bloodroot

I first saw the single flower form of bloodroot at a botanical garden in British Columbia, and had to grow it. Aside from the name, I was fascinated by the leaves, which looked like butterflies or like pelvic bones, depending on the particular leaf or perhaps on my mood. I planted the double form (Sanguinaria canadensis 'Multiplex') two springs ago, and this is the first year it has flowered. I'm hoping it makes a nice colony, because I love it. The flower was tiny (about an inch in diameter) but amazingly beautiful, and I love the way the leaf hugs and shelters the flower bud as it emerges from the ground. Here are a series of photos to illustrate:

 

Icarus tethered

Watching so many plants grow rapidly skyward this past month, and musing about their stretch upward toward the sky, tethered by roots and gravity.

New shoots and leaves reach.

Peltoboykinia watanabe

 Variegated Solomon's Seal - Polygonatum odoratum

Podophyllum pleianthum

 Flowers reach,

some nodding to gravity.                  

Erythronium revolutum (trout lily, fawn lily)

Depending on perspective, Fritillaria persica seems to create its own (cool) sun, as though to model: Become what you seek, Icarus

Some are more successful in their reach than others. This is T-Rex (Tetrapanax papyrifer), which for the first time didn't die back to the ground over winter. Also for the first time, its roots have escaped the bamboo barrier intended to contain it. I've pulled a few dinosaur babies already, yards away. I'm expecting a jungle adventure this year.

 And we reach...