Chalk this one up to a gift from God. This morning Brenda and I were swapping some pass-along plants – I gave her a spade of my maroon and white iris and she gave me some ginger.
While we were wandering about my garden, she spied a purple Clematis climbing up the obelisk on my front yard. The obelisk, a gift from Buck Swain, has been there five or six years, naked as a jaybird and I guess I never would have gotten around to planting anything to climb on it.
Nature took over and took care of that task for me. I don’t think Brenda believed that I didn’t plant the flowers, but I promise I didn’t, unless I did it in my sleep.
This must be some kind of sign. If I had thought of it I would have planted a purple clematis in that very spot, but I didn’t. I guess a bird deposited a seed and it couldn’t have picked a more perfect spot.
I googled clematis for its symbolic meaning and learned that the flower reflects “ingenuity or artifice, perhaps due to its seemingly clever climbing around trellises and walls.” It also reflects “mental beauty” whatever that may be.
The words used for clematis in Russian and Bulgarian carry the additional meaning of “traveler’s joy,” which is not surprising since clematis travels as it climbs. For me it symbolizes resilience and the miracle of new life after a long barren period. It hasn’t had time to fill out which will probably take several years. But I bet this is how it 
will look next year:
I wonder if that is the purple clematis that I brought you from FL a few years ago. I love them!
I wonder. Vaguely remember that. You know, I bet that’s where it came from – I probably stuck it in the ground and forgot about it. Thank you LC, mystery resolved.
I had the experience of white flower soaked in ghee falling from nowhere and sticking up on my right elbow in a temple. I was so wonderstruck and speechless. I had the sudden impulse to swallow and I did it. This was a real incident and I take it as a blessing from God.