Narcissus papyraceus forced blooms. fragrant! and such a nice treat in the middle of january.
Tag Archives: flower
A Sunny Gift from Miss Shannon Blooms.
on the Last Day of Kindergarten his teach, Miss Shannon, gave odin the The Gift of a Sunflower Seed.
it’s now in full bloom in our garden and it makes me realize i want more sunflowers. many more sunflowers. they make me smile.
we should be good to go since each head contains 1,000 to 2,000 seeds and it looks easy enough to dry and harvest them!
the sunnier side of biodiesel revisited.
just a few photos of some of the high-oil, organic sunflowers suitable for use in the production of biodiesel. the field is owned by cropp ( organic valley ) and is near our distribution center in cashton, wisconsin.
the sunflowers are part of cropp’s sustainability program ( you can view a few of my other sunflower pictures from years past on that page ). cropp farmers who plant on the farm benefit from the high yield of oil (80–110 gallons per acre) as well as the 1200–1500 pounds of feed meal per acre as well. we even have a mobile press that can travel to a farm and produce oil from a harvest ( yes, that’s another of my sunflower shots on the side of the press. ).
feed and fuel from the same field!
i believe this field will be converted to biodiesel to provide fuel for company tractors and trucks.
i don’t really know why i haven’t uploaded more of my sunflower shots over the years, since folks seemed to enjoy the original “the sunnier side of biodiesel” photo.
so, here you go internets! maybe someday i’ll get around to uploading all the other photos.
trust me, you’ll want to view this panorama large, in the lightbox.
i’m a little less pleased with this panorama, but hey, sunflower panoramas are like pizza.
even when they’re bad, they’re good.
( pssst, lightbox edition. )
Phlox paniculata
to the best of of my knowledge, Phlox paniculata is not really any good for human food or medicinal purposes but butterflies and moths love it so it’s nice to have around.
and it’s purty to boot.
another year of almost making violet syrup.
one of these years i’m actually going to make the violet syrup that i’ve been meaning to make before cultural norms and The Lawn Police require me to mow down the Viola odorata.
but this is not that year.
The Littlest Bee and The Big Sunflower.
ah yes, time for another photo of one of the high-oil sunflowers that grow in and around cropp/organic valley this time of year to be pressed into biodiesel. some might recall the sunnier side of biodiesel or odin crossing over into or from another space/time in middle of a field of sunflowers. some of sunflower shots have even ended up on the side of mobile biodiesel press.
this year i decided to “go small” and caught a little bee of some sort improvising as it attempts to collect pollen. if you look closely you can see it’s resting its feet on a floret as it streches to gather The Good Stuff.
bonus points will be awarded to anyone who can tell me what kind of bee it is.
the ant and the peony.
anyone who has peony’s like our paeonia lactiflora variety known as "mons. jules elie" has no doubt noticed the buds are covered with ants just before they flower. apparently there’s an old wives’ tale that peonies need ants to bloom or be pollinated by them.
but those in the know say that while the ants are attracted to the sweet waxy coating on the bud, antless peonies bloom just fine.
the real question is how the peony’s know to bloom within 24 hours of a torrential rainstorm. i swear it happens every year and this year was no exception.