Windy Acres Wildflowers

I am enjoying the wildflowers that are blooming on our acreage and have had fun trying to identify them.  I had the idea of writing a blog about them.  So, took my camera out and started taking pictures.  Before I knew it I had too many to put in a blog.  So, I have just picked some of my favorites to tell you about.

First is the Winecup Poppy.  It is a beautiful deep red/pink flower. We don't have many of these, but I wish we did.

Next, is Buffalo Burr.  Unfortunately, while the plant has these pretty yellow flowers, it also has murderous stickers and is not a desirable plant to have around.  So, I usually pull up the plants when I find them.  Interestingly enough, Buffalo Burr is a member of the "nightshade" family which is the same family potatoes are in and the flowers are similar, except potatoes have a white flower of the same size and shape.

Next, we have a type of Mallow.  Mallows are in the family Malvaceae and there are many, many different types of plants under this category.  It took me a long time scouring the internet to figure out exactly what this one was.  It has a strange name, Flower-of-an-Hour.  The flower itself looks like a small hibiscus.

Next, is yellow clover.  The flowers themselves are small, but there are a lot of them on one plant.  So, when there are several together, you see a beautiful display of yellow like that below.

Finally, we have Yarrow.  These have tiny white flowers that grow together on long stems to form what looks like one flower from a distance.  But, when you look at them closely, you can see the individual flowers.

The first year we lived here, I didn't take much notice of the wildflowers around here.  I was much too busy being overwhelmed with moving, re-establishing my herb garden, and trying to figure out how we were going to mow and take care of 5 acres. 

However, now that we have lived here over 2 years, I have learned that we don't have to keep the yard mowed and in pristine condition, like we did in town.  In fact, we have not mowed the large front area where our geothermal lines are buried (see Geothermal - Part 2, May 5, 2010) or the area to the west of our driveway this year.  And, I love the way it looks with wildflowers in some areas and patches of tall waving grass in others. In the areas that we do mow, I intentionally mow around the wildflowers.  I guess you could say I have learned to take time to "smell the wildflowers".