Below is a photograph I took when I was growing this magnificent sunflower in our front yard in Santa Fe. Bees and other pollinators loved visiting the flower and once the seeds came in the Fall a variety of birds flocked to scarf up the seeds.
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Hopi name: Tceqa' Qu' Si) |
And now I have planted seeds, again in our front yard, here in Cotati. I purposefully planted the seeds near the Ukrainian flag we have "flying" on the East fence. This flower has a long history in the country symbolizing peace. Russians and Ukrainians are presently at war, however the meaning of the sunflowers as a symbol of peace has not changed. Ukrainians are encouraging the planting of sunflowers worldwide to encourage leaders once again to embrace peace. Thus I am doing my small part in supporting the Ukrainians stance for peace.
To celebrate May Day as I did as a child when we created May baskets filled with whatever early flowers were available and delivered them to
neighbors' doors, I am creating here a May basket filled with pictures of some of my favorite native flowers.
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| Berlandiera lyrata (Chocolate Flower) Yes, the flowers really smell like chocolate! |
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Echinacea purpurea (Purple Coneflower) |
with Indian Ricegrass (Achnatherum hymenoides)
in the background.
All three of the above plants are in Todd planters and presently very quite small. They are too small, in fact, to be set out in the ground as of yet. Shasta can hardly wait for a plethora of Echinacea as she loves grazing on the leaves finding them extremely tasty just like Zinnia leaves.
Mimulus aurantiacus (Sticky monkeyflower)
planted and flowering in our Cotati front yard.
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| Phacelia bolanderi (Bolander’s Phaceli) flowering our Cotati front yard.
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| Calylophus drum mondianus (Sundrops) with a plethora of flowers in our Cotati front yard |
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| Blue eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) in full display at Ren Brown's garden in Bodega Bay, California. |
And now to the exciting news: Saturday past I was gifted five teeny, tiny Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars. I drove to Sebastopol to pick them up. My dear friend Rob had brought in a small jelly jar the five caterpillars pictured below. It was no easy task getting them out of the jar onto one of the Pipevine's leaves. We have had an extraordinary windy day! When I recently checked I could only locate three but I am hopeful the other two are sequestered among the leaves.
As I carefully moved these precious little ones onto the healthy, vibrant Dutchman's pipevine leaves, instead of holding my breath, I have a good belly
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