The white blossom of a wild strawberry is pretty but I rather see a bright red ripe strawberry instead and so would many birds and small animals.
Wild Strawberry Blossom
Picture of the Day for June 4, 2013
The Wild Germanium are making an appearance in the ditches and woods. Geranium is derived from the Greek word geranos, meaning crane. Though this name seems curious, it actually refers to the shape of the seed pod, not the flower. The papery seed capsules, which split lengthwise into five long peels, resemble a crane or stork. Cranesbill and Storksbill are two common names for Wild Geranium describing this likeness.
One of the most surprising and beautiful aspects of Wild Geranium is the color of its pollen. Unlike most wildflowers with traditionally yellow, orange, or white pollen, when viewed under a microscope Wild Geranium’s pollen is bright blue. This attracts a variety of insects, including the digger wasp, which come to pollinate the flower.
Wild Geranium
Picture of the Day for June 3, 2013
The recent winds blew most of the apple blossoms off the tree leaving a sea of white on the ground. The apple tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found today. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe, and were brought to North America by European colonists. The only apples native to North America are crab apples, which were once called “common apples”.
Apple varieties brought as seed from Europe were spread along Native American trade routes, as well as being cultivated on Colonial farms. An 1845 United States apples nursery catalog sold 350 of the “best” varieties, showing the proliferation of new North American varieties by the early 19th century. There are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples now.
Apple Blossom
Picture of the Day for June 2, 2013
The blooming lilacs are finally filling the air when their wonderful fragrance. There are over two thousand lilac cultivars through the world and they come in white, violet, blue, lilac, pink, magenta and purple. No matter what color, it is just good to see them after a long winter.
Blooming Lilacs
Picture of the Day for May 31, 2013
April showers bring May flowers, but this year it was April and May snows that eventually retreated that allowed some May flowers in a compress time so different varieties were blooming at the same time when normally they wouldn’t be. Now the wood violet is adding color amongst the white wood anemones and sometimes you can find a cluster of color.
A dear friend recently told me that ‘family does not have to be blood, sometimes they are just different flowers growing in the same garden’. Even if these violets are the same species, each is slightly different in size, color or flaws from insect damage but their uniqueness, like in people, create a beautiful garden.
Wood Violets
Picture of the Day for May 29, 2013
It sounds like a contradiction in terms to have a ‘yellow’ violet, but finding the non ‘violet’ violet adds the yellow color to the springtime ground that isn’t a dandelion. There several varieties of the yellow violets, and this bright yellow flower may be the Downy Yellow Violet and it provides some color to the rainy, grey days.
Downy Yellow Violet
Picture of the Day for May 28, 2013
Jack-in the-pulpits are an odd looking wildflower and what appears to be the flower, the pulpit, is not the flower. The flowers are actually hidden inside the ‘flower’. The Jack-in the-pulpits are also unusual in that each plant has a particular sex instead of having both female and male parts. If you looked inside the pulpit, you would see either yellowish brown anthers if a male or a cluster of tiny green berries if a female.
What is also strange about this wildflower, is that the plant will change sex from year to year. Since the female has the harder job of making the seeds and getting the seeds ready for the birds to disperse them, if the year was not a good one for storing food to the corm, the plant in the fall will make a bud for a male flower and one leaf. If it had been a good year and the corm is packed with nutrients, the plant produces a bud for female flowers and, usually, for two leaves, to make more sugars by photosynthesis.
So like the many of the birds, the female Jack-in the-pulpits has most of the work and since she does the work, I don’t think it should be called ‘Jack’ in the pulpit but guys do get most of the credit!
Weird Wildflower
Picture of the Day for May 26, 2013
The Trillium also known as Trinity Flower and since today is Trinity Sunday, the Great White Trillium is the perfect picture for today. While St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity, others have used the Trillium since every part was threefold. The leaves are three, the petals are three, and the sepals are three.
Trinity Flower
Picture of the Day for May 24, 2013
A field of dandelions can actually look pretty in the spring time by adding yellow color against the new green grass. The part I hate is when they turn white and the seeds start blowing in my face. But I suppose the finches and other birds are happy to have the seeds to eat and the bees like the nectar and pollen.
Dandelions are thought to have evolved about thirty million years ago in Eurasia and probably arrived in North America on the Mayflower – not as stowaways, but brought on purpose for their medicinal benefits.
That weed most are trying to get rid of, are more nutritious than most of the vegetables in your garden and are among the most expensive items in the grocery store. The roots are dried and sold as a no-caffeine coffee substitute – for $31.75 a pound.
Whether you love them or hate them, dandelions are, quite possibly, the most successful plants that exist; masters of survival worldwide.
Field of Yellow
Picture of the Day for May 23, 2013
Well one might think of colored leaves in the fall, but the spring can provide a range of color too; from the red buds, the light green leaves to the red color of new oak leaves.
Springtime Red Leaves
