What's blooming today?
Wordless Wednesday
I found these blooming in my garden bed this weekend. I used to have several clumps of these, but the rest seem to have disappeared or else they are coming up slower than this clump of blue iris that happens to be in a very sunny portion of the garden.
I just love how delicate the petals look. Each petal is so thin, and fine, with shades of other colors within.
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Yes I know it’s Tuesday. I did not forget about Green Thumb Sunday. I just wasn’t able to make my post on Sunday because I was so busy. I’d rather have been posting, or gardening or pretty much anything else other than what I was doing! I was doing taxes!
It turned out to be a beautiful day on Saturday. I actually got outside, enjoyed some time with my husband sitting at our patio table that my husband had just hauled out and put back together that morning, and walked around taking photos of some of the flowers that were blooming.
Like this one. This is helleborus orientals. It’s also known as the Christmas rose. It’s called the Christmas rose because in some areas it blooms around Christmas time – even in the snow. Our area is too cool in the winter for it to live up to it’s name, however ours often is an early bloomer, tending to bloom around the same time as the crocus’.
I discovered that our Helleborus had one fully open flower and several buds that will soon bloom. I’ll try to get another photo when there are several buds blooming.
Isn’t this a lovely plant? The flowers are gorgeous but shy. They hang their pretty heads so it’s hard to see them in the garden. They draw you close so you can see their true beauty.
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I’ve just watched a program on television that we taped. It was on Nova, on PBS, and the episode was called “First Flower”. I didn’t realize this but the origin of the flower has always been in question. It was one of the lingering mysteries that plagued Darwin.
In this program, botanists explore an area in Northern China where one paleobotanist believes the first flower originated. In this program they find a fossil that is believed to be the oldest flower fossil ever found.
You can read more about this program Nova/First Flower on the PBS.org site. There’s quite a bit of information about paleobotanists – scientists who study ancient plants and their fossils, and areas of China where todays modern flowers are believed to have evolved. They refer to China as the mother of gardens.
The program was filmed in high definition, the scenery, the mountains, the gorgeous colorful flowers – all are just spectacular to view as you watch this program. If you get a chance to watch this program you should. It’s just wonderful to look at all of the flora that’s discussed and of course to view the scenery of the Hengduan Mountains of southwestern China and other scenic places.
In this program, one paleobotanist states that flowers evolved rather late in the fossil record, but they came to dominate the earth. if it weren’t for the evolution of flowers it’s said that humans might not have evolved because without flowers we would not have the products of flowering plants to eat.
Isn’t that an amazing theory? Are we, modern gardeners, worshiping the plants that allowed us to live and evolve in the first place?
I never really thought of visiting China before, because when I thought of China I’d always think of over crowded cities, but now, after seeing this program I have a different view of China and you never know, I just might visit the country one day.