Friday, November 07, 2008

Dewdrops

This past week has been very wet, with a good amount of rain and a lot of fog. In the morning, everything is covered in droplets. This is a photo of columbine in our yard, with the requisite dew.

What I think is columbine, covered in dew drops.

I think it's columbine, anyway. As far as I can tell, it's aquilegia vulgaris in Latin, or ancolie des jardins in French. Maybe my favorite taxonomist (you know who you are) can help me out here.

A close-up.

I've tried to propagate it from seed to no avail. The flowers it puts out in spring are wonderful shades of pink and purple. It's a great plant to have, and I'd love to spread it around if I can.
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6 comments:

  1. Susan07 November, 2008 10:04

    Tu as raison :-) Or at least, somewhere in its lineage will be Aquilegia vulgaris senso stricto. The little blighters hybridise so much you never really know what you've got in the garden, and there are zillions of cultivars, but the rich blue ones you see on the side of the road in France are the 'real thing', and native to Europe. Over the years, garden columbines will get paler and paler as they hybridise more and more. It's always worth getting in some new 'blood' (from the nursery or seeds of reliable stock) in a nice dark shade every few years to keep the colour up. I'm surprised you've had trouble with seeds, as it self-seeds so readily. I am not sure I have ever tried to grow it from seed – I buy them in flower from a specialist nursery when I see a colour I like.

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  2. Anonymous07 November, 2008 16:03

    Locker Moms? My assistant laughed.

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  3. Seine Judeet (Judith)07 November, 2008 16:05

    These closeups are so amazing! Droplets of dew! Wonderful :)

    Walt, on another subject: are you and Ken doing a Thanksgiving dinner? Will you have friends over? Will there be dinde?

    I remember that Aimée, Jane and I tried to do a Thanksgiving dinner... we roasted a chicken, though... Jane's family let her do it in their oven. We went to Fauchon for cranberry sauce :) Aimée tried to make biscuits from memory, but they were a bit hard:)). We didn't have pumpkin pie, but we had apple tarte!

    Judy

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  4. wcs08 November, 2008 09:07

    susan, thanks! I knew you'd come through!

    dan, I wish I had come up with it before the election... ;)

    judy, yes, we do have Thanksgiving dinner, but our annual tradition involves leg of lamb, not turkey. We've been doing that for more than 20 years now. Check out 2006.

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  5. wcs08 November, 2008 09:08

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. wcs08 November, 2008 09:09

    Oh, and yes, this year our friends John and Candy will be here from California to enjoy it all with us!

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