Chinese Lanterns

The Chinese lantern is almost ready to start over for spring.   The vigorous green leaves shoot up as the runners spread through my garden.  Small white flowers bloom before green three dimensional heart shaped "flowers" appear.  People call them flowers but I think they are the husk to the fruit because they already had a small flower.  As they turn orange they light up the entire garden. At this stage I pick some of them to hang and dry for indoor arrangements but I have learned to leave some to nature so that I can see these incredibly delicate miracles become awesome works of art in with the most intricate filigree patterns imaginable.