See My Flowers: ysabetwordsmith

See My Flowers

I took some photos of exciting flowers in my yard recently.

Our Washington Hawthorn tree bloomed for the first time this year at the beginning of June. This is just south of our driveway, very near the road running west of our house.

Here you can see the top of the little tree in bloom.

The echinacea next to the barrel garden is also blooming now.

Yesterday I went out to pick black raspberries along the edge of the ritual meadow, from the orchard side. While walking back, I discovered this branch bent over under the pear tree.

Wow, I thought, that looks like an elderberry tree! So I went inside to find a reference, and yes, it is. I am excited about this because I've been wanting to plant some but never got around to it, and here Mother Nature just goes ahead and does it for me. I've seen them in the area. My conclusion is that birds have fed on the elderberries and then come to feed on the fruit in the orchard, depositing seeds in the process. It makes me happy when my ecosystem is healthy enough to sprout native plants I haven't put out myself.

Elderberry flowers are tiny and white, appearing in big flat bunches called elderblow. They are edible fried.

Elderberry leaves are composite with paired leaflets like this:

These are not my best photos because the cloudy weather and low light have made for suboptimal photography this year. But that's okay. You can still see what things are.

red_trillium

June 30 2013, 08:13:45 UTC 8 years ago

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Neat to see so many things blooming in your garden. That's excellent about the elderberry plant deciding to shift into your garden. I hope you and your family are well.

Thank you!

ysabetwordsmith

June 30 2013, 08:48:05 UTC 8 years ago

>>Neat to see so many things blooming in your garden.<<

Yay!

>> That's excellent about the elderberry plant deciding to shift into your garden. <<

It makes me happy.

>>I hope you and your family are well.<<

Yes we are.

cat_sanctuary

June 30 2013, 20:31:10 UTC 8 years ago

Liked and linked. You're north of me, so how do you get echinacea first? Must be getting more sun :-)

June 30 2013, 21:23:25 UTC 8 years ago

>>Liked and linked.<<

I appreciate the signal boost.

>> You're north of me, so how do you get echinacea first? <<

I don't know. My stuff usually blooms later than what's in town nearby.

>> Must be getting more sun :-) <<

That's a possibility. The echinacea really likes my yard. I bought one for the barrel garden, and most of my others are transplanted volunteers from there.