they remain on the vine stem to grow a bean.  My artsy photos showed them still on the stems.

When I sit under the hanging vines filled with blossoms, I am fascinated by them.  I am always snapping photos.  It is impossible to choose one to post.  I would like to post all of them!   I don’t remember having enjoyed the trumpets quite as much as I have this year.  I sit on my porch and watch the bees and the hummingbirds and even the flies lapping up the sticky goodness inside the trumpets.  An occasional butterfly comes along too.

If you aren’t paying attention when you walk around the pergola, you are likely to walk right into a clump of hanging blossoms!

I enjoy the way the light through the pergola top plays on the fallen blossoms and on the ones hanging through the roof.

I’ll tell you a secret if you promise not to tell my children.  The trumpets whisper to me.  They say, “Take it pit-ture”.  When my daughter was a baby, she sat on her papa’s lap and begged him to “daw it pit-ture!” on her foot.  He drew funny faces, always the same, on the soles of her little feet.  She delighted in the game.

Rita is sitting among the trumpets at the old house.  This vine is different from the one at the new house.  It was covered in an unbelievable mass of blossoms once each year.  The foliage was different and the blossoms were more coral-colored and smaller than the Carolina Trumpet.  While that vine was invasive, the stems were much smaller and broke away easily.  They attached themselves by tendrils that were not so destructive or hard to remove.  The foliage was a deep green like a shrub compared to the small-leaf Carolina trumpet that has a very different, lacy leaf configuration.

The blossoms appear by the hundreds and fall in equal numbers.  Romero cleans up the spent blossoms once a week, but there is always a carpet of them again the next time he comes.  Sometimes, I’m tempted to tell him to leave them.  But, I know that nobody else would appreciate the look of a few inches of dead blossoms covering everything.  When I look down at the fallen ones, I am always struck by the varied palette of hues, shades and tones.

I have no idea where this little bird bath came from, but it collects Boy’s stuff and blossoms!  No birds bathe there.  Maybe because I forget the water?

The Carolina Trumpet is a moody girl.  Her blossoms are a soft pink color in early evening and brighter coral in the mid-day sun.  They change appearance with the changing light.   She  actually looks as of she’s drawing up within herself under the blazing sun.  When it is evening again, she relaxes and spreads herself to take in the moisture and enjoy the coolness of the night.   By morning, she is happily swaying her blossom-laden arms to offer a nectar breakfast to the waiting bees.  Do you see the lone bee in the photograph?

I suppose I should apologize for boring you once again with my trumpets.  I cannot resist, however.  You will just have to forgive me.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  I wish each one of you could sit with me for coffee on the porch in the early morning and see her dressed in her lovely blossoms!

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