Cotton Blossoms

In summer the cotton buds open to reveal the most beautiful flowers.....




Some of these blossoms are a lovely pink before they fully open, but all of the open flowers are palest pink to creamy white, some with tinges of pink blush at their edges.....










Mom says when she was young, cotton plants were much taller. The new varieties have been developed to be shorter so they can be harvested by machine instead of by hand. They are also sprayed at the end of the flowering season (a time which we are now approaching in Virginia) so the sun can get down into the inside of the bushy plant to help develop the bolls of cotton that pop out as the flower petals fall. All parts of the cotton plant are toxic to humans as food, except the processed cottonseed oil. Cotton has always been one of the most important crops in the South, and we all adore our 100% cotton clothing and sheets and towels. It's a fascinating plant! There are even rare varieties that actually grow in COLORS...that's right, the cotton in the bolls is not snowy white, but pale blues and pinks. And it is a natural phenomenon, not dyed! I saw some when I lived in Texas. But all our Virginia cotton is a lovely snow white, and in another month, the field will be brown plants dotted with the "snow" of hundreds of open bolls. Here is a view of what the fields look like now. This loveliness makes one want to plant a few in the flower bed, doesn't it!? :-)..........