Lovely Landscaping

The College of Agriculture has a distinct advantage when it comes to landscape design: it offers a landscape design major. That said, its landscaping efforts are beginning to pay off, as the Agriculture building looks as cute as can be at the moment. Here's why.

These pansies (Viola wittrockiana) have been in the greenhouse for a while, and they're some of my favorite ornamentals. There are all sorts of breeding tricks one can do with pansies, such as making them look like they have faces (kinda creepy), but I like the yellow and brown ones the best. My grandmother always used to plant pansies like this, so I guess I'm biased. But isn't this just precious?

The other impressive display outside the Ag building is the daffodils. These were planted last fall by students who were in the horticulture class I'm currently taking. I like the variation within the group. Wouldn't you love to sit at that bench and read while enjoying some tea? Fortunately, it's warm enough to do that now.

What specifically caught my eye was the variety with the dark orange petal. These aren't normally my favorites, but they do add interest to an otherwise uniform batch of daffodils.

Also outside the Ag building is a group of what I believe is forsythia. The small bushes are starting to bloom, but unevenly, and the result is pretty scraggly. If it shapes up soon, I'll go back and photograph that to round out the "yellow on yellow on yellow" theme the school is following.

What plants are impressing you this spring?

Next post: more spring developments.

P.S. An update on henbit: last night I ate some cooked henbit in beef ramen noodles, and it turned out very well. If you are cooking cup ramen, you can just add the henbit with the hot water. If you are cooking ramen on the stove, I recommend adding the henbit after it's cooked, so it will cook while you're waiting for the broth to cool.

I also ate some henbit (along with purple deadnettle, which is very similar and also edible) on a roast beef and muenster sandwich today. It tasted okay, but one of the plants made my throat feel strange for a while. The moral of this story is: if you're going to eat said plants, either chop them up raw into a salad or cook them (I've heard they're good cooked with a little bit of water, some butter, salt, and pepper).

Wildflowers Ushering in Warmth

While I certainly kept an eye out for yuccas on my walk the other day, I also noticed a lot of wildflowers starting to bloom. They were a welcome sight for eyes bleached by snow after snow. I have identified the ones I could, but if you know the names of any that I couldn't identify, leave a comment so I can post more and more accurate information.

The first flowers I came upon were Houstonia pusilla, also known as tiny bluet, small bluet, or least bluet. These little delights are common around here up through early summer. They certainly break up the monotony of boring old grass.

These bluets find their aesthetic strength in numbers. If you encountered one, you wouldn't see it. But if you happen upon 300, you notice.

Next is another common spring flower: Veronica persica, or Persian speedwell, winter speedwell, or birdeye speedwell. As its scientific and common names suggest, this species is not native to the United States, and it has become invasive in some areas, according to the USDA. However, its tiny, cheery flowers put a smile on my face when I walk past anyway.

Toward the end of my walk, I saw some more of these in a different part of town with (relatively) gigantic blooms. Okay, maybe gigantic is a bit of an exaggeration. Normally these flowers are about 1/4" in diameter. These were just over 1/3" in diameter. It impressed me, anyway.

And here's a closer view.

I am unable to identify this next flower, though it somewhat resembles slender toothwort (aren't plant names fun?). Do you know what it is? I don't recall having seen these before, but they're attractive and all over the place. Also, notice all the fuzzy moss behind these plants. Moss is wonderful.

Sorry for the focus issues on these. I adore the close-up setting on my camera, but it's not perfect, and I'm not perfect.

The next flowers I saw, also common in this area, were Vinca major, or bigleaf periwinkle. These two particular blooms were just happy as could be, despite the recent snow. That's what I find so intriguing about all these wildflowers: they don't seem to have noticed the snow!

Normally there are gobs of tulips in people's yards around this time of year. They're going to be late this year, so I probably won't be around when they come out. I wish I could be. This seems to be what people do to make up for late bulbs:

Almost every other house in town has fake flowers. I don't understand it.

And finally, here are the daffodils we rescued from the impending snow. They seem to have lifted their heads in thanks for the warmth.

Have you been seeing any other wildflowers around? What plants have surprised you with their resilience?

Next post: odds and ends from my travels.

Snow During Spring Break, Part I

It's snowing. Again. I was just getting started enjoying our daffodils and hyacinths, I was just about to start surveying the neighborhood for other springtime beauties, and then this happens. So here is my survey of the damage so far. These pictures were taken Sunday night, after it had started snowing but before any snow accumulated.

At this point the hyacinths have held up well. Now they're probably looking sad. I'll investigate that within the next couple of days.

Here's a better shot of the white ones. The color on these reminds me of buttercream frosting.

I don't know how well buds usually last in cold conditions, but these look like they're doing okay.

Finally, the daffodils. They look extremely sad. As I learned today, only a few plants around town have bloomed, and those few are regretting it right about now. The rest of them should be okay and bloom later on.

So that's the preliminary damage done in my yard. Today I went on a walk around town, though, so...

Next post: springtime snow in my hometown.

The Flowers of Spring

Because the forecast is calling for light snow today, I'm going to cheer everyone up with some pictures (and a video) of some springy flowers that I photographed with a friend last weekend. My neighbors at home have daffodils that bloom at least three weeks before anyone else's do. It never fails, and they comprise the sweetest sight you can imagine when everything else in the neighborhood is dark and bleary.

To paraphrase a great poet: a pop of color is a pop of color, no matter how small.

For comparison, these are the daffodils in my yard.

Not quite there yet.

These are some better shots of the flowers. Unlike most plants with showy blooms, you can't go wrong with having a lot of daffodils. As my mother put it, they aren't ostentatious.

This photo is property of Breanna Akins.

We also found this on our journey to capture the daffodils. I've not seen foliage like that before.

When I was home, I unknowingly took a picture of two crocus plants. My friend Bre later supplied me with more pictures of them, so now you can witness their development over the course of a week.

Week 1:

Week 2:

Photo courtesy of Breanna Akins.

And here's what those two will look like in another couple of weeks.

Again, courtesy of Breanna Akins.

What flowers are springing up in your neck of the woods? Do you agree that one can't have too many daffodils?

Next post: more greenhouse adventures.