return of the spider lillies

Three spider lillies popped up and bloomed early last week. A few more appeared later in the week. A grand total of 6 or 7 plants this year; nothing like last year. Maybe it was the unusually wet weather we had in August this year.

daffydils

From before Valentines Day. It seemed early, but now there are 8 or 10 daffodils blooming.

I finally have spider lillies!

Two and a half years ago when I moved 160 miles south from my former home I brought with me some spider lilly bulbs from my old back yard and scattered them around my new home, hoping that they would take hold in at least one spot. Two years went by and I didn't see any spider lillies bloom. I was disappointed. I decided that the soil or climate just wasn't to their liking.

A few days ago I noticed what looked like 3 spider lillies poking up in three different spots in the back yard. Now they're blooming, and there are a few dozen more about to bloom. Sometimes nature just takes longer than we expect it to. I'm so happy to welcome all these "spiders" to my yard.

These flowers should slowly multiply, and get better with each passing year, but I doubt I'll ever have a display like This! Ooh, la la!

unexpected pinkness

Last fall I planted a packet of wildflower seeds. I was hoping for bluebonnets and paintbrush, but so far what has been most plentiful are the non-native flowers, including these corn poppies. On this cool rainy day they look like luscious lollipops out in the back yard.

harvest of purple and gold

Partridge Pea  -  Chamaecrista fasciculata

One of my long-term goals is to convert my lawn into a nature friendly xeriscape. That means planting as many native plants as possible to give back some of the habitat being destroyed by housing and roadways. The partridge pea is an old favorite flower, one I first spotted in Bosque County about 1985, but I hadn't seen one in many years until recently. Now I see many dozens of them in an as yet undeveloped field near my house and I thought I'd to grow some. Getting seeds for planting has been a bit tricky. I've looked at a lot of seed pods, but there must be a very short time between the pods being too green or being too ripe with seeds already scattered.  I've been looking at and gathering pods sporadically for over a month and have less than 30 seeds to show for it.

I had been puzzling for months over a clump of interesting greenery in someone's front yard, trying to identify it. It looked like rosemary, but was too stiff and prickly & certainly didn't smell like rosemary. A few weeks ago the prickly greenery began sprouting tiny purple flowers. and then I saw these plants in the wildflower field which are unkempt versions of the plant I had been so fascinated with. I finally found its name: Gayfeather, Texas Liatris, or my favorite, Blazing Star.

Gayfeather  -  Liatris mucronata

I took a spade with me one day and dug up a few specimens to put in my yard. I wouldn't normally disturb someone's property, but this field seems to serve mostly as a repository for cans, plastic bottles, and almost every kind of trash. I didn't think anyone would miss a few plants.  So far the specimens I transplanted are surviving.

When I dug up the gayfeather plants I accidentally got a couple of Broomweed plants with them.

Prairie Broomweed  -  Amphiachyris dracunculoides

I decided to plant them as well, and hope any seeds formed would self-sow in my yard. One plant by itself doesn't look like much, but in quantity they cast a nice yellow glow. Apparently settlers in the 1800s would gather a bunch of these plants and bind one end so they could be used as brooms, hence the common name broomweed. They're part of the Aster family, and up close are quite pretty. I do hope I see them in the yard next summer. Maybe all these wildflowers will find my yard to their liking.

morning glories

For a long time I had no luck trying to grow morning glories, but they seem to like the soil in my new back yard. For the second year in a row they've gone bonkers climbing up a trellis I leaned against the fence. They were so aggressive this year I had to clip them out of my neighbor's tree after they crept over to a branch that was hanging too close.  I had hoped to get several shades of blue from a "tri-mix" seed packet as well as some white moonflowers, but only this particular color showed up. I think it's the type called "Grandpa Ott." During the heat of the day the leaves wilt badly and they look pathetic, but the next morning they come out to greet the day. All they need is a bit of water to keep on going.

Bring me the sunflower crazed with the love of light

  -- Eugenio Montale

And life itself exhaling that central breath!

Top: The seed packet said Maximillian Sunflower (Helianthus maximilianii) but none of the pictures I found on the internet look like this. Plant is about 6 feet tall and flowers are about 5 inches wide.

Bottom: A "volunteer" sunflower, planted by birds, with Western Tiger Swallowtail. Probably a Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus).  Flowers 4 to 4 1/2 inches wide. This plant is about 7 feet tall and has 40-50 blossoms on it, with more on the way.

springtime

Irises are blooming! A few plants had buds in March, but a late freeze put them on hold. Purple irises are my favorites. We're not having a fabulous show like last year because I dug up a bunch of bulbs when we moved and didn't get them planted right away. They're still getting acclimated to their alien surroundings. (I still have a few dozen in a box that are sprouting without the aid of dirt or light.) There are 4 or 5 dutch irises in several shades of purple and yellow blooming right now and one small Louisiana iris that bloomed for a day. Next year they should be more comfortable in their new home.

The best news is the hummingbirds are back. I spotted one in late March so I put out the feeders. Soon there were two birds. Two or three more arrived this week. This one is a male ruby-throated hummingbird, and I saw one male black-chinned hummingbird. They aren't acting overly territorial over the feeders yet, but I don't know if their comraderie will last.