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Thursday, June 08, 2006

Gravel Road Wildflowers


blooming along roadsides
sprinkled in pastures
peeking out from behind trees

volunteers often little noticed
by most who pass...
or worse
weeds to those with sprays

now it's their moment
in the sun

it is our loss
if we don't stop to see
the proud richness of their colors
their fine design
their determination
to bloom
where they are


now is their moment
in the sun

4 comments:

Dick said...

Nice photos of "flowers" that are often looked down on by gardeners. I am not a gardener & often can not tell which plants are "flowers" and which are "weeds." If they are attractive to me then I wonder why destroy them. I guess some expand too fast so they can not be controlled but other than that, if they are pretty, why get rid of them? That is especially true if they are volunteers in wild areas.

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

I am going out right now to plant some wildflower seeds just before we leave for a few days. Maybe they will have a chance to sprout before my husband with his two gas driven tillers makes the yard to his liking. We are just going to have to live with a his garden and mine with the bugs. Bugs bring baby blue birds. Actually we both like the blue birds. And for "our" three babies he held off on the sprays and kept tilling the ground exposing buggy delights for mother and father blue birds.

Maureen said...

Rain, thanks for sharing your point of view on the beauty of weeds. I often think about that when I talk to my clients about their gardens: there are some "weeds" that could rival any cultivated plant in beauty, color and grace.

A weed isn't inherently "evil" or bad, or whatever. Technically a weed is simply a plant that's growing uninvited where we don't want it to grow.

In reality, weeds are just super-species! They can grow in the most inhospitable of conditions, they can mature super-fast, set seed and reproduce themselves before you can blink an eye it seems. In some cases, "weeds" are the colonizing plants that prepare disturbed, burnt, damaged ground so that other plants can be nourished there later.

Your photos are excellent -- what a bright post for today! thanks.
Maureen

Anonymous said...

Beauty is everywhere and you have provided an excellent example of this, Rain. I am on my way to Ojai for the music festival this weekend--and the town, including orange blossoms, will be a riot of color.

Thanks for letting us see your world through your eyes.