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Thursday, June 16, 2011

Primary Colors


Today was gray and foggy and rainy. I spent all day inside. Got a lot done, but I choose to show you some bright flowers from earlier in the week.

OK, it's not quite red, but it's the closest I can come right now. This is smooth rose, Rosa blanda, a wild rose with no thorns. It was growing on the banks of the White River.

smooth rose

For yellow, we have lance-leaved coreopsis, Coreopsis lanceolata. This grows wild in hot dry waste places, but it's happy enough in dry, sunny garden spots too.

lance-leaved coreopsis

Finally, I think I promised Ann to bring you this plant, and here you go. This is wild lupine, Lupinus perennis. It's always blue-purple, and is the required host of the Karner Blue butterfly, which is endangered. It doesn't seem to grow well right where I am, but a few miles east it covers the roadsides at this time of year.

wild lupine

Ellen and I have a play date tomorrow. Stay tuned!



13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful photos as always. I love the yellow flowers in the middle. They just became my new wallpaper ;-)

rainfield61 said...

These beautiful flowers speak some lovely stories.

Secondary Roads said...

Lovely flowers. I particularly like the rosa blanda.

gallerydarrow said...

Lovely, I enjoy your blog.

betchai said...

oh now, i see we have some similar wildflowers, they all hold their own unique beauty.

Lin said...

I can stand in a packed greenhouse and I am always drawn to coreopsis and campanula for some reason. No matter what the variety. It just seems to call me.

Unknown said...

Lovely pictures .... I have never heard of the rose before, it sounds wonderful. As it doesn't have thorns have you by chance taken a cutting for your garden? The colour is very pretty. Does it have a perfume?

It is quite funny that you have put a picture of the wild lupin - I have been thinking that it has been quite a few years since I have seen any growing wild.

Unknown said...

Just an added little note -

Do my eyes deceive me, does the rose have only three petals?

Sharkbytes said...

Vicky- Thanks for the comment. Glad you liked the photo.

rainfield- I think the bright colors sing!

Chuck- I don't like garden roses very much, but wild ones are more appealing. They seem less pretentious.

Ro- thank you. You share some great nature photos too!

betchai- Good! Botanizing in the west is very different, but there should be some similar genuses (genii?)

Lin- yellow just scream "here I am" doesn't it?

Polly- I'm not a big rose fan- I like them better in the wild. It actually has 5 petals. It's just that two sets of them were tightly overlapped in the dampness. It had been raining off and on all day.

RNSANE said...

Great pictures! Lupine grows wild in much of California - mostly yellow - along the roadside - and is considered somewhat of a pest. I think it is so beautiful, though!!

RNSANE said...

Great pictures! Lupine grows wild in much of California - mostly yellow - along the roadside - and is considered somewhat of a pest. I think it is so beautiful, though!!

Ann said...

Well for a rainy day you sure found a bit of sunshine through your pictures. Thanks for showing the wild lupine. I've never seen any growing wild around here.

Ferd said...

If it's gray outside, we can always look at bright, beautiful photos. Good idea! And great pix!