Saturday, June 26, 2010

SPH: Columbuine And Crocus


Purple columbine..... (Click pictures to enlarge)

"Often a purple patch or two is tacked on to a serious work of high promise, to give an effect of colour." ~ Horace (Ancient Roman Poet, 65 BC- 8 BC)

My crocus were disappointing this year and this was the only really good blossom. This comes from my late planting I'm sure and perhaps they will surprise me next spring. The columbine were a different story. Last spring a friend gave me three columbine plants from her shade garden when she had to remove the large tree that provided that shade. I put them in my new shade garden space and here they stumbled along through the hot summer and braved the heat and my attempts at amending the soil and adding the mulch. Their leaves stayed almost intact all winter, even through the unusual snowfall that is a rarity here on the coast of Virginia. As with all the items in the shade garden, I added small stakes to mark their position before putting down the heavy mulching in January (typically our coldest month). In late February, the columbine started growing..... and growing and growing.. until they were lovely mounds of scalloped leaves about 14 to 16" in diameter. In March the middle upright stems began to form and each plant had thirty to forty flower heads form. They started blooming in April and bloomed on through the month and the month of May and finally finished the second week in June. I have clipped off the remaining seed pods and recovered hundreds of the little black seeds. So far, my research gives many different ideas about starting these from seed.... I hope at least one of them is correct because I would love to put these out behind our fence in the preserve to grow wild... along with the wild yellow and red forms already there.


Purple crocus...... Posted by Picasa

I have been absent from the Saturday Photo Hunt for some time... so many flower beds to create and so little time and energy...(the knees and body does not recover from hard labor like it used to). Glad to be back for this loveliest of themes... "purple".

(end of post)

10 comments:

Bridget said...

Beautiful--I love the soft focus!

http://brewerfamily8.blogspot.com

Beverly said...

Beautiful photos!  I hope all your followers get back here.  Your work is too good to miss.

I think I would follow the doctor's advice on the shot for shingles.  Even though I saw the doctor as soon as I started having pain and got the medicine that they prescribe, I'm still bothered by them.  During the day I can pretty well ignore it, but at night when I'm trying to sleep, they are annoying.  I have medication for the neuralgia pain, but I'm not at all sure it works.  If I take too large a dose, it wipes me out.

This is one of those things I can't figure out why Medicare won't pay.  I'm sure they've paid more for the meds and pain patches that I'm using.  My doctor recommended that I got the shot after they have settled down...whenever that will be.

Didn't you just love the puns at Kenju's today!  They were great.  Have a good Sunday.

Denise said...

Wonderful images!  Do hope you feel better soon.

Andree said...

<img></img><img></img> <span>Andree</span><span></span><img></img>
<span>Your gardens sound beautiful. I would love to see photos of them. You do so much work for them. Beautiful photos! 
http://meeyauw-pad.blogspot.com/2010/06/photohunt-purple-cow-vetch.htm</span>

Alice Audrey said...

Great shot of the purple colmbine!

kenju said...

Beautiful crocus. I only have a few bloom each year, and the purples are my favorite.

I definitely recommend the vaccine for shingles. My Medicare provider paid for part of it, and I was able to get the shot at Kroger Pharmacy for only $60 (but only at Kroger, for some reason).

jams o donnell said...

WHat superb photos of beautiful flowers! Welcome back to the hunt!

Janet said...

I only recenty, within the last few years, knew what a columbine was!  Pretty shot :)

Paul Nichols said...

Do you give photo lessons? Wow!!!

It's Sunday morning. Yesterday's humidity was high here, too. I was dripping wet when I finished walking. I don't mind it because (theoretically) I think I'm losing calories and weight.

LivingforGod @ My Father's World said...

Stunning beauty!  I love your flowers.  Thanks for visiting my photo blog.