butterfly milkweed

It was a big surprise to me to find this bright orange Butterfly Weed today! A few years ago (2008) I bought seeds of Asclepias tuberosa, a native orange milkweed. I raised a couple small plants and tucked then in a few different spots in my garden. Then I forgot about them. I never expected then to survive. What a joy!

wildflowers

vacation wildflowers

I've been away the past week. Any guesses where from the local wildflowers?








I suppose you can't really tell where I was from the wildflowers, so here's a scenic photo:



This may have been one of the cooler locations around the Northern hemisphere this past week. Even so, it was warm here. The glaciers are suffering from the heat.

what is this?

We saw many of these beautiful flowers in Vermont on our recent vacation and couldn't figure out what it is. Looks like a wild rose or a berry bramble maybe, but with five lobed, maple-like leaves. I'm hoping someone can ID it for me. Thanks in advance!

milkweed

Someone recently asked me about where to find milkweed. I've been looking. These photos are from Rock Meadow in Belmont - along Mill Street. The milkweed there is beautiful and just starting to bud. The Monarchs will be happy! I've also found smaller stands of milkweed off of Trapelo Road in Waltham in the area of the old Met life buildings.

wild flowers

Wildflowers:
1 I don't know
2 Wild geranium
3 Lily of the Valley (my mom says this is not a wildflower and someone must have planted it here years ago)
4 Wild trilium
5 Bellwort
6 Solomon's seal
7 Wood violets

woodland wildflowers

On a drizzly and cool afternoon, Skippy and I went hunting in the woods for early spring wildflowers. We found many. I think many more than in previous years. In some areas, I just stopped and starred - amazed. The woods were blanketed with flowering natives: a mix of anemones, Solomon seal, Lily of the Valley, geraniums, foam flower, bellwort, wild roses, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, trillium, wood violets and even showy lady's slipper. Amazing. And beautiful. Several are still budded and I will have to return here to watch them open.

showy lady's slippers -- not

I made a real find today.

Skippy and I wandered into an area of the woods where we don't usually go and came across a nice stand of Showy Lady's Slipper Orchids (Cypripedium Reginae). I have never seen these before and am mostly guessing that this is what they are as the leaves look like pink lady's slippers, which are fairly common here. The difference is that the plants I found are MUCH taller - 2 to 3 feet tall.

I looked up photos of the showy lady slipper and they look like the plants I found. They are native from Newfoundland to Manitoba, in the northeastern and north central U.S. and in the Appalachians southward and stand 35 to 90 cm (1 to 3 feet) high topped by gorgeous pink-and-white flowers. In most of its US range, this plant is considered rare, endangered or critically endangered.

One of the plants has a bud and I am looking forward to seeing the blossom! I will have to check back regularly so I don't miss it. I read that they usually bloom in June, but it looks like this one may bloom sooner than that.




Note added: Thanks for the comment that this plant is actually Veratrum! Ooops. Its a very poisonous plant used for many medicinal preparations with a fairly plain white flower plume. I will have to keep searching for a showy lady slipper.