A Homerun, A Bloop Single, and A Total Whiff

It's September, and my favorite American League team is determined to lose themselves right out of the playoffs. My favorite National League team has had a less than stellar year with a few strange highlights. Air Force parachuters recently dropped onto the field with a ball that had been given to them on Opening Day and carried halfway around the world. Upon landing, they presented the well-traveled ball to the club's manager... the same guy who broke the record this season for most career ejections. (The latter really surprised me, because his ejections aren't generally as colorful as some so I never realized he'd gotten the boot that much.)

So as the pennant race heats up and the gardening season cools down, baseball analogies are on my mind. As I was doing some plant cleanup this evening and thinking about how much I miss hearing the legendary Ernie Harwell on the radio, a bright ember in the back garden caught my eye. Turning my head, I discovered the first lovely 'Espresso' gladiolus bloom.

Aptly named, this beauty is a very rich color... by the time I ran inside and grabbed the camera, the sun had moved on to light up the nearby lantana instead and 'Espresso' had lost its glow. But the color is still very eye-catching, even set against the ugly, patchy grass whose days are numbered. It's a definite homerun, and even though I've had glads overwinter in the ground before I'm not going to take that chance with 'Espresso.' These babies will be dug up and stored in the basement until next spring.

In contrast, the promised "deep orange" of another pack of glads failed to impress. Deep orange? More like orange sherbet or a disgusting creamsicle with a yellow center. Ick, ick, ick.

But I don't quite hate it enough to pull it out... unlike a different glad whose blooming tenure here was extremely short-lived. Purportedly flowering in a lime green color, it shot up to a height neither of these two managed to reach and then promptly flopped over. "That isn't terrible," I told myself. "At least the flowers will stand out against the 'Voodoo' red sedum below."

Well, stand out they did. These glads bloomed in the most godawful shade of yellow-green I have ever seen in my life! Picture that greyish yellow-green of a boiled egg yolk, and then up the wattage to flourescent and you've got the color. I'm adventurous, but this was well beyond the line into unquestionably questionable. I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture before I ripped those out.

So I'm 1-for-3 in terms of glads in the garden this year... *sigh* I think I'll just cheer myself up by reminding myself that some baseball players get bonus money for hitting my .333 average!