Nature In Abundance: Wild Flowers
In order to take advantage of nature's boundless treasured gifts, try planting some wild flowers in your garden or simply scatter wild flower seeds around an area in your garden and watch beauty abound.
Wild flowers are colorful, carefree and have the honour of attracting bees, birds and butterflies. Hence by planting the flowers, you have an abundance of nature in your garden and that too for low maintenance.
Virginia or Common-day flower belongs to the spiderwort family. These are blue flowers, one inch wide or smaller flowers. The flowers grow grouped at the end of the stem and are held up by the long leaf-like bracts. They have lance-shaped leaves of 3-5 inches long. The upper leaves form a hood-like about the flower. The flowers prefer moist conditions and a shady ground. They are in bloom from June through September. The flower opens in the morning 'alert'. However in the afternoon, after they have been fertilized by the bees, the petals roll up and wilt into a sticky blue fluid.
Spiderwort - Widow's or Job's Tears also belongs to the spiderwort family. These flowers are purplish blue in colour. There are several flowers of about 1-2 inches wide and they contain clusters of drooping buds between long, blade -like bracts at the end. This plant can grow from 8-36 inches tall, having blade-like leaves. They prefer rich, moist woods, gardens or thickets and bloom from May through August. This flower also opens in the morning and by noon the petals retreat and wither away. However new blooms appear each day through the flowering season.
Wild Hyacinth: These are pale violet blue flowers, though once in a way they can be white. The plants grow 1-2 feet tall and have grass-like short leaves. These wild flowers prefer to grow in meadows, stream banks and they bloom during the period of April to May. Low maintenance, these wild flowers propagate on their own. In addition to attracting bees, the wild hyacinth attracts ants, wasps, butterflies and beetles.
Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa): An evergreen shrub, a member of the Rose family (Rosaceae), normally grows up to a height of 6ft. It is a shrub having numerous branches at its base with small grayish leaves, divided into linear divisions and which are attached alternately on slender stems. The leaves are about ¾ inches long and curve slightly downward. The flowers of this plant are round, white flowers having yellow centers. They bloom from April through June. This wild flower has five petals, and many stamens. These flowers are found on gravelly and rocky slopes, along roadsides, dry washes and the sides of hills between 4000 and 8000 feet. Deriving its name due to the fact that it resembles Apache war bonnets, the fruit heads are silvery puffs having many styles emanating from a feathery plume about 2 inches long. These pinkish white plumes grow from a seed-like base at the tip of slender branches.