Spiderwort, Why Does Thou Love My Garden So?

Spiderwort, Why Does Thou Love My Garden So?

wildflower wednesday

Spiderwort, oh spiderwort, why does thou love my garden so much?

I remember seeing you growing in my grandmother's garden many years ago, though I didn't really know your name back then. I was just a kid. I just thought your flowers were pretty.

Then one day, I saw you at garden center and I remembered grandma's garden. Oh, Tradescantia virginiana, you were more than willing to come home

Wildflower Wednesday - Buy Responsibly

Wildflower Wednesday - Buy Responsibly

wildflower wednesday

Great White Trilliums have been blooming in my garden for the last week or so. This lovely native wildflower goes by the name Trillium grandiflorum, which is easy to remember because these are definitely grand flowers.

Where did I get these wildflowers, you ask?

From a reputable company, Old House Gardens, who sources them from a nursery where they propagate them from their stock.

They do

Trout Lilies for Wildflower Wednesday

Trout Lilies for Wildflower Wednesday

wildflower wednesday

I went out to the garden today and walked around a bit, shivering on what is hopefully the last really cold day of early spring.

Thankfully, the sun was shining or that 39º  Fahrenheit would have felt a lot colder than it really was.

I saw a lot of weeds coming up, along with the foliage of many flowers yet to bloom.

Out under the honeylocust tree, I found the distinctly mottled leaves of

Witchhazel for Wildflower Wednesday

Witchhazel for Wildflower Wednesday

Humor wildflower wednesday

Which witchhazel do you have?

Which hazel? Like the maid on the old television comedy Hazel?

No.

Witchhazel.

That's what I asked. Which hazel?

The spring one.

Oh, the spring one.  Does she focus on spring cleaning?

No, she's a plant.

Oh, so not that Hazel?

No, witchhazel.

That's what I asked. Which hazel?

The plant one? What's she called?

Which hazel?

Are we asking about Hazel

Wouldn't hurt a fleabane

Wouldn't hurt a fleabane

wildflower wednesday

A little fleabane in the garden never hurt anything or anybody, and it's good for the pollinators.

Fleabane, Erigeron sp. is a native wildflower that just shows up here and there in my garden throughout the growing season. I think what grows in my garden is either Annual Fleabane, Erigeron annus or Daisy Fleabane, Erigeron strigosus.

Annual or Daisy, I rarely pull it out when it shows up

WIldflower Wednesday - August Dreams Garden

WIldflower Wednesday - August Dreams Garden

wildflower wednesday

My late summer-autumn blooming border is coming along nicely as we round the corner and head straight to the end of August.

I affectionately call this particular border August Dreams Garden because it is planted with mostly native plants that bloom in mid to late summer and early fall.  It's the most designed garden I have, and I try to stay true to the overall concept by planting mostly

Little Joe Pye Weed

Little Joe Pye Weed

wildflower wednesday

Little Joe Pye Weed is beginning to bloom in the August Dreams Garden border, just in time for Wildflower Wednesday, hosted by Gail at Clay and Limestone.

Little Joe Pye Weed, Eutrochium dubium 'Little Joe', only grows to about four feet, making it a great "back of the border" plant for late summer interest.

Pollinators love it to pieces.  When these flowers actually begin to open, they will

The creatures make the garden

The creatures make the garden

wildflower wednesday

Bee on swamp milkweed

If all the birds and the bees and the spiders and the insects and the chipmunks and the squirrels and all the other creatures disappeared from your garden, what would be left?

It's a trick question.

Nothing would be left.

For soon without the birds and the bees and the spiders and the insects and the chipmunks and the squirrels and all the other creatures, the garden

Wildflower Wednesday - Trilliums

Wildflower Wednesday - Trilliums

wildflower wednesday

This is the time of year when I go out in the evenings and wander around the garden, looking for new blooms.

I'm rarely disappointed in my search for new blooms. As spring accelerates its arrival, I literally find new blooms every day. The other day, I found the blooms of Great White Trillim, Trillium grandiflorum.

These are native wildflowers, though I've never seen one in the woods. To

Wildflower Wednesday: May I express my gratitude?

Wildflower Wednesday: May I express my gratitude?

wildflower wednesday With a shared love of gardening

Bee on Cup Plant flower

Dear Gail,

I'm writing today to express my thanks to you for coming up with this wonderful meme called Wildflower Wednesday.  Through your garden, which we've all come to enjoy through your blog posts on Clay and Limestone, we've learned so much about the importance of planting wildflowers to attract pollinators.

I thought of you when my garden designer sat down with

Garden fairies take over for Wildflower Wednesday

Garden fairies take over for Wildflower Wednesday

garden fairies Humor wildflower wednesday

Nemophila maculata

Garden fairies here.

