Sunday, June 14, 2015

Dileuvian?

Is there such a word?

While we exist between the extremes of Texas, too much rain, and California, too little rain, we have had a lot so far this year which means I have only watered once. That's the good news.

Along the edge of a field of soybeans, I've been watching with interest a line of what I had thought was a red flowered grass. It's not. A grass. But rather a common garden 'weed' which I have removed from gardens I've had in every place I've ever lived. It just goes to show you that sometimes those 'weeds' are beautiful as long as they are in the right place.

The contrast between the red flowers along the far edge of the field and the blue-gray grass flowers in the foreground of the first photo below is interesting, isn't it? Clicking will enlarge photos.



I got out of the car, waded (almost literally) through the wet grass to get the above shots. I'm only guessing but I suspect it may be some kind of Persicaria.

Back on the road again, I soon saw Dame's Rocket, another old fashioned garden plant with a delicious almost lilac-like smell, growing along the road. I dug one plant to join another plant I had dug earlier from another spot closer to Harbor Beach. I've had Dame's Rocket in the garden of my Royal Oak home for many years. If they live, and they should, it will be nice to have these beauties back again. Pretty lilac-purple flowers, they smell nice, they self seed, and they are at least biennial if not perennial. I'll add some photos of Dame's Rocket later.


On the way back from breakfast and the grocery store, I saw this field of Lupines. This spring I planted some purchased seeds of the 'wild' native prairie species in my wildflower field and I'm hoping that some will make it. While most of the Lupines in this field are similar in color, there are a few white, reddish, and even some more intense blues or purples.




I suspect that originally the person who planted the seeds planned on either harvesting the seeds or the plants for selling but abandoned the idea. Regardless, there are more flowers this year than last year.

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