Starship Asterisk*

orin stepanek wrote:I don't know what these are, but are really pretty in the morning!

Looks like it could be a kind of rosemary.

Lovely flowers, Orin! They are BLUE, too!

Ann

Nitpicker wrote:

orin stepanek wrote:I don't know what these are, but are really pretty in the morning!

Looks like it could be a kind of rosemary.

Thanks; but doesn't have the evergreen needles; it is a perennial though!

Ann wrote:Lovely flowers, Orin! They are BLUE, too!

Ann

Thanks!

You know I love Irises!

Found these on the tiny nature trail near my house. Presumably Sisyrinchium angustifolium.

I wanted to try raising some Chamomile; but this is what I got! I have no idea what it is; and it doesn't look like the Chamomile I knew when I was a lad!

Uh, yeah, I don't know what those are but there aren't enough petals for that to be any kind of chamomile.

geckzilla wrote:Uh, yeah, I don't know what those are but there aren't enough petals for that to be any kind of chamomile.

I'm thinking the seed company put the seeds in the wrong package!
I've already planted Bell pepper seeds that turned out to be Anaheim peppers instead!


This is what I was hoping for; picture is from wiki!

geckzilla wrote:Uh, yeah, I don't know what those are but there aren't enough petals for that to be any kind of chamomile.

Chamomile is a composite (daisy, aster) and as such has no petals at all, but rather a head with many flowers surrounded by individual ray flowers.

Oh, that's right, so morphologically this isn't even close. Poor Orin. You've got mystery flowers.

Oh well; they are kind of cute!

The wildflowers this year are better than they've been for a long time. Lots of locoweed (great as long as it's not in our pastures). Lupine, chiming bells, sugarbowl, paintbrush, dozens of aster species, penstemon, and much more. With all our moisture in May, the flowers are twice the size as in most years (the sugarbowl below is about an inch high, compared with maybe 3/4" usually.

I'm not positive, but I think my Chamomile is starting to germinate! Hopefully!

Our first pasque flower (and first flower at all) of the year, on March 29. Same day I saw the first last year. Ten years ago we never saw them before the end of the first week of April, sometimes well into the second week. A very visible sign of the earlier arrival of spring in the northern temperate latitudes.

Well, we haven't visited this topic for a while. Out riding yesterday and came across an entire hillside of pasque flowers. That's a full week earlier than I've ever seen one before. Spring continues to come earlier. We did have a storm blow thorough last night which dropped a little snow, but we're still very dry. Hoping for more moisture this spring.

No picture but my Daffs are blooming big time!

We're currently experiencing a bloom of ice pellets. A bit early for flowers around here. We should have some "Jolly Jump Ups" (called Johnny Jump Ups in most other places) in a couple of weeks.

Rob

There were lots of wood anemones in a park today, which is pretty early for March 31.

Ann

Getting on again, off again days with some spring snow. Doesn't bother the pasque flowers, though.

I got one lovely hyacinth in full bloom! Image from Wikipedia

I didn't photo it; but looks the same as Wikipedias1

orin stepanek wrote:I got one lovely hyacinth in full bloom! Image from Wikipedia

I didn't photo it; but looks the same as Wikipedias1

Beautiful, Orin! They are so blue!!

Ann

Chris Peterson wrote:Getting on again, off again days with some spring snow. Doesn't bother the pasque flowers, though.

E7_35440p.jpg

I checked up "pasque flower" and found that, oh yes, we used to have them too, and maybe we still do, but they are very rare.

The Swedish name is "backsippa", literally "hill anemone". There is a lovely British youtube video showing the pasque flower growing on British hills.
I get the impression that your pasque flower may be slightly different than this, Chris. The Colorado pasque flower appears to be a bit sturdier than the British (and Swedish) ones, and also paler in color. Would you agree that this is true?

Ann

Ann wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:Getting on again, off again days with some spring snow. Doesn't bother the pasque flowers, though.

E7_35440p.jpg

I checked up "pasque flower" and found that, oh yes, we used to have them too, ande maybe we still do, but they are very rare.

The Swedish name is "backsippa", literally "hill anemone". There is a lovely British youtube video showing the pasque flower growing on British hills.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

I get the impression that your pasque flower may be slightly different than this, Chris. The Colorado pasque flower appears to be a bit sturdier than the British (and Swedish) ones, and also paler in color. Would you agree that this is true?

There are a lot of varieties of pasque flower. I think the ones we have are very similar to some found in northern Europe, as well. And there's a fair bit of variation in ours. The identical species can give flowers that are nearly white to very blue or purple (like in your image). Some are very cup-shaped, some open up more into fairly separate petals. But I think all pasque flowers have little hairs that protect them from snow, because they are all very early bloomers.

Today was incredibly beautiful! :jumping_up_and_down:

Gamla begravningsplatsen, The Old Burial Ground in central Malmö, is incredibly beautiful at this time of year. There is an absolute riot of spring flowers in there! The earliest spring flowers to take possession of this burial ground/park are the winter aconites and snowdrops, which don't mind the cold (if it's not too severe) and which dominate all of February. They paint the Old Burial Ground yellow and white for weeks on end.
But at this time of year, blue scilla flowers flood much of the Old Burial Ground like an ocean overtaking the land. I can only show you the tiny picture at left, but do check out the full size 4 MB picture here!
But the blue flowers don't reign supreme. They are mixed with yellow Gagea lutea in different amounts. And there is also blue-white scilla, Scilla mischstschenkoana, which is the color of B-type stars! And there is royal blue Scilla siberica, too. And lots of yellow daffodils! And white wood anemones!















There were also two cherry trees in bloom! And one lovely tree full of small white flowers!


And as I was walking about in the Old Burial Ground and drinking in the blue, yellow, white, pink and green loveliness, I suddenly spotted a glimpse of red. It was a butterfly, a European peacock, drinking nectar from the blue flowers in the sunshine! My goodness, it was too beautiful for words!

Ann

I saw seven dandelions today! Seven yellow sisters, perhaps?

Not enough to make dandelion wine, if I were so inclined. Which I'm not.

Ann