"How pleasant it is to meet the same flowers year after year! If the blossoms were liable to change–if they were to become capricious and irregular–they might excite more surprise, more curiosity, but we should love them less; they might be just as bright, and gay, and fragrant under other forms, but they would not be the violets, and squirrel-cups, and ground laurels we loved last year. Whatever your roving fancies may say, there is a virtue in constancy which has a reward above all that fickle change can bestow, giving strength and purity to every affection of life, and even throwing additional grace about the flowers which bloom in our native fields. We admire the strange and brilliant plant of the green-house, but we love most the simple flowers we have loved of old, which have bloomed many a spring, through rain and sunshine, on our native soil."
~Susan Fenimore Cooper
Did you ever guess that I love the Maine woods? 😁 I was recently down in PA and spent some time in the woods there (pictures coming soon...hopefully!). The Pennsylvania woods are lovely and almost a tropical paradise by comparison, but they aren't my woods! There's a certain wildness in these woods that I haven't found anywhere else. Often they are so thick and swampy that I have to edge my way through thickets and balance on fallen trees to avoid sinking in mud and water over my boots (the picture below was taken yesterday, and it has been very dry lately!). The bears are still around judging from the signs I've come across, but having learned more about them I actually feel more comfortable in the woods than ever before! And what treasures are hidden in these woods! After a cold start to the month, it suddenly turned HOT. We've had several days in the upper 80s and 90s. It literally took about 3 days for the trees to go from just swelling buds to summer green...I don't remember such a sudden change ever before! The flowers came fast too, and I've been out several times to greet old friends...
Threeleaf Goldthread (Coptis trifolia)...
Red Trillium (Trillium erectum)...
Pin Cherry (Prunus pensylvanica)...
Canadian Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)...
Rose Twisted-stalk (Streptopus lancolatus)...
Bluebead Lily (Clintonia borealis)...
Dwarf Red Blackberry (Rubus pubescens)...
And sweetest of all to me! The Northern White Violet (Viola renifolia) grows on mossy fallen branches at the edge of one of the swampiest places.
PS - I hope to do a garden update one of these days soon...things have happened so fast, I'm really behind on my posts!
What a lovely post and photos, Joanna! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Christine! :)
DeleteGreat quote by SFC. I feel the same way! The wildflowers charm us the most (although I must say lilac, lily of the valley and peonies are quite pleasing right now!).
ReplyDeleteIt does feel like an explosion of green over the last two weeks. And now it is June already! The time just seems to fly ever faster. I am behind in my spring planting and must see to it this week!
Both wildflowers and the flowers of our gardens have their special place. :)
DeleteEverything is growing at a mighty rate. I still have a few things to get int the garden. We had a couple nights with frost last week and I lost some flowers, so I hesitated to put the rest out.