19 May 1957 “A Flower Arrangement of Pinks and Greens and Britain Drops the Bomb”

  I spoke of the color combination of pink and green earlier in the week. This color is very fresh and Spring like. I love Lilac and Viburnum, both of which I am lucky to have in abundance on my property. Such arragements couldn’t be easier, as one walks about in the dewy morning, shears in hand, and simply cuts and clusters in the hand like a wedding bouquet.

I love Viburnum. When they are newly budding, like this, they are a wonderful shade of chartreuse green. This color fades to pure white as Spring reaches summer, just when you want that cool color. READ MORE

I always think such loose arrangements look best. It is a sort of ‘let fall what may’ arrangement philosophy. Cut and go. This was always a popular type of arrangement at my shop, when I used to be a flower shop owner. This color combination was also quite popular for Spring weddings and you can see why.

I lined the outside with variegated hosta leaves. I love the hosta as well and if you have shade and need color, they give much return for little work. Their flowers, though pretty and either white or a pale pink/purple (again we see pink and green in nature), are secondary to their magnificent leaves. They range in shades from pure green, to yellow, white, and even a blue-green and variegated of all these shades.

Having perennial shrubs and trees that flower, as well as perennial flowering plants in the yard allow you to have fresh flowers through Spring and Summer with no cost. Flowers always brighten any room and make you feel ‘special’ and are so easy to do. Just another chance to give your day a lift and make your moments at home more enjoyable. We enjoy such things when we are out or we admire them in magazines and yet they are really quite simple to have at home for next to nothing.

Now, a little about Vibrunum and Lilac.

Chinese Snowball Viburnum (Viburnum macrocephalum)

Type: Deciduous flowering shrub. (meaning it loses it’s leaves during the yearly cycle)
Outstanding Feature: Chartreuse immature flower heads.
Form: Round.
Growth Rate: Moderate to rapid.
Bloom: Small immature chartreuse flowers are borne in compact heads in early spring and are followed by dense, round, softball sized heads of white flowers.
Size: 12-20’ H x 12-20’ W.
Light: Full sun to part shade; afternoon shade in South.
Soil: Fertile, moist, well-drained.
Fertilizer: Apply all purpose fertilizer in spring.
Hardiness: Zones 6-9.
Care: Prune after flowering if necessary.
Pests and Diseases: Susceptible to viburnum beetle, gray mold (Botrytis), rust, downy mildew, powdery mildew, wood rot, Verticillium wilt, leaf spots, and dieback, aphids, scale insects, weevils, Japanese beetles, mealybugs, and tree hoppers.
Propagation: Greenwood cuttings in spring.

The Lilac:

• The lilac is a decidious tree or shrub.
• There are approximately 25 species.
• Both New Hampshire and Idaho have claimed the lilac as their state flower.
• the most distinctive feature of the flower is that its blossoms grow in panicles—dense clusters of flowers that cling to the branch.
• The flower’s name indicates the most common color of the flower—a soft shade of purple or violet—the lilac also grows in pink, white, pale yellow, and a bold burgundy.
• In Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Cyprus, and Lebanon, the lilac is closely tied to Easter and is used as part of religious observances there.
• According to the language of flowers, the lilac is often given as an expression of new love or young love.
• Purple lilacs communicates the first emotion of love.
• White lilacs signal youthful innocence for honoring a chaste romance. 

Operation Grapple was performed by Britain on the 15th of this month in 1957. It was dropped at Malden Island in the Pacific. It failed to detonate properly, but was still considered a success and had announced to the world they were now contenders in thermonuclear power.

“The first trial was Grapple, also known as Grapple 1. All of these nuclear bombs were dropped and detonated over Malden Island. The first test of this trial was code-named Short Granite. It was a two-staged nuclear weapon that had a predicted yield of about one megaton.
The bomb was dropped by a Vickers Valiant XD818, piloted by Kenneth Hubbard, over Malden Island on 15 May 1957.
Weighing about 4,545 kg, the bomb exploded with a force of 300 kilotons, a yield far below the prediction. Despite this, Britain hailed the test as a successful thermonuclear explosion and announced to the world it had become a thermonuclear power. While the result was disappointing, the AWRE scientists learned valuable information regarding radiation implosion.”

We are a complex organism, we people. Celebrating and propagating the beauty of nature and assigning lovely traditions to Nature’s bounty. Yet we are also destructive and unpredictable. I hope no matter what our futures hold, we always maintain the importance of one to balance out the other. A vase of flowers hardly stops a war, but perhaps if we can focus on and continue to care about growing things and feeling connected to the natural world, we can balance out our emerging modern technology.

Smell a flower today.

Happy Homemaking.