We are garden fairies and we are once again called upon to take over this blog and provide some useful information for the fine readers who come here looking for useful information only to find some of that stuff Carol will sometimes write that we don't think is useful at all.

Plus, if we don't post for Wildflower Wednesday to show what we did in the

Wildflower Wednesday: Carolina Silverbell

Wildflower Wednesday: Carolina Silverbell

trees wildflower wednesday

Carolina Silverbell Blooms

I'm not sure if the Carolina Silverbell tree in my garden is a testament to my laziness or to my stubbornness.

Probably a little of both.

It's a pretty little tree, or could be under the right growing conditions.  It has a unique bloom which looks like a little pink bell.  In the top picture, the bells are just beginning to open.

In the fall, each bell shaped

Wildflower Wednesday - Flowers in the Lawn

Wildflower Wednesday - Flowers in the Lawn

lawn wildflower wednesday

Pretty little mystery flower in the lawn

I've spent time the last three evenings on my hands and knees and sometimes on my butt planting bulbs for Glory of the Snow,  Chionodoxa gigantia (also known as Chionodoxa lucillia), in my back lawn.

I bought 1,000 bulbs of Glory of the Snow, which doesn't take as long as you might think to plant. I timed my first 300 bulbs.  40 minutes.  Not bad.  

The Theory of Seasonal Wildflowers

The Theory of Seasonal Wildflowers

letters to gardening friends wildflower wednesday

Dear Gail,

Thank you for providing us with Wildflower Wednesday on the fourth Wednesday of the month, reminding us to think about wildflowers for our gardens.

While I was out mowing today, I thought about wildflowers and what I might post about them.  I mowed past some Black-eye Susans (Rudbeckia sp.) and considering posting about them.



Black-eyed Susans

Then I saw the big Joe Pye Weed (

Class is now in session for Wildflower Wednesday - Wild Petunia

Class is now in session for Wildflower Wednesday - Wild Petunia

Humor wildflower wednesday

Wild Petunia, Ruellia humilis

"Good morning, class."

"Good morning, Miss Horters."

"Now class, I hope you all remembered that today we are having a very special Show & Tell for Wildflower Wednesday, which is always on the 4th Wednesday of the month".

"Yes, Miss Horters, we remembered," said the class in unison.

"Miss Horters?"

"Yes, Judy?" 

"Miss Horters, Carol brought in a garden fairy

Wordless Wildflower Wednesday, with garden fairies

Wordless Wildflower Wednesday, with garden fairies

fairies Humor wildflower wednesday

Heliposis helianthoides 'Helhan', trade name Loraine Sunshine

Garden fairies here.  We are garden fairies and we do not care that Carol made this a combined "wordless" and "wildflower" post just because Wildflower Wednesday occurs on the same day of the week as Wordless Wednesday.

We've got something to say about Loraine Sunshine. Yes, we do.  See all those green leaves behind Loraine's

Wildflower Wednesday Interloper

Wildflower Wednesday Interloper

wildflower wednesday

Columbine Meadow-rue with Columbine

On the right in this picture, does everyone recognize the red and yellow flowers of Aquilegia canadensis, a native columbine?

On the left in this picture, does everyone recognize the purple flowers of the Wildflower Wednesday interloper, Thalictrum aquilegifolium, a non-native flower known as Columbine Meadow-Rue?   It's from Eastern Europe/Asia.

I

Nature's Garden

Nature's Garden

books wildflower wednesday

"Do the wildflowers speak to you--do they know you as a friend, or pass you by as an alien? Do you know their names--their language--their secrets?"

I know the wildflowers know my friend Gail of Clay and Limestone as a friend. She's our hostess for Wildflower Wednesday on the fourth Wednesday off the month, and that's today.

"Every lover of the beauties of Nature, every one who thrills to the

Wildflower Wednesday: Overheard in the Garden

Wildflower Wednesday: Overheard in the Garden

wildflower wednesday

On the fourth Wednesday of the month, we are all invited by Gail of Clay and Limestone to post about wildflowers for Wildflower Wednesday. Gail  organized this garden bloggers' meme to help promote planting wildflowers in our gardens and avoiding the use of pesticides so that pollinators and other insects can enjoy the flowers without harmful chemicals.

For this month's Wildflower Wednesday post

Wildflower Wednesday: Where's the Baptisia?

Wildflower Wednesday: Where's the Baptisia?

perennials wildflower wednesday

Let's play a new gardening game called "Where's the Baptisia".

Baptisia australis, which has the common name of Blue False Indigo, is a native flower in the eastern United States.  Well-planted in the garden, it can provide a stunning display of purple blooms in mid to late spring.

Here in my garden, Baptisia is not well planted.

Can you find it in the picture above?

Let's go in a little