Additionally, the vines will sprout little dark berries, perfect to attract the birds into my yard. Also, I’m eagerly awaiting its color change come the cooler weather in just a couple of weeks, those green leaves will turn orange and red, lighting up my hillside in a blaze of color. A single tendril can grow up to twenty to thirty feet during the summer, so it makes a perfect climber on rock walls, fences, and so forth. That said, I’m excited about it for a few reasons: first of all, it’s gorgeous.
In some places, it’s considered so invasive that you’re not allowed to deliberately plant it - I didn’t, it just appeared on its own, and probably has been doing so for decades. I discovered the stone wall up against the hillside behind my house is covered in a beautiful five-leafed vine, did a bit of digging, and learned it’s Virginia creeper, or Parthenocissus quinquefolia. I’m taking some time to get to know the flora (and fauna) of my new home, including the seemingly endless array of Joe Pye weed, mullein, chicory, fleabane, and goldenrod. Her stories have also been published in two Anthologies: Paws and Claws and One Million Project, Thriller Anthology.One of the things I love so much about my cottage in the woods is that I am surrounded by plants, many of which I never encountered in the wild when I lived in an actual town. Her collection of short and flash fiction stories, Ripples on the Pond, was published in December 2017. She has a completed manuscript, The Child of Heaven and two works in progress, The Child of Passion and The Lost Child. Her flash stories have been published on the Harper Collins Authonomy Blog, The Drabble, Sick Lit Magazine, Twisted Sister Lit Mag and Spelk Fiction. Currently she lives on the eastern shores of the Southern Aegean where she dreams and writes Flash Fiction and Flash Poesy, as well as longer works of fiction. Ivan saw beauty, pleasure, love and passion all at the same time.Ī police officer viewed the scene and wrote in his notebook. First softly, then passionately, she squeezed with her all might, and they became one. She teased his body with her long fingers, and wrapped her arms around him. The night before the Autumn Solstice, while the temperatures lingered around ideal summer levels and Virginia's leaves had turned to a dazzling shade of scarlet, Ivan lay in her arms and wished to be one with her. The Virgin and him, in close encounters, yet the Virgin still too coy to wrap her arms around him. Ivan took pictures of the progress and felt victorious with the knowledge he had achieved something no one had done before. His bed, a mattress of fresh leaves the Virgin laid for him each night. Loneliness had crept into his soul like ivy, but he preferred the physical contact with this plant to a state of mind he wanted to forget. He left the lights on in the front rooms so that growth would be induced the entire day. Now that Virginia had covered all the windows, he didn't need blinds anymore. Ivan watered the ivy every evening and sprayed its leaves embracing his home with a special hose-head that left a moist mist on the plant. Each night he trod carefully between the fresh growths and fell asleep, hoping she would visit his bed. As he watched the euphoric rise of the stalks up the walls, he teased them indoors.īy mid-summer, the Vestal Virgin had covered the walls and the ceiling of his bedroom and continued to creep along the floor towards his bed. To let the Virgin into the house, he opened all the sash-windows. This year he wanted to experiment and try something else.Ī long, hot summer predicted, he craved to attempt a display that had never been done before. Last year he had trimmed the shoots around the apertures. He had planted the Virginia Creeper in the front, and it had reached the roof, crawling along the sides of windows. His dream of covering the house with vines and creating his own Ivy League, was a task he had been working on for the last couple of years.
Orchids, ferns, flowering cacti, and even different kinds of Passiflora. The two-story stone house he had bought in the countryside boasted of a greenhouse with various exotic plants. Despite his lack of formal education in horticulture, he was a natural with green fingers. A lifetime passion and hobby became a way of life for him. After his retirement, without a partner or close friends, he spent all his time gardening. Ivan was a loner who never got married or had any lasting relationships. Why virgin, Ivan didn't know, but he liked the connotation. Just like a human hand, as described in its Latin name, Parthenocissus quinquefolia. Yet, the Virginia Creeper was his vestal virgin, with five separate leaves joined at the centre. Boston, with a reddish bronze colour in the spring, and bright, deep green during summer, turning to shades of scarlet, purple or orange in autumn. English, with prominent white or yellow-green veins.
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