Monday, May 11, 2009

L'Ancolie

Columbine. I never knew these flowers until I moved into this house. There they were, coming up in a bed, surrounded by weeds. In fact, at first I thought they were weeds themselves, until they flowered. Then I had to figure out what they were.

Pink columbine.

They come up every year in the same spot. One year I collected the seeds and tried to grow them in a different location, with no success. But I'm going to try again this year. Why not? I wonder if the seeds should be spread in the fall and allowed to over-winter in order to germinate. Last time I saved the seeds and kept them in the house during the winter.

Ours are in two colors, this pink and a darker blue/purple.

Strangely, when I looked up "columbine" in Wikipedia, the first three entries were "Columbine Massacre." Apparently mass murder is more popular than flowers. Ah, humanity.

5 comments:

  1. Lovely photo. The native columbine from eastern North America is just starting to come into bloom. Over the next week or so, I'll try to get a photo and post it on my blog so you can compare and contrast. (my word verification is isbutch. Ah...no, we're talking about flowers at the moment).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Walt

    Most of the Wikipedia entries are written by college and HS kids and I believe for most of them, flora is not as common as "reality cases"

    btw: i wrote something on Irises yesterday and it got lost in cyberspace.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We have a candy-striped Columbine. It's gorgeous, but I wish it lasted longer.

    ReplyDelete
  4. doug, I'll look forward to that. And who says flower talk can't be butch? ;)

    beaver, I know what you mean about Wikipedia. And I hate when that happens! "The internet ate my homework" might be the new excuse for kids in school these days.

    paulita, yes, it would be nice to have the flowers around for a while longer.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Columbine is the state flower of Colorado where they are very common. They like the cold and snowy winters in order to look their best in the summer.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me what you think!