When you look real close...

It will officially be spring for me when the Henbit takes over the front yard and Hairy Vetch is a knotted mass of purple blossoms in my butterfly garden beneath the still brown Bermuda grass. Still weeks away, I'm afraid. But, just to convince myself that spring really WILL appear sometime soon, I paused today to take an inventory of all the native flowers I've become acquainted with since we took on this little five acre tract. Some I've planted, and some I've discovered growing wild.

Hairy Vetch


Henbit


Coreopsis


Sunflower


Butterfly Milk Weed


Russian Sage


Yarrow


Thistle


Echinacea


Daisy Fleabane


Snow-on-the-Mountain



Wax Goldenweed


Prickly Pear


Pokeweed


Blackeyed Susan


Ironweed


Blue Eyed Grass


Joe-Pye Weed


Not that all of these beauties are welcome. I rarely see a thistle in bloom on our property, for example, because I've learned to recognize them when they first come up and yank them out of the ground, double quick. But most of the others I encourage, gather a few seeds and spread them around a bit.

I've made it a habit through the years to get out in the dewy early morning or cool evening from spring to fall, and even sometimes on cold winter days when the sun entices me, to simply walk around and look. More than a few times I've found a tiny bud of yellow or purple under the grass, marked it with a bright fabric ribbon so I can find it again later, and cleared around it to give it light and air. Then I research it to discover its name.

Knowing what is growing here gives me a pleasant connection to the place we live.