Some Spring Flowers

Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate. 

I recently made my first springtime visit to our local botanic gardens.  I love strolling the paths, checking out the various gardens, seeing how some of my favorite plants are doing.  The day I went it was a breezy, overcast 45° F (about 7° C).  The flowers were there, but not many animals.  I saw a few robins, two male red wing blackbirds challenging each other at the boundary of their territories.  A chipmunk dashed across the path in front of me.  Nothing fancy, like the pair of eagles I saw last spring. 

These foxgloves were near the parking lot.

One of my favorite areas is the landscape gardens, with a mix of native and imported plants.  Prairie smoke is native to the midwestern US short grass prairies.  I used to have some in my garden. 

It works well as a ground cover, grows about ankle high.  When the seeds are fully developed there will be white 'plumes' from what was a flower; that's where the name comes from.  If I time it right I might get a picture of that later in the season. 

The predominant flowers were tulips.  This is just one bed of many. 

Some varieties of crabapple trees have finished blooming and their petals are on the ground.   This one was just reaching its peak. 

It was a pleasant, if chilly, maunder.  Cleared the cobwebs from my mind.  Spring cleaning!