Wildflowers

This past weekend I met some friends in western Massachusetts to attend the Brimfield Antique Show, http://www.brimfieldshow.com/.  We walked around for about 7 hours and still didn’t see everything, it was huge!  My limited purchases included a hanging plant holder and a galvanized watering can, the latter of which I had been looking for, for a while.

We camped out about 15 miles away at Wells State Park in Sturbridge.  It was a nice lake front campground with plenty of privacy and plenty of mosquitoes!  There were also quite a few different kinds of wildflowers right at our camp site.  Spring wildflowers are always so nice to see, especially after the rough winter we had.  Here are some pictures…

The first was a Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia), in the buttercup family.

Another was Jack-in the pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) also called Indian Turnip as the corms (fleshy taproots) were gathered and eaten by natives.  I had never seen so many in one place.

Another site I had never seen before was a Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) growing right next to a False Solomon’s Seal (Smilacina racemosa).  The foliage is almost identical but the flowers are quite different.  The real Solomon’s Seal, in the foreground, has bell-like flowers hanging from the leaf axils, while the False Solomon’s Seal has a cluster of small white flowers at the tip of the stem (in the back)

Sprouts!

Last week while working in Cape Elizabeth I finally saw some real growth on the sweet pea plants that I started from seed.  They are almost 3 inches high now and should be climbing the fence in no time.  Here is a picture of the new sprouts:

The tulips are really starting to open up and show some great colors out there too (The Lobster Shack at the end of Two Lights Road).  The previous gardener here had a real love for bulbs (especially tulips) and planted an enormous amount.  It is really a stunning site and the crashing waves in the background aren’t so bad either.