Thursday, June 12, 2008

Bloomin' yellow

Yellow's bright. Yellow's cheerful. Yellow is a change from yesterday's somewhat bittersweet recollections. I suddenly realized that I have a whole bunch of yellow blossoms in my potted garden and a few outside in the real ground. Here they are, beginning with old reliable, the snapdragon, which survives our winters quite nicely, thank you. Most of the snaps have been with me more than one or two years; at this point, I select new plants at the nursery for specific colors. The yellow, by the way, does not need any hand-holding.

The coreopsis is a rugged critter that pops up in pots without being invited. This is a rear view, to show what a wonderful thing is back-lighting to bring out color. The sun was beaming down through those petals.

I am definitely not a rosarian. My approach to roses is to buy miniatures in the supermarket flower department, repot them and make sure they get periodic water. That's it.

My Martha Stewart specialty butterfly weed is two years gone; this blossom is the first on a plant nestled in with the gallardias. I'm not sure whether it's the local native, from seed, or from boughten seed. If the latter, it should be more of an orangey-red; our Arizona butterfly weeds bloom quite golden.

I'm sure all the columbine growing in the potted garden is native -- I wouldn't think to spend real money for the yellow variety, as the natives seed and spread quite readily. Of course, deep in my heart of hearts I would really enjoy a sky blue columbine, but those come from the high Rockies. Such a graceful flower; it has always been one of my favorites!


My prickly pear blooms a pale yellow, unlike some which are more of a peachy color. Still pretty, though.

And, finally, the yellow on this pinon pine "blossom" is a heavy dose of pollen, meaning these are the male equivalent of flowers. Our pinons are short needle conifers and an important source of pine nuts.

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:58 AM

    I love to eat roasted pine nuts!

    The yellow columbine is particularly pretty!

    What a nice way to start a Friday morning...your flower post!

    ~Anon in AV.

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  2. anon av -- maybe I should do a flower post every Friday. On the other hand, that is a bit regimented & could get tired after a while...glad you enjoyed my posies.

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  3. Anonymous12:00 PM

    Dandelions are as yellow as any of the glamorous flowers.

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  4. boonie -- yer right about the color, but my dandelions have long since bloomed and gone to seed. Besides, I think I covered them when I posted about DYCs (damned yellow composites)http://walkingprescott.blogspot.com/search?q=DYC a year or so ago. I appreciate almost any flowering plant, weed or cultivated.

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  5. Such an interesting post GJ. I love to see the 'Granny Bonnets' as we call the Columbine.

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  6. meggie -- that's a name for columbine that I've never heard!

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  7. Such a wonderful variety!

    Can't imagine having cactus in my yard. Although my husband has some Columbine on the North East side of the house.

    Lovely.

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  8. pb -- I believe that columbine of some variety grows in almost all parts of the country -- I know it was wild in Illinois, for example. As for the ubiquitous prickly pear, it is native to all but one of the 48 contiguous states, tho my understanding is that in New York, the plant is on the endangered species list (in sharp contract to Australia, where they wish it would go away. Completely away.)

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