And yet...I did collect a pinch of seed! We grew this for years at the Gardens, but I think we renovated the garden it grew in one too many times: this is a picture of Heliomeris multiflora (long known as Viguera multiflora), a widespread composite of the Southern Rockies found in a wide range of xeric habitats from near desert up to montane meadows--this picture was taken in the carport of Kerry and Laura Kaster's wonderful home where we spent the weekend...(that's my sweetheart Jan, by the way, doing her Vanna thing.)
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The forms we grew in the past seemed to have squinnier flowers: this one was nearly 3" across! It is one of those strange plants that may be perennial--probably short lived. If you put it where it is happy, you will have more than enough. Forever.
Of course, the aspen were turning...and we saw many other flowers at Yampa River Botanic Park, which I will discuss in another place, at another time...if you check back, perhaps I shall even hyperlink it here...
But I end with this twilight image of the namesake rabbit ears of Rabbit Ears' pass...an area I have rhapsodized at another time...I didn't find a single stem of glacier lily this time (I hoped to gather seed)...the season was unusually hot this year. Maybe they aborted. Or were grazed...or maybe I didn't stop enough. The aspen were about a quarter turned, but did I take a picture (what was I thinking?).. I did manage this distant shot of those ears that fascinated me as a child--as distant as my childhood, as far as the moon really--since we were speeding away almost a hundred and fifty more miles and actually made it home by ten PM that night--we live in a strange and wonderful world!
We need world peace, and greater wisdom, and far less money spent on campaign advertising--especially by PACS and corporations! And I think we can use a vibrant DYC--vibrant indeed! When I Googled Viguera, lots of helpful sites on Viagra popped up, so to speak. As well....
"squinnier"? Huh?
ReplyDeleteJust looked it up and realize that "squinny" is one of those weird words that are pretty commonly used among gardeners and not used by others: "squinny" among gardeners means pinched, tight, spidery (it derives from "squint", I believe--making your eyes "pinched, tight") and really is used a lot by people I know. The on-line dictionaries do not list this adjectival denotation--their bad.
ReplyDeleteanother of the ubiquitous DYCs that say "fall" in the southwest is the "Cow Pen Daisy" which has been especially robust this year, go figure. Verbesena enciliodes may not smell wonderful but it sure lights up late august and early september in Santa Fe, BP
ReplyDeleteI probably have 500 cow pen daisies (at least) all over my garden. I love 'em. They make pretty good cut flowers, until you close up the house and they stink it up royal (and only last three days)...so they don't make such good cut flowers after all I guess,
ReplyDeleteMy love to Jeanie--may drop by in a few weeks to visit.
May as well embrace weedy yellow composites! Cowpen Daisy were starting all over central Texas and the other side of the mountains from me, but not down here yet...but then again, more cacti are dying and threeleaf sumac, pinon are showing more drought stress (called fall color by the unknowing here) than I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteI like your viguiera and see it here sometimes. But I like the form of V. stenoloba more, but unreliably available.