Another Plant Sale! (Part 2)

Now I'll bring you the other half of the plant sale pictures! The unfortunate weather really hurt our plant sale, and I had to move a lot of these plants back to the greenhouse today. However, during my time at work, I did get to see several people construct collections of plants to take home. It's always inspiring to see the conspiratory glint in people's eyes when they're choosing plants. That kept me upbeat even though it was 37 degrees Fahrenheit and drizzling out.

Pictured here is the sage and the tarragon. My sage isn't nearly this big, but I know it's outside, so perhaps it will be before long.

I took this picture just to show the scale of this sale. This shot encompasses roughly one-fourth of the offerings. We had two whole tables for non-tomato vegetables. A table for tomatoes (and some on the floor and other tables). At least a table and a half for herbs. Two tables and a lot of floor space for ornamentals. You can see some of this and more below.

These, I believe, are some of the tomatoes and peppers.

These are the big tomatoes. These sold out on the first day of the sale, unsurprisingly.

Here are the other vegetables (like rhubarb, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, and strawberries).

This shot shows some of the ornamental combo planters, the few grasses we had, and more vegetables.

This is all the combo planters, as well as the geraniums. All the pink geraniums sold.

I've never seen an ornamental pepper bearing fruit before. While I'd much rather eat these peppers than merely look at them, they are very pretty. I would recommend them as patio plantings outside a Mexican or Thai restaurant.

Ah, one of the members of my to-get list. Dichondra 'Silver Falls.' In the far right of the picture, you can also see Dichondra 'Emerald Falls.' I'll leave it to you to decipher these names.

These are amaranth plants (Amaranthus 'Velvet Curtains,' I think). Amaranth can be grown for aesthetics, their leaves (used like any other leafy green), their grains (popular in ancient Mexico), or their pigments (used by Native Americans as a red dye). I transplanted these, so I feel like I've watched them grow up. If I had a garden, I definitely would have bought at least one of these.

That's all the documentation I have for the plant sale, but enjoy this flower.

What plants would you try to grow if circumstances were just slightly different? What plants are you trying within your circumstances?

Next post: state park adventures!

Flower Forecast

My camera is still out of commission, so please excuse the poor quality of these photographs.

It finally feels like spring here in the Midwest. Here's the flower forecast for the first week of May, but first, a view of some tiny ginkgo leaves making their appearance. Ginkgoes are special because they've been around much longer than the human race, and they're still going strong.

Now onto the actual flowers. These brittle, brown flowers are obviously from last season, but they've help up remarkably well, especially considering all the heavy snows we got this past winter.

All I can really say about these flowers is that you have to smell them to believe them.

This appears to be some kind of holly bush, but it has really sweet yellow flowers. Maybe I've just never noticed holly flowers before, but these blooms give me a new outlook on holly.

We now present a commercial intermission from all the flowers to highlight some foliage. These trees win my vote for best spring foliage.

Here are a few close-ups to demonstrate why.

Now back to the flower forecast. These are my favorite blooms of the day because of the spotlessness of their white color and their spikiness.

What kinds of flowers have you been seeing? What's your favorite spring foliage?

Next post: more May madness.

Campus Hodge Podge

I'm still mourning the possible loss of my camera (so excuse the phone pictures), but that isn't stopping me from photographing the best in plants from around campus! Today I have a particularly eclectic collection to show off. The weather is super nice (as in, sweaty nice), so things are starting to liven up in the realm of flora.

The first plants I noticed were these white-flowering bushes. I'm not sure what kind of bushes these are, but they smell amazing. That's one of the great things about plants: they please at least four of the five senses, if you don't count the sound of tree limbs trembling in the wind, which I do.

Also, the flowers on these bushes are adorable. So sweet and innocent-looking.

Next I saw what I believe was a flowering Japanese maple outside my dorm. I couldn't get close enough to the foliage and flowers from the ground, so I took these shots from the inside of a window.

I think the image of the leaves coming out over the dangling flowers is a great one for this time of year. I've seen it in many kinds of trees around town.

This tulip bed was outside the clinic. The clinic's pretty close to the hospital, which has the really impressive tulip display. They have hot pinks, reds, purples, oranges--you name it, basically. This bed only had red and yellow, but tulips are adamant about being upbeat no matter their color.

Oh hi, thumb!

There were only two red tulips in this area, but they were my favorite of the bunch. Here's the better-looking one of them.

What flowers are intriguing you this week? What colors of tulips have you seen?

Next post: a plant list.

Crabapple Color

Walking around campus this spring, I have been impressed by all the colors and shapes of flowers. I've never been as shocked as I was when I saw these crabapple trees, though.

