From The Reason For Flowers: Their History, Culture, Biology, and How They Change Our Lives by Stephen Buchmann:
“Once Alice takes her fateful first step through the looking glass, she finds a pleasant garden where the flowers talk… but have only the least regard for her. Instead, they await the arrival of the Red Queen…. “
From Alice in Wonderland (Norton Critical Editions) by Lewis Carroll and Donald Gray:
“‘O Tiger-lily!’ said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving gracefully about in the wind, ‘I wish you could talk!’
“‘We can talk,’ said the Tiger-lily, ‘when there’s anybody worth talking to.’ “
Tiger Lilies!
Below are five variations of images of a single Tiger Lily that I found while wandering around Oakland Cemetery. Imagine my surprise to learn that Tiger Lilies — one of the few lily varieties I photographed that I could actually identify — have nearly identical relatives called “Leopard Lilies” and “Panther Lilies” by some people, apparently because we humans are fond of naming things after animals we admire. Once I learned that, I headed back over to the cemetery to see if I could find some with different spot patterns (and to see if they would talk!), just to call them by the names I had recently learned … but, alas! (who says that?!?) there were none left because summer’s dragging its hot way toward fall and most of the lilies have turned into leaves.
The previous posts in this series are:
Summer 2020: Lily Variations (1 of 10)
Summer 2020: Lily Variations (2 of 10)
Thanks for taking a look!
What beauties! Do let us know if they talk.
Thank you!
(and yes … they DO talk. As I walked by they whispered: “Everybody Vote!”)
🙂
Very wise flowers!