Sunday, February 23, 2014

Taming Wildflowers


There is beauty in the world
So much beauty in the world
Always beauty in the world
So much beauty in the world
...
In betwen
Notice the blue skies
Notice the butterflies
Notice me
Stop and smell the flowers

The song was playing to a slide show of flowers, complete with a little bouncing ball to the lyrics, at the Taming Wildflowers presentation at TBG.

How wonderful to be reminded on a winter's day that Spring is around the corner, and to stop and smell the flowers. I could almost feel the snow melting. You can see a shortened version of the video here (thanks to Anonymous for the comment below)

We were there to hear Miriam Goldberger talk about Wildlfowers... how beautiful they are, and how important for the soil, pollinators and the planet. After the lecture I wandered over to the Book Launch.
This book celebrates the beauty of wildflowers... masters of erosion control, soils engineering, water management, pollinator-enticement, climate adaptability, ecosystem coordination, carbon sequestration, habitat protection - and that's just a start... As happens too often in our history, we humans don't fully appreciate the value of something until we are about to lose it... we are perilously close to losing the presence of wildflowers in North America... what can you do to help? Plant wildflowers, of course!

I've always been a fan of native species and wildflowers, and the more I learn about them the stronger my desire to plant even more. There are some stunners that need more space and sun than I can provide: wild quinine, golden Alexander, Butterfly weed. I'll just have to admire those on my summer travels. But Pasque Flower sounds like it might be comfortable in my front yard; late spring, long bloomers that do okay in part shade and give way to interesting seed pods.

I am not an attentive summer gardener, taken with sailing pursuits. So adding more July/August, drought tolerant bloomers suits me just fine.

I love Mirian's inscription in my book, "May you walk among the wildflowers all your days!"

pasque flower seed pod in the rain

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You can see a shortened version of the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwWdVLXOM-Y