beauties from the wild

As the weather has been so miserable and my garden looks beaten up by violent showers, hails and nasty chilly winds, I decided to dedicate my time for a while to organizing and naming my pictures and found pictures of wild beauties.

As there is no forum for wild flowers I didn't know where would be the best place to start a thread about them and finally chose for this one, although the wild beauties from the whole planet would be more than welcome.

Although wild flowers are not as showy as many of our cultivated garden plants, they often possess a more subtle and noble beauty.

At a close examination these beauties open up an enchanting world .

So here we go;

I start with Daucus carota (Wild Carrot)

In the stage of making seeds;

A whole field of them;

Its an attraction for many insects

Don't know what these guys are up to on this one

having a sip from its nectar

Centaurea cyanus (Cornflower) with its intens vibrant blue

another view;

Dipsacus fullonum (Teasel )

The whole architectural plant after its blooming peak

Lychnis flos-cuculi (Ragged Robin)

Lamium album.(White Deadnettle);

Some ancient native woodland in spring in the Cheviot Hills, Northumberland.

Resin

Lamium maculatum (Spotted deadnettle)
Don't they look like Chinese on a carousel ?

Very enchanting forest scene Resin!

Another view of the same;

Another; same location

Lovely Resin! I love the carpet of Pteridium aquilinum .
here is a scenery taken in a Belgium forest;

Those are lovely photos thanks bonitin, just what's needed in this weather.
.....and beautiful to see the Northumberland woods thanks Resin, so refreshing

Now that we are in the forest: Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove)

Thanks Philomel for the encouraging words!

A closer view;

and all the way into its heart;

I have more, but I'll stop for today. Good night!

Beautiful pics bonitin!

I love both of the wood settings too, they look magical.

One from me for tonight, Cichorium intybus or wild Chickory. I grew it I think in 2004, then it disappeared and a couple have grown again. This is a tall and gangly plant but the flowers are gorgeous.

The first flower opened today, thankfully we only had a light drizzle of rain even though it was cold.

Yes, aren't chicory flowers magical wallaby? They look far too exotic to be a 'weed' and the shade of blue is so beautiful - lovely photo.
I was abroad on a nature type trip, still in europe, when we came across some and people thought it was something really rare. Easy to be fooled when you come across something thet's under your nose at home, but you just aren't expecting to see it in a different setting.
I was really pleased to find that they grow well here and brighten up some of the 'uncultivated' parts of the garden.

Marvelous picture Wallaby of the lovely Chickory!
Its blue is so intense and vibrant, that one doesn't even notice the 'shagginess' of the plant when its in bloom.

The next one I want to put in the spot-lights is the very 'common' dandelion; Taraxacum officinale. I must confess I'm not too fond of its bold and plump flowers in that screaming yellow colour, although I can appreciate them in a meadow. But I am really enchanted by their lovely fluffy seed heads. I must put out of my mind that this means a real invasion of new dandelions to be born!

A whole group of them together with the pretty forget-me-nots.

Aren't they lovely ?

Next pictures are from one of two Verbascum thapsus (Aaron's Rod), I have rescued from being destroyed by bulldozers on a fallow in front of my house where they were building a justice palace.
That was last year in late summer. One of them I have planted in a pot on my little terrace where it can get a reasonable amount of sun, the other I planted in the small front garden of a friend gallery-owner. The one I have in a pot is blooming and is about 50 cm tall, while the one I planted in that garden reached a height of 2.17cm; a real record as the books speak of a maximum height of 2 m. I've never seen such a tall and happy one before, its really impressive and looking rather exotic.

first picture shows it in early spring;

second one later in spring;

And the third one 3 weeks ago and its is still getting taller.

and a detail of its flowers;

Bonitin, the Verbascum thapsus is used as a garden plant here. In nature gardens.

Florida native orchid, Encyclia tampensis>

More great photos bonitin, and thanks for the orchid dale

Thanks Philomel.

That's a generous orchid Dale! Interesting to hear that the Verbascum thapsus is used as an ornamental plant in your area in natural gardens. Problem is that it is a bianual and dies after blooming, but in a natural garden of a reasonable size, it can self-seed. The name 'thapsus' seems to originate of a Greek island where the plant occurs in abundance.

The tender delicate looking Campanula rapunculoides (creeping Bellflower) I find irresistable.

Specially with a background of blooming dreamy grasses

Another humble charmer is the Cardamine pratensis;

the friendly little faces of the Veronica chamaedrys (Germander Speedwell);

The lovely star-flowered Stellaria holostea

What lovely collection of flower photos. I took a seed pod from one of those huge woolly verbascums about thirty years ago and sprinkled it in the garden. I forgot all about it as nothing came up until a few years later when a couple of plants appeared, and odd plants keep coming up in different places around the garden every year. They haven't invaded the garden, but it is quite nice to discover a new seedling here and there, and my style of gardening is to leave things where they seed if they aren't in the way and just thin them out a bit if there are too many. I did have to move one that wanted to grow in the middle of the path though.