Weekly Photo Challenge: Forces of Nature

Posted on May 12, 2015 by johnvic8

The theme of this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is FORCES OF NATURE.

One tends to associate “forces of nature” with such mighty cataclysmic events as torrential rains, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, or volcanic eruptions. As I walked through my garden this week, I observed the vines of a mandevilla climbing upward on its support. Here is a different natural force, embedded within the mandevilla’s DNA.

IMG_1742

What causes the vine to seek support to grow upward instead of laterally? What causes the vine to wind around the support counter-clockwise (at least from the plant’s perspective) instead of clockwise? There is nothing I can do (and believe me I have tried) to force the mandevilla to wind in the opposite direction. Its internal, natural force is all powerful within its unique existence.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/forces-of-nature/

About johnvic8

John Viccellio retired after 24 years in the U. S. Navy and began to dig into gardening when he could finally land in one place. He completed the Master Gardener course in 1992 and has since designed and constructed two of his own gardens. He wrote a monthly garden column for ten years and was a regular contributor to Carolina Gardener magazine. John published his first book, Guess What's in My Garden!, in 2014. He lives in Stallings, NC with his wife, in close proximity to six of his eight grandchildren.
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7 Responses to Weekly Photo Challenge: Forces of Nature

  1. woodlandgnome says:
    May 12, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    Wonderful interpretation of the theme . Your garden lookso fabulous !

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  2. gardeninacity says:
    May 13, 2015 at 5:05 pm

    Vines can be forces of nature in more ways than one, as anyone who has seen Wisteria or Trumpet Creeper (or kudzu!) in action can attest. Great photo!

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  3. Cathy says:
    May 14, 2015 at 3:12 am

    What a grip it has! My distant memory is telling me that plants showing this type of ‘tropism’ sometimes twine clockwise, sometimes anti-clockwise, depending on the genus? I was so struck by that beautiful pot in the background, by the way.

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  4. johnvic8 says:
    May 14, 2015 at 9:33 am

    Thank you, Cathy. That pot is one I have used as a non-planted accent among azaleas.

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