Lesser Celandine: The Beautiful Menace

I've been taking a Spring Wildflower class through Nature Forward, a local environmental organization here in the Washington, DC area (highly recommended, BTW, Clare Walker is an amazing teacher). As part of our class, we were sent out into the "wild" to look for native wildflowers. Well. I was very taken by this cute little yellow flower with dark green heart-shaped leaves. Lesser Celandine, as I was dismayed to learn, is not a native Maryland wildflower. It's not even a well-behaved non-native. It's highly invasive in the United States, so much so that people despise it here. Interestingly, the plant is reasonably well-controlled in its native Europe. Online opinion of this plant varies greatly depending upon what part of the world folks live in! I decided to research Lesser Celandine for my class project, and I thought I'd share my slide show with you here.

Plant a Flower Day

Today was Plant a Flower Day. Did you get outside to work in your garden? Or maybe it's still too cold where you live and, like my mom, you are germinating your seeds inside. I'm sorry to say that I didn't make it outside today despite the lovely weather.

But though I've been too busy lately to tend to my yard, I can tell that winter is ending. New leaves are pushing through the soft earth in my front garden bed. I wonder what is growing there? I don't remember the names of the different bulbs that my older son and I planted these past two years. Maybe some daffodils or crocuses. We'll have to wait and see. And now that the snow has turned to rain, the trees are starting to bud and grasses are coming to life, my children are tracking mud all over my house. Whether I am ready or not, spring is here!

If, like me, you are too busy right now to start your spring gardening, maybe you'd like to stop to smell the virtual roses. Do you know your state flower? How about your national flower? The National Gardening Association has a nice selection of resources online, including a section for children and teachers.

Even when things are crazy hectic, don't forget to enjoy the natural beauty around you.

Photo credit: EvelynGiggles, via flickr // CC BY 2.0

Website of the Week: 2008 National Cherry Blossom Festival

This is the last week-end of the 2008 National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC. According to the website:

“The plantings of the cherry blossom trees originated as a gift in 1912 from the people of Japan to the United States as gesture of friendship and goodwill. Since then, the number of trees has expanded to approximately 3,750 trees of 16 varieties on National Park Service land.”

The first time I heard about the cherry blossoms, I wondered what all of the fuss was about. I mean, they’re just trees, right? And trees produce flowers in the spring. So what?

Well, last year I was fortunate enough to visit the Tidal Basin when the trees were in full bloom. They looked magical. I remember thinking that they seemed like fairy trees. It was a truly ethereal experience.

If you are able to visit this year, you might consider submitting your photographs to the 2008 NCBF Photo Contest, sponsored by Lulu.com. And if you can’t visit, be sure to check out the Cherry Blossom Web Cam.