Isn't that an incredible fuschia/magenta? I knew that crabapples were popular for their appearance, but I guess I didn't know they bloomed like this.

The shape of the flowers seems strangely tropical, too. I've just been enamoured with these trees since they've been flowering. Yeah, I'm that pedestrian who stops to look at trees.

Have you been surprised by any trees this spring? Are you a fan of crabapples?

Next post: mystery post.

The Flora of Elephant Rocks: Finale

This is the last post regarding my trip to Elephant Rocks! It was a good time of year to go, and I learned a lot about the local flora (and fauna! see below).

This is the second turtle we saw. There was a third, but he was too far away to photograph. This one's cute as can be. He was showing off his lovely shell. He's even got his head thrown to the side in a glamorous pose. This guy's a future Ralph Lauren model, I'm telling you.

Now back to plants. At the edge of the quarry were these cattails (Typha latifolia), which are neither common nor unheard of in my area. These plants had cottony fluff on their tips. I think the fluff is the fruit of the plant, which has bristles to aid in dispersal.

Kind of different, isn't it? Dandelions and cotton use the same device to propagate their species.

After taking those pictures, we ventured away from the quarry and back onto a trail. There I found a plant that looked very familiar:

It looks like a shamrock (though there is no consensus on what species "shamrock" actually refers to)! While I cannot find any photographic evidence, this plant must be within the Oxalis genus (which also includes purple shamrock and woodsorrel). This picture gives a glimpse of the hot-pink undersides of the leaves.

Looking back, I can't determine whether or not these flowers are coming up from these Oxalis plants. They're pretty, though.

Yeah, still can't tell. I don't see any other leaves around them, so maybe these two have the same roots (pun?).

Here's a final "shamrock" hanging out with another woodsorrel species to the right.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my trip to Elephant Rocks! What species comes to your mind when you think about shamrocks? Are cattails common in your area? What about turtles?

Next post: the brightest pink of the season thus far.

The Flora of Elephant Rocks, Part II

Today we continue our trek through Elephant Rocks State Park to examine its plant life and diversity.

However, I'm going to start with an organism that isn't really a plant. Pictured is a lichen, which is actually a symbiosis between a fungus (a mycobiont) and a blue-green bacteria (AKA cyanobacteria or photobiont). The fungus in the relationship derives energy from decomposing organic matter on the rock or tree where it lives. The bacteria is photosynthetic, so it derives its energy from the sun. I'm not sure why these two organisms get together, but they do provide energy for each other, so they're a happy couple.

Here's a slightly different lichen.

Now, onto the actual plants. I've never actually encountered lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina, also known as woolly hedgenettle) before, but as soon as I felt this plant's leaves, I knew what it was. The name is completely accurate. Its leaves were very soft and woolly feeling. According to the USDA, these plants are absent in Missouri, but I daresay that is inaccurate.



Lamb's ear's pubescence (hair) gives it a silvery look, which makes it popular in moonlight gardens.

As it is springtime, it should be no surprise that I found a number of wildflowers out at Elephant Rocks. The light on this particular bloom is pretty wonky, but you can still see it.

Here are some even cheerier ones. These are reminiscent of bluebells, only yellow.

Now we're back to another moss. I haven't seen many mosses this color. It's got a kind of 70s shag rug look.

Pictured here is one of the quarries. All of the abandoned ones have filled with rainwater. While a lot of people have died in these deep pools, the changes have created a habitat for these aquatic reeds.

And, finally, while this is not plant-related, I bring you a turtle. Isn't he cute? I took this shot from very far away. This turtle is probably almost a foot long.

Have you ever petted lamb's ear? For those of you who have petted actual lambs' ears, do they feel the same?

Next post: more turtles, and the rest of the plants from Elephant Rocks as well.

The Crops in Mid-April (With Special Bonus Flower Action)

There have been a couple of significant changes in the crops in my room. To supplement this news, I will include some eye-candy flowers.

First, my Swiss chard's true leaves are growing well! Slowly, but well. They're even developing the wrinkles characteristic of the species.

Also, another Swiss chard seedling has surfaced where the old one withered up and died. I knew I kept watering that spot for a reason!

In other news, I finally said goodbye to my wheat. Maybe I can repurpose this colander (as a colander, perhaps?).

Those are all the developments in my plants. There have, however, been lots of developments outside. This is one of the nicest. I don't know what kind of tree this is, but it has adorable green blossoms that I couldn't resist photographing.

That's all I've got for now. How are your crops doing?

Next post: another plant acquisition.