Some Pretty Flowers

And some past-their-prime-but-still-fascinating flowers.

Mom wants to see pictures of flowers so here we go.

First, flowers that are past their prime.

Last month I told the story of the return of our Pride of Madiera field. They are now finishing up their show. Here's what they look like today.

I had said that I didn't see much variation among the flowers. It turned out that there were some with purple flowers, some with blue, and some with very pale blue, almost white, flowers. Some of the flower heads were pointy and some were rounded. So I guess the two varieties we had originally planted had mixed and produced some nice variants.

I'll have to go out and chop off their big heads now that they're finished blooming. That's what the books say to do.

A couple of years ago I showed (again, at Mom's request) pictures of flowers around the yard. One of them was a Matilija Poppy. The patch of poppies is very happy this year.

The plants in front of the poppies to the left of the roses are the giant squills whose flowers I showed off last year. I hope they have a good year, too!

Here's a close-up of poppies.

They're at the top of an 8-foot tall plant. They smell real good!

OK, one last picture.  Last year I showed you our tabebuia.  I said that it was putting on a better show than ever before. Well, I think this year's show was better yet.

This picture is a month old. It's wrapping things up now. It's got fewer flowers and a lot of leaves. But it's still pretty!