What's Blooming Here - Early May

This isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of what's blooming here.  To keep up with a really complete record of what's in bloom might not be too difficult at the beginning of the season, but I don't think I could keep up with it after awhile!  And this blog is for our enjoyment, not serious record-keeping.  

I love to stomp around in the woods to see what wildflowers I can find.  (though I'm very careful not to stomp ON them!)  But you can even see quite a few right from your car.  Be careful if you are driving, please!

I'll start with one that you are perhaps most likely to see and has been in bloom the longest.  That would be Coltsfoot.  They have been blooming along the roadsides in damp ditches for a few weeks now (since about the middle of April here this year).

Some of them are already showing their fluffy seed heads, another similarity they have with Dandelions.  (Though, sorry, I don't have a photo of that!)

Another flower you can see right from your car -- usually in lawns, are Quaker Ladies, also called Bluets.  We used to have some large patches of them in the old cow pasture, but search though I did, this year I only found this tiny bunch:

They are quite diminutive - only about 2" high, so in small quantities they are easily overlooked unless you love them like I do and keep a careful eye out.  

Finding only a tiny patch on our farm made me a bit jealous of our neighbor's lovely patch:

Though, mainly I am just glad they are there!
You can enjoy them from afar, but they are also exquisite up close:

The next blooms you might also see from your car.  I know where there are some growing in a roadside ditch near our house.  However, the ones in the next two photos were taken up on our hill.

They are Marsh Marigolds and they do love to grow right in the water.

Violets are also beginning to bloom.  

This one's a Sweet Yellow Violet, but many other kinds are or will soon be blooming.

The Dog-toothed Violets (which aren't really violets at all but are in the Lily family) are blooming brightly on sunny days now.   Amazingly enough, this batch was blooming right along our road a few years ago:

April 25, 2008

The next photo is how you are more likely to see them unless it's a warm, sunny day-- and there are almost always many more of their mottled leaves than there are flowers.

 

The Red Trillium are starting to bloom now.

As you can see there are more buds still to open.  

Next is a patch of Squirrel Corn in our woods.  It's dainty, silvery foliage is very pretty in person, though a little hard to see in the photo.  I wanted to show you how many leaves are there and only one flower stem (at least so far).

Squirrel Corn foliage stretches from in front of the rock on the left side of the photo to the right end of the log in the middle foreground.

Here's what it looks like up close:

And even closer...

I can't show you why it has the name Squirrel Corn, because I did not want to dig up any of the roots (which are corms said to resemble small ears of corn, hence the name).  It apparently is on the endangered species list in New Jersey, and I don't know if that is true in Pennsylvania, but in any case it doesn't seem right to dig it up!

Also blooming now in my woods are Twinleaf.  I have not ever found this plant in the wild, though it is a native of Pennsylvania.  My plants came from Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve and have been happy where they were planted and seeded themselves into a nice bunch.  You can read more about both Twinleaf and Bowman's Hill in a post I wrote last spring by clicking here.

Twinleaf

So, there you have some of the wild things that are blooming in my neck of the woods.  What's blooming where you live?

Colors of the Last Day of Summer

In my last post, I mentioned that I've been a little busy lately which is why I haven't blogged as much as usual.  So, before I get back to my 'regularly-scheduled programing', let me just show you a bit about what I was up to.

I love all the colors God created.  Every season has its' special palette.  The last day of summer had very special colors for our family.  Green was very much in evidence, but so was purple, pink, and yellow!  Let me explain.

It all started with seed packets back in January.  Seed packets for a special type of flowers.  You see, my daughter was planning a September wedding and she has always loved dried flowers.  Years ago, I grew and dried flowers as a hobby and to sell a few to make a little extra money, so she asked me about doing dried flowers for the wedding.  I was happy to say, "sure"!  

I doubt many brides-to-be and their mom's start out planning a wedding by looking at seed catalogs, but that's one of the things we did! This summer both my vegetable garden and flowerbeds contained some of the plants that were grown from the seed packs we ordered.

Here you can see the some of globe amaranth and strawflowers in our vegetable garden.

They were also nestled in between the marigold in my flowerbeds.

By the end of summer, the strawflowers were really reaching to the sky!

I was busy picking them everyday to dry, as well as many other types of flowers, such as statice... and wildflowers - goldenrod, joe-pye weed, boneset, and yarrow.

My clothes-drying racks dried flowers, not clothes, this summer!

 

 They all went on racks in my sunroom and then into boxes once they were dry.
Some may have gotten inspected first by Ruby.

These are the beautiful colors of the statice before it is dried.

Then after they were dried, I got busy making flower arrangements of various types.

Arrangements in progress at my work table.

Sara made the beautiful paper flowers in this swag and Dad made the arch they were placed on.

Dried flowers went on the flower girl's basket...

and even the homemade boutonnieres had a few dried flowers in them.

Thanks to Sara for her paper-flower making skills, as she made these, too!

It was a lot of fun for me to grow, dry and make these things, as well as being a "labor-of-love" for my daughter.

I did not make the bridal bouquets... they were purchased, but I think they were lovely.

The colors of the day... green, purple, pink, yellow, and white!