Category: Plants

My family was going on a walk a few days ago. Halfway through our route we found some flowers that were so stunning that they stopped us in our tracks.

This week we had a lot of rain. We didn’t get many chances to get out and explore. Fortunately, we found some Honey Bee action on our deck. At first the kids were a little worried about the wings and stingers, but once we started talking about honey they were on board. We started watching the flowers and that’s how the cucumbers get pollinated!

On this week’s Bug Safari we focused on Backyard Pollinators. I am glad to see the kids are becoming less afraid of “Bees.”

Spring is blooming all around us. As we have been walking around with the kids we like to teach them the names of some of the flowers we walk past. Somethings like Sweet Williams are really just common garden flowers, but they hold special childhood memories for me. They always make me think of my mom. We have some Common Sage that we planted last year as an annual, but wintered over and is a beautiful bush.

Tonight, while on our family walk, we discovered some mutant dandelions. We had the perfect combination of the school not mowing the lawn, and the dandelions going to seed. We noticed the stem of one of the dandelions was actually a fusion of two.

There is an old saying, “April showers, bring May flowers.” Often, the spring flowers don’t want to wait until May. Bloodroot, Spring beauty, Marsh marigold, bittercress and Skunk Cabbage are poking their heads through the soil. I hope Yellow trout lily, and White Trillium will not not be far behind. Most of these plants just peek out in ones and twos. They are more stunning because of their rarity.