Wildflowers Of Spring On A Wednesday*

We are late to the wildflower party. To be honest we used to call many of them weeds and pulled their sweet little roots from the ground to further the growth of purchased exotics. We know now that was wrong. We apologize and won’t do it again. The above sweet little Veronica of some type came from daughter Semi’s garden. Semi is a firm believer in not pulling weeds, wildflowers. We now see her wisdom. Who says the old cannot learn from the young?

Somehow, purchased wildflowers were held in higher esteem than the native ones inherited with the property, like this yellow Trillium luteum from our favorite Mouse Creek Nursery…

…or the red T. cuneatum, Sweet Betsy from the same location.

Passalongs were also considered special treasures, to be carefully tended, like these wild Geranium maculatum from a friend near the mountains on the Tennessee side.

From the North Carolina side of those same Appalachian mountains, good friend and fellow blogger Christopher of Outside Clyde has been quite generous with the natives happily ensconced in the natural setting where he is building his cozy cabin. I had thought the white Trillium grandiflora had disappeared, but it was being engulfed by the above geranium. I nearly missed the blooming until a more thorough search was held after seeing the photos of trilliums on his mountainside.

Christopher also gifted us with a nice clump of Iris cristata, in the palest hue of light blue, even though it looks white in the image. We also have the darker blue version of the same plant, a passalong from dear departed neighbor Mae. She is still sorely missed by all who knew her, but her memory lives on in the multitude of plants she shared with us.

From offspring of offspring MA, son of Chickenpoet came this clump of Columbine canadensis along with the mossy rock. These columbines has self seeded and there are now several patches of it, amongst the other hybrid volunteer columbines in the same area. We love the little red and yellow lanterns the best, for many reasons.

Phlox divaricata was purchased, several times in fact. It has been a tough go getting it to establish, but this clump on the side of the daylily hill has returned and seems healthy.

Not known as a native when purchased, the crossvine, Bignonia capreolata ‘Tangerine Beauty’ is filling in across the top of the large arbor. There is a density of buds and blooms as never seen before, even though this vine has been in the ground for several years. It probably is due to the excellent rainfall received last year. Many plants are showing renewed vigor from previous seasons.

Another blogger and dear friend, Gail has made sure that this plant, Hypoxis hirsuta, yellow star grass has a good foothold at the Fairegarden, bringing one as a hostess gift on her very first visit here in 2008, and three more on her next, last fall. We do appreciate the plant and the visitor.

Speaking of Gail, she has generously offered her favorite and signature plant, PPPP, practically perfect pink Phlox, Phlox pilosa, to all who request it. Except one. But that has been remedied and we are proud to announce that this fabulous plant is now living here as well.

*The gracious Gail of Clay and Limestone has designated the third fourth Wednesday of each month as Wildflower Wednesday. Garden bloggers are a freewheeling bunch and sometimes not good at rule following, so any Wednesday is fair game for this meme. I am sure Gail doesn’t mind. (It is hoped that this is okay, we will wait to hear from Gail on the subject. I would hate to speak out of turn, but have done it before and will probably do it again.)

Frances