toad lily (Tricyrtis), I think : 無料・フリー素材/写真
toad lily (Tricyrtis), I think / pfly
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示-継承 2.1 |
|---|---|
| 説明 | (note: after writing this I realized I probably got it wrong, and this is a toad LILY, not a toad flax. I'll check and correct this needed. Can't keep these toad- plants straight!) - almost certainly Tricyrtis, toad lily; not sure on the species, darn those toady plants!I read about this plant in "Western Garden". It sounded pretty weird, so I planted one last year. This is the first time it's bloomed. Kinda weird! Its Latin name is Linaria purpurea.I remember looking through the book for plants that bloom late in the year. Seattle summers are exploding with flowers, but by late October into November there are fewer -- and we need all we can get to stay happy as the dreaded Gray Time approaches. Plus in our yard I had planted mostly Spring and Summer bloomers. The book listed toadflax as a late bloomer. Not only that but they sounded like they'd do well in the Seattle area's climate. Plus they were listed under "showy flowers".They just began to bloom a few days ago... late October. Perfect! And the flowers are rather odd, just as I like flowers to be. My vague idea had been that they might provide some flowers in our yard between the wilting of the late summer flowers and the start of the winter hellebores. But this year has been strange weather-wise. So there are still plenty of late summer flowers blooming around. The penstemon I planted a couple years ago has been blooming its head off non-stop for months and months, and still going. Its a little too happy. We have two hardy fuchsias that seem to barely be able to survive the winters here. This year one never came back and is probably dead. The other gave no sign of life most of the summer, then grew a few tentative shoots. I assumed it was basically a goner. But then in late August it grew a bit more and put out a bazillion gorgeous flowers. Its still blooming away here at the end of October. Across the street our neighbors have a bunch of vigorously blooming dahlias.Perhaps most amazing of all is a little plant a few feet from this toadflax -- a couple years ago I planted a hardy cyclamen. We have an indoor cyclamen and I've always loved its flowers. When I found out about hardy cyclamens that would supposedly survive the Seattle winters, I planted one. As instructed, I left the top of its tuber ball exposed above the soil surface. Then, this summer, our toddler took to tromping all around the flower beds. I'm not overly protective of the plants, so after he had spent a few months stepping on the cyclamen tuber, picking at it, and pulling the soil away, I figured it was a lost cause. But a couple weeks ago, just as the toadflax began to flower, I was amazed to see a single cyclamen flower after all. And now there are a bunch of flowers and attractive ivy-like leaves. I guess they don't call it a "hardy" cyclamen for nothing! I took some photos, but it is hard to capture the bright, almost shining flowers and the darker leaves and soil. My attempts all came out with the flowers totally overexposed.So anyway, my toadflax has not been the late season rockstar, alone on the late October stage, as I had predicted, but it still makes me happy. (wow, I wrote a lot more here than intended. It's because Bangfrog has taken the toddler monster out and given me a break, thanks Mom!) |
| 撮影日 | 2007-10-19 09:05:20 |
| 撮影者 | pfly , Pugetopolis |
| タグ | |
| 撮影地 | |
| カメラ | Canon PowerShot S80 , Canon |
| 露出 | 0.008 sec (1/125) |
| 開放F値 | f/4.0 |
| 焦点距離 | 11412.5873 dpi |