Wednesday, May 11, 2005

More wildflowery

Yesterday I spent time with other wildflower nuts in the woods. We plucked a few where there were many, and rescued some from kudzu, Japanese honeysuckle, and men with bulldozers.



I came across this plant that I was not familiar with. I believe it may be a spider lily, Hymenocallis caroliniana.



Saw this guy. Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina.



Saw a couple of groundhog dens in the kudzu but didn't photograph them, as I was in danger of being left behind and it was too sunny anyway.

When we were done we appreciated Dan's beautiful garden.

OK we were just nosy.



Inside a foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) there are secret messages to bumblebees.



An unusual dogwood.



Sweet Williams (Dianthus).



Clematis.



Another Clematis. Most people around here seem to say it with the accent on the first syllable, but to me it sounds better on the second.

11 comments:

SantaBarbarian said...

gorgeous photos! I'll see what we can do about getting you on Comedy Central, too!

;-)

Rurality said...

Shannon there are some fall clematis too. The native one in this area is a fall bloomer. The name escapes me at present... will look it up later.

LOL, thanks Jill!

For people not in the know, one of Jill's blogs, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, was mentioned by John Stewart on The Daily Show last night. And on CNN before that, apparently. I don't think they talked about cookies though, unfortunately.

As we watched, hubby was saying, "Now when is he going to mention yours?" Yeah right!

Anonymous said...

You walked through the woods and saw only ONE plant you did not know??? I walk through the woods and count on one hand the plants I DO know.
Pablo in Kansas City

megabeth said...

I love the clematis. I wanted that to grow up my lamppost but the plant info tag said it was only cold-hardy to 30 degrees. So I went with the star jasmine instead.

Turtleheart said...

Braille for bees? I love it!

My fave pic was of the box turtle (of course!), what a cutie.

Charles said...

Lovely photos. for some reason my eyes don’t struggle when focusing, but they do when reading. the real problem with manual focus – which is always my preference – is the ground-glass viewfinders are made for auto focus these days, so they no longer include the grainy circle that sits around that line splitting circle, which used to make manual focusing easy. To get that, you gotta go way pro, and drop 8 grand, last time I checked. That will get you interchangeable viewfinders. I’ve heard you salivating over Canon’s top of the line, so I’m sure you’re aware of there lesser, but very fine, models, the Digital Rebel, and one bump up from that, the Eos 20D. I have the predecessor to the 20D, the 10D. I’m very happy with it. If you combine it with photoshop and the right Epson printer, you’ve to a serious digital darkroom.

Sorry to rant.

Anonymous said...

sugarmama,
don't know that it matters by cultivar, but here in North Georgia, 50 miles north of Atlanta, where we regularly have winter temps in the teens and twenties, clematis does just fine. depending on microclimates, i suppose, you can often push the zone limits of some of these things.

Rurality said...

Oh Pablo, it really did sound like I said that, huh? I really did see several that I wasn't familiar with, but this was just the most interesting one. Plus it just looked like it had to be something really good.

SM, I think some people must plant certain clematis as annuals if that's as low as they can survive. But possibly the different cultivars have varying requirements...? The native one does just fine of course but it's not that showy. Smells great though.

Yeah, Turtleheart, braille for bumblebees, that's the ticket. :) Sounds like the name for an art installation, huh?

Charles I see the possibility of one of those cameras in my future... :) Feel free to carry on anytime.

Anonymous said...

karen, i really could read here all day. i love the way you express yourself. there is so much i could learn.

Anonymous said...

what bees must see. what a magical world we have, seen and unseen. what beauty.

Rurality said...

Thanks YW. Your blog is so beautiful, I learn new things every time you post.

Noivory, I've seen ultraviolet pictures of flowers - you can really see what the bees do. It's amazing. Everything points to the nectar/pollination areas... like little runway lights almost, to guide them where the flower wants them to go. Way cool.