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From Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Iconic Poet by Marta McDowell:

“Emily Dickinson knew her Bible from years of reading her King James, a present from her father. She quoted gardening passages from both testaments when it suited her. References to ‘Consider the lilies’ (Luke 12:27; Matthew 6:28), appear a half-dozen times in her letters, often with gifts of flowers….

“With a flair for exaggeration, she once confessed ‘the only Commandment I ever obeyed – ‘Consider the Lilies.”’’

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“As summer progresses, the lilies open with fanfare. The blooms are preceded by dense tufts of green each spring that extend into green leafy stalks. Trumpet-shaped flowers return reliably year after year. Dickinson grew an array of lilies, a spectacle in the garden for weeks. There were many varieties including an alluring, unnamed ‘white one with rose-powdered petals and brown velvet stamens, far more elaborate than the simple varieties,’ plus Japanese lilies, yellow lilies, Madonna lilies, and tiger lilies.”

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Hello!

This is the eighth of ten posts in my “Lilies on Black Backgrounds” series. The previous posts in this series are:

Lilies on Black Backgrounds: A Photo Project (1 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (2 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (3 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (4 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (5 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (6 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (7 of 10)

Thanks for taking a look!

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From “Lilies” in Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden by Eleanor Perenyi:

“There is a school that claims to detest the scent of lilies: ‘like a funeral’ is the phrase. Personally, I don’t associate lilies with funerals, but if I did, what a way to go! No flower perfume is too strong for me. The stupendous lily bouquets that stand on our grand piano during July and August send an essence up the back stairs that finds its way into my bedroom and my dreams at night, and I am sorry for those whose senses don’t allow them to enjoy this pleasure.”

From Upstream by Mary Oliver:

“Understand from the first this certainty. Butterflies don’t write books, neither do lilies…. Which doesn’t mean they don’t know, in their own way, what they are. That they don’t know they are alive — that they don’t feel, that action upon which all consciousness sits, lightly or heavily. Humility is the prize of the leaf-world….”

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Hello!

This is the seventh of ten posts in my “Lilies on Black Backgrounds” series. Like the sixth post, this one features photos taken in a section of Oakland Cemetery’s gardens with a large batch of saturated-pink and salmon-colored blooms, many of them manifesting most-excellent form.

The previous posts in this series are:

Lilies on Black Backgrounds: A Photo Project (1 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (2 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (3 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (4 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (5 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (6 of 10)

Thanks for taking a look!

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From “Flowers in the Night Garden” in Colour in My Garden by Louise Beebe Wilder:

“A sally down the garden path has quite the quality of a high adventure. We are accompanied by troops of ghostly flowers — nameless at night. At their sign the shadows part before and close in behind us, seeming to cut off retreat.

“Here a Lily shape is cut against the dark.”

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Hello!

This is the sixth of ten posts in my “Lilies on Black Backgrounds” series. This post features photos taken in a section of Oakland Cemetery’s gardens with a large batch of similar lilies in various shades of pink and salmon colors, some with deep red highlights at the edges of the petals.

The previous posts in this series are:

Lilies on Black Backgrounds: A Photo Project (1 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (2 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (3 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (4 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (5 of 10)

Thanks for taking a look!

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From Lilies by Naomi Slade:

“In cottage-style gardens, lilies are glorious when combined with roses and sweet peas, clematis and honeysuckle. In the border they complement the other colourful herbaceous plants, and they can play a part in tropical schemes as well. Planting taller varieties into a mixed or shrub border is often successful as the twiggy stems support the lily flowers and provide ongoing interest….

“In naturalistic gardens, the elegant Turk’s caps excel…. If they are happy, they may spread to spectacular effect.”

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Hello! This is the fifth of ten posts in my “Lilies on Black Backgrounds” series.

The previous posts in this series are:

Lilies on Black Backgrounds: A Photo Project (1 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (2 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (3 of 10)

Lilies on Black Backgrounds (4 of 10)

Thanks for taking a look!

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From “Thirty Years’ Bloom” in Through the Garden Gate by Elizabeth Lawrence:

“My mother recorded the weather and the date of the first flower of every plant as it came into bloom. At intervals, such as high spring, midsummer and Thanksgiving, she would take a census of everything in bloom at that time. She was very systematic about her daily records. Each morning she would go out with her little black book and write down the names of the flowers that had bloomed since the day before. This is the way records should be kept….

“Mine are not as well done, for one day I may go my rounds in the morning, and the next I may go in the afternoon. Then I may skip a few days, and when I do, it is hard to remember whether the lily bloomed on Monday or on Tuesday.”

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Surprise! More lilies!

For a description of this series, see the the first post: Lilies on Black Backgrounds: A Photo Project (1 of 10).

The second post is Lilies on Black Backgrounds (2 of 10); and the third post is Lilies on Black Backgrounds (3 of 10).

Thanks for taking a look!

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