"niña de mis ojos"

Gladiola, originally uploaded by mexiquefriend.

I have my IE set to pop up a personalized Yahoo page when I open it. One of my options is new flower photos each day from Flickr. For the most part, they're all the same, bloom after bloom after bloom, but I thought this one in black and white, glads displayed horizontally was pretty. Also, the title in Spanish gives it zing.

In Kansas, glads are done for the year. The blossoms are drop-dead gorgeous, but for my use, I never found them reliable. The plants grow tall stems and are very flower heavy at the top, both of which are disasters for a windy location. There's also the problem of waiting interminably for them to come up from bulb. Not such a trial with tulips, which bloom in spring, but glads are a summer bulb, which means keeping their plot weed-free for months without any reward. I have a few summer lily bulbs, but those have vigorous spring growth, which hold promise while I work. The glads are more secretive about what is to come, and I tend to forget them, accidentally digging up more than I've ever watched bloom. The lilies, too, are more reliable year to year, coming back each season with gusto, thus I count on them. Glad bulbs, on the other hand, are more ephemeral, and I have to plant each year if I want to see them bloom.