Friend and colleague Timmie called and left a message yesterday inviting us to a "Marsh Marigold Walk" at her place. Gary couldn't go due to his choir commitments, but I baked some fresh bagels, put a few in a sack, and drove up in early afternoon. Timmie was gardening out in front of the house and stopped what she was doing to take me on a tour of the blooms. I had just missed a number of other folks who were there before me, apparently, but she graciously made the trek to the back of their land with me so I could see and photograph the flowers.
Marsh Marigold, or
Caltha palustris, belongs to the buttercup family but is in a different genus. The plants grow in wetlands and seem to prefer slow running water. This slow moving brook was perfect for them, and Timmie said they have been spreading in recent years.
As you can see from the photo, they are certainly yellow and bright. The streambed was choked with them for a good quarter mile or more, as you can see in the other photos if you click the thumbnail to link through to the set on Flickr. Timmie kindly gave me some white trillium from her flower beds to take home and plant, which I did. The clump had a huge tuber or rhizome, like a giant potato, and I had to split it up into chunks with a spade. Hopefully all the pieces will survive, but they certainly seemed healthy before dividing.
Gary was gone for much of the day, and it was my day for barn chores anyway, so I did all that, put Tess out for 90 minutes, replanted the trilliums in what I hope were suitable areas, watered them heavily, and made salad, garlic bread, and a baked mostaccioli casserole for supper. Now I'm feeling the effects of the brisk mile or so walk, the extra gardening (with tree roots of course) and the generally busy day.
A success, all things considered, though no spinning or weaving got done. This last is not ideal, I'm afraid.
Remember that single daffodil blossom I showed you on the last day of March? This photo was taken on April 2. It shows the same clump of plants, after a couple of days of 80°F weather. Suddenly we have no shortage of daffodils. They are all over the place.
Here are just a few more. This patch is one of about ten in front of the house, among the oaks. When Gary planted them, I predicted that they would never bloom, but since they come to flower before the oaks have leaves, there isn't enough shade to matter. They continue to multiply and spread. I think there must be two or three times as many now as what he actually planted.
They are one of my favorite spring garden flowers because of the lovely blue color and the fact that they last for several weeks most years. No taller than grass, they hide in the lawn and disappear once they finish blooming. We had lots of them when we lived in Chicago, but there were none here. I wasn't sure they'd grow, since the soil here is much heavier, unlike the sand we had in the city. They took a while to settle in, but they bloom every year now, right along with the daffodils.
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branchandroot
