canada mayflower, rhodies, bleeding heart green beans, hummingbirds

Right next to the entry way of our house, at the base of a pale lilac rhododendron, the previous owners and/or nature sprites planted a whole mess of Canada mayflower. On May 18th, they were at this stage:

Just starting to open up.

They’re at this stage now – slightly faded, not yet Obviously Magnificently Preggers.

The scrawny kind of bleeding heart – I don’t know the official name – is likewise just starting to fade. Here’s one with a just-opening rhodie behind it...

I’m more partial to wildflowers, in theory, but it’s hard to resist the show being put on all around the house. I mean, what’s not to love about a humongous rhododendron right at your own front steps? It’s like being in the woods in West Virginia.

I’m not the only fan.

Those bleeding hearts make long green bean pods.

We also have the fat white kind. I’m new to them, more-or-less – still trying to figure out the order of events.

This might be the last of the bunch to get going. Oh crap, this is out of focus. Oops.

Eventually the bottoms go sproinnnngg...

OK, now I’m just geeking out and documenting the process, even though this isn’t the best shot...

Around the south side of the house, a batch of fat pink ones are the furthest along.

Also on the south side of the house, we have purple fireworks. I think they’re in the chive/onion realm.

At one point, a family of cardinals got all up in my grill. Or maybe Maggie’s grill. They were upset about something.

Note: a macro lens might not be the best choice on a bird. Speaking of which, the hummingbirds are eating us out of house and home. Seriously. They go through 2.5 cups of sweetened water in about five days.

Sir H. There are at least three or four couples right around here. I spy on them from the kitchen. They hesitate when they see me and often work their way around to the one hole opposite the feeder from my vantage point at the sink. But I’ve managed to get a few shots, mostly of females, who are slightly not-as-wary. Perhaps they recognize a kindred spirit in me.

I’m awfully fond of them.

the tiniest flowers are sometimes the most ornate

when is white campion not white campion?

when it’s pink.

the rhododendron flowers are all done. a few forlorn bees buzz around, making sure they haven’t missed anything.

on the side of the road, a smattering of asiatic dayflowers.

I’d wade into the weeds more, but the poison ivy threatens:

remember deertongue, from the other day? here’s how those wriggly spermies break free of the stalk:

let’s have another look at those teensy flowers:

fancy magenta headdress (stigma?)

 

...dangling little slippered feet (anthers?)

just so we’re clear about this, that whole structure takes up less than half the length of my index finger’s nail.

this is the last of the golden alexander that’s still golden...

 

most of it looks like this by now:

 

and now for today’s new (to me) species...drumroll please...

wild garlic!

the jack-in-the-pulpit report: still green.

...whereas the false solomon’s seal berries are partway to red. they don’t start off bright green like the jacks – more of a pale greeny yellow, followed by rusty speckling, like so:

 

some sort of panic grass. I am loathe to speculate on species – I’m not even completely sure it’s a panic grass.

OK, time to suck down some of the library books that have all been released from the purgatory of On Hold to my hot little hands, at the same time. Ready – set – go!

mutant jack-in-the-pulpits and whatnot

So apparently there is something in the water down here in tropical Connecticut that makes for absolutely mutant plant growth. I should back up a bit. A few weeks ago, I went for a walk, cranky as can be, looking for a bit of grace and redemption. Nature was happy to oblige, as she generally is. Poison ivy positively infests the roadsides around here, and where I was walking was no exception.

Flowering poison ivy, dripping from a roadside maple tree.

So there I was, grumpy me, thinking nasty thoughts about all the poison ivy. I had my eyes trained on the side of the road, hoping to see something interesting. Suddenly, I spotted a 3-leaved plant that I knew was NOT poison ivy. It was a jack-in-the-pulpit. Jacks are comparatively rare on our Vermont property – last year, we had a handful of them, and I kept pretty close track of ‘em. None of them produced berries: they all got rained out in a single storm and were destroyed in mid-June. So I was psyched to see this:

Hello!

Whereupon, I was seeing them EVERYWHERE. There must have been a hundred jacks inside a quarter mile. I’m not even kidding. This was on May 21st. The flowers are pretty much toast by now – they range from fading...

 

...to kinda rotting-looking...

 

...to magic green berries!

Those will eventually turn scarlet.

 

Each of these leaves is 10 inches long.

And they’re HUGE! The plants are HUGE! The wildflower guide says they get up to three feet high, and yeah, this appears to be the case. Our Vermont jacks were tiny compared to these monsters.

Also seen today...

Wild rose:

 

A neighbor’s collection of rhododendrons, maybe 12 feet high, practically vibrating with bees:

 

A possibly-syrphid-fly on jewelweed.

 

Solomon’s seal!

(“!” because I’ve seldom seen this on our place in Vermont – we had a single one along the shared driveway, and it got taken out in an Unfortunate Road Regrading Incident.)

...not to be confused with false solomon’s seal:

Here’s the same exact shot, focused differently.

“Art”.

Even the plants are better organized than I am

Take the lilac: it’s made and released seeds…

“Laaaaaah!”


…and they’ve already made their buds for next year.

Rhododendron: same story. As for me? I haven’t even put away my summer T-shirts yet.
I get complimented occasionally by my slavishly devoted blog fans for how Observant I am, How Great that I Notice All the Beauty in the Ordinary World Around Me.  Explain to me then how I managed to miss this entire huge shrub, right next to the Maybe Arrowwood Maybe Hydrangea shrub.

Huhhhh...? Anybody have any suggestions? It’s a shrub with opposite leaves. That’s all I got.


Deformed magnolia buds are turning red. Did you see the one where I dissected these in the hopes that they were insect galls? Turns out they were growing seeds. Ooops. Sorry.
And now for the wildflower report.

Starflower. The evergreen leaves are vinca – which, incidentally, are still throwing off purple flowers.

Miterwort. 
Yeah, I know, not as beautiful as you were hoping for, huh? It’s fall, people! Here’s what miterwort looks like when it’s flowering. And here are its positively cute-alicious seeds.
OK, one last bit of news. The other day’s fall dandelion is actually Cat’s Ear (Hypochoeris radicata). Thanks, Arianna, for figuring that out for me!

Mmmm, sweet. Relish this color, cause it’s all gonna fade soon…
The tie-breaking indicator? Fuzzy leaves.


Charlie greets his namesake flower.