Gardening with Soule

  When we look at flowers, we see their colors and shape and enjoy their beauty. 

We are also taken with their fragrance.  They are pretty to look at and nice to have around.  But if we look closer, they are more than just a pretty face. 

We would like to think that they are here purely for our enjoyment but the truth is they are brightly colored and fragrant to attract bees and birds to pollinate them, not just to make us happy.  That is a  just a fringe benefit. 

 Simplisticly, the reproductive cycle takes place here in the stamen and the pistil.  In these photos you are able to clearly see the stamen (male part) which consist of the filaments, or the thread-like  stems that hold the anthers where the pollen is. 

Birds, bees and wind carry the pollen to the pistil (female part) which is the longer stem, made up of the style, a tube that holds the  sticky end which is called  the stamen.  It catches the pollen which is then carried down the style to the ovary and ovules that will produce the seed. 

Not all plants reproduce this way, but a good majority of them do. This happens right before our very eyes and most people don’t even know it’s happening.

 Those busy bees aren’t just making honey, they are also helping the plant to make seeds.  It is just nature’s way of reproducing those pretty flowers we so enjoy.

~By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.
~Rabindranath Tagore