Here's a wild flower, spiderwort, aka virginiana tradescantia. Tiny sparks od blue, three petals.It showed up as a volunteer out front this year. I had another on the patio which appeared in a pot, like a stray animal deciding to move in. This little stand is a different one.
Took me several days to catch these tiny flowers open. The first day I tried in the afternoon, forgetting that they close then. Then we had rain, and the flowers were open but it wasn't good for the camera. They are both wild and cultivated.
They're from the tradescantias, named for John Tradescant, the gardener and traveler who first worked for Lord Cecil in Elizabethan times, and later for other great gardens, designing, traveling in search of plants to study and introduce to England.
Every time we see his name in the Latin plant name, we get an insight into the extent of his travels in search of new learning. And when you read this novel, based on flawless historical research, you come to understand that those famous English gardens are an amalgam of the flora of many countries. My own is a native American, found in Virginia. But the tradescantias are very much settled in English gardens too, like many of his other finds.
And the horse chestnut, producing the candle-like blossoms in spring and the conkers beloved of little English kids in fall? He paid a lot to get five of those nuts from the middle East to propagate. Imagine the anxiety about keeping plants alive on long voyages home. Rather him than me, but do read about him. And his son, also John, also a gardener. They really changed a lot of the landscape.
And it reminds me how mad with joy I was on getting an American garden to find the amazing wealth of wild plant life and the friendly climate where you could grow tomatoes and melons out of doors! Just like that! To a newcomer all those years ago, raised in a cold northern climate, it still seems miraculous.
This is fascinating: the plant I call spiderwort is much more robust looking, and the flowers are the size of quarters. I looked it up and it appears there are all kinds of tradescantia out there. Mine is a much older variety, probably 100 years or so, and not wild, but not quite commercial. It grows like mad and then just after the blooms start if it isn't supported all the leaves just sort of fall over from their own weight.
ReplyDeleteI found if I cut it back to the ground after the flowers fade I'll get a second bloom just about now.
https://www.google.com/search?q=spiderwort&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr0byYooLeAhXo64MKHdvRDrgQ_AUIDigB&biw=1279&bih=817
yours is much more delicate looking, I think I like it better...
Yes, there are loads of tradescantias. The one that showed up on the patio is different, much sturdier, bigger flowers, darker blue. I'll have to check your link and see if yours is like it. One thing I love about the smaller one is that it's completely unconcerned about the pachysandra, which chokes out other plants. This one just climbs up and travels across the top!
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