#gardnblr

[tattooed-alchemist]

Dutch iris, from the front yard.  I love the patterns on these.

[tattooed-alchemist]

I think Mom’s got monkshood growing in the courtyard.  Once these flowers open, I’ll be more sure, but I’m at least 3/4 certain now.

[tattooed-alchemist]

So foxglove.  It came back after growing in the courtyard last year.  But then there was this one right next to it, and it looked like a foxglove until suddenly it looked like a fantastic, psychedelic, Eldritch horror.

That is fasciation in foxglove.  Nature having a genetic error.  In this case, the top four flowers fuse together and you get a single flower at the top of the stalk and it points up.  Each stalk of this particular plant has done this, and my Sheffield, England garden sibling on Mastodon knew what it was straight up because she just seems to know all that stuff.

I now realize that I have observed fasciation in breadseed poppies for years, but didn’t have the fancy science word to go with what I was seeing.

[tattooed-alchemist]

These are Papaver cambrium, the Welsh poppy.  These poppies like it wetter and shadier than their California cousins.  What were little patches of these are turning into lush big patches in Mom and Dad’s yard.

[tattooed-alchemist]

It’s lavender season!!!  My two varietals are both doing their thing, and the bees are going wild for it.

[tattooed-alchemist]

My day lilies are doing their thing, and based on the weirdo number and placement of pistils on this day lily, its thing appears to be fasciation.

Having seen fasciation on the foxglove over at my folks, I’m wondering if the extreme heat last summer and then the extreme freeze this past winter is contributing...?

[tattooed-alchemist]

I think this is some form of agave in mom’s side yard, but whatever it is, it’s getting ready to bloom.

[tattooed-alchemist]

More spring is springing. Above left, the darker purple rosemary bush, and above right, the first of the Euphorbia.