Flower Fest - J for Jacob's Ladder

Jacob's Ladder is a delicate, ornamental flower from a genus of 25 flowering plants called Polemonium. I think the picture below is of Jacob's Ladder but since I don't have a close-up of the flowers, I am not entirely sure. If anyone knows whether these are or are not Jacob's Ladder, please let me know!


And, so the challenge continued for J. It's been snowing every Friday or every weekend for the past 6 weeks - yes, we're already picked up 3 inches today - and the chances of going anywhere is very low, making it even more difficult to take new pictures of flowers. The writing was pretty clear on the wall that I was going to have to attempt to paint something.

Please be gentle with me. I have never done any painting in my life - except for some basic fabric painting. This is the first time I have done a watercolor. I know of no techniques and sometimes I wonder if I know how to hold a paintbrush. I used watercolor pencils and a combination of wet and damp paintbrushes to come up with my first and only masterpiece.


Since most folks will need to know what the flower really looks like, I based my watercolor on this gorgeous picture.

This is my entry for the letter J in the Flower Fest - the A - Z of Flowers.

Flower Fest is the brainchild of Nature & Me and Sree. Every two weeks, the focus will be on a letter of the English alphabet. The current letter is J. I am submitting photographs of flowers as my entries.

Tags: Flower Fest, jacob's ladder, polemonium, flower

Flower Fest - I for Iris

Iris. Never really cared for these flowers. The 'hairy beard' put me off. So I never really paid any attention to these flowers. Until last spring, when I saw several buds in my yard that I did not recognize...


A walk around the neighborhood told me that I was the expectant gardener of the common iris. And when they bloomed, I was in love. The petals are so delicate and they come together so well, that I was soon overwhelmed by their true beauty.


I further realized how much I cared for these plants when they were attacked by whiteflies. Hosing them down with soap and water did not work so I had to resort to pesticides. This spring, if we ever get there, will tell whether the bulbs survived.


This is my second entry for the letter I in the Flower Fest - the A - Z of Flowers.

Flower Fest is the brainchild of Nature & Me and Sree. Every two weeks, the focus will be on a letter of the English alphabet. The current letter is I. I am submitting photographs of flowers as my entries.

Tags: Flower Fest, iris, flower

Flower Fest - I for Indian Paintbrush

"What are you taking pictures of?! That's a weed! Visit me in Illinois and I will show you the same thing in my backyard! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

He was joking, of course; mocking me in an attempt to keep me from lagging behind on one of our hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park. He's a dear friend, too, which is one of the reasons why I did not throw the nearest rock at him. The other reason being that I had just laid eyes on a wildflower that I had never seen before. I didn't know if it was a flower or if what I was looking at was a complex set of leaves which enclosed a flower. I am so glad I stopped to take pictures because what I had found was the Indian Paintbrush.

And, according to Southwest Colorado Wildflowers, I was kind of correct that the flowers are "actually leaf-like parts, the bracts and sepals. The flower petals themselves are fused in a long, narrow tube that is often greenish-yellow and tipped in the same color as the showy bracts and sepals. The reproductive parts protrude from the tube."



The Indian Paintbrush is parasitic in nature. It taps into the roots of a host plant for its nutrients. I first realized I had taken pictures of the Indian Paintbrush when I came across it in a plant catalog for plants native to Colorado. It is often sold with a plug of blue gramma grass, another Colorado native that does well in the dry semi-arid conditions. While generally not recommended for normal landscaping, the Indian Paintbrush finds its place in xeriscaping.

The Indian Paintbrush blooms in late spring and through summer. It does well in hot desert like conditions, in full sun and sandy soil. It is found in montane and subalpine regions of Colorado. I think that the Indian Paintbrush in my pictures is Castilleja miniata, the second most commonly found species.

There is a wonderful native American legend behind this flower. The genus takes its name "Castilleja" from Domingo Castillejo, Spanish