Primula Veris - Seeing Heaven in Wild Flowers - Part II

This Primula Veris is commonly found growing wild in the meadows or road side. While waiting for the pooch doing his run one day, I pulled out a few plants that was growing wild in the field close to the woodland garden and planted them near the walkway entrance which receive 3 hours of sun in late afternoon. I wasn't sure if this primula would take off but being a shade loving plant, they immediately felt at home in their new position. They are so easy to grow, requires zero maintenance, and I only see them in spring when suddenly they bloom their heads off.

Growing up with an english mother, she call this flower cowslip, but living in a german speaking country, this flower is called schlussel blume, directly translated meaning key flower because they are the key to spring. In some parts of Europe, it is also known as Himmel schlussel, meaning key to heaven.

In herbal medicine, this flower is used to make tea which can be used as a sedative, or to make cowslip wine. I've never tried them.

Primula Veris belong to the family of primroses, but primroses have only one flower per stalk, while primula veris is a polyanthus because it has many flowers per stalk. There are also primula vulgaris and primula elatior.
Life is not a bed of roses: Primula Eliator Brownred
All of them are closely related to the cowslip.

Harbinger of Spring - It's Electrifying!!

When weatherman said sleet over the weekend, I was disappointed. Wet soggy spring snow are very heavy and will definitly foul up lots of those lovely harbingers that are low growing plants.

Lo and behold!

Weather gods decided to send spring snow to other parts of the country.

Isn't that a tiny bit of blessing to be joyous about?

I'm certainly counting my blessings.

Though a bit cold, 1° celcius, partial cloudy and the wind chill factor made it even colder, I can't stay curled up late. The dog must go out, and its always urgent in the morning.

I tried to catch the light whenever the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, and took pictures of this lovely furry Pulsatilla. Long time ago, this flowering plant was called Anemone Pulsatilla, but now the taxonomist decided it should be called Pulsatilla Vulgaris. Don't know what made them change the name, but I think I like the old name much better.

After 30 minutes not moving much behind the camera, and waiting for the wind to kind of calm down a bit, my fingers turned numbed and I can't feel the camera button, ran into the house, put my hands in the toasty warm oven gloves and try to sip a warm ovomaltine while sifting through the pictures.

The wind was also extremely dry with charged atoms, that static electricity built up in my body similar to during the time in the depth of winter when the air in the house used to be very dry. Actually, I really shouldn't be complaining even though my hair is standing on its end. Pulsatilla Vulgaris Papageno having its hair standing on end.

Everything I touched became an electrifying experience. The dog jumped nervously when I tried to fix his leash. The camera goes a bit haywire when I switched it on. A simple pecking kiss to my husband and we both were electrified.



When the clouds moved away, and the sun shine brightly....
.......there, you can see my smiles are reflected right here in that fully opened flowers.

Ooinunofuguri - Dog's Scrotum Major

Few days after I published Seeing Heaven in Wild Flowers http://rosesarerae.blogspot.com/2009/03/seeing-heaven-in-wild-flowers.html

Maki wrote me an e-mail;

"Hi Rae,
That tiny blue flower is flowering in my garden too. In Japan, it is called Ooinunofuguri.
It means dog's scrotum major !! haha. I've no idea who gave such strange name to this cute weed or why??"

Thank you for sharing this with me Maki. What a name! I burst into long train of giggles when I read your lines.....was a good mail to start the day. The people who gave this plant such a name like this, surely have got a good sense of humour.

When I think again about it, that name actually fits well to the tough surviving qualities of this plant. They really can take all kinds of abuse. This is the kind of weed which will not shrivelled and die from heavy foot traffic and don’t even burn and turn brown when dogs peed on them.

Luckily it is a low ground hugging weed and not invasive bushy type, or otherwise would be a nightmare to get rid off from cultivated areas of the garden.

If that blue weed wild flower belonged to the dog, here's another one blooming at this time of year in the garden, commonly known as Dog’s tooth or Erythronium Revolutum





There are many varieties of Dog's tooth and this one is called White Beauty.
Now I wonder if there are other wild flowers called dog’s droppings, which I’ve yet to discover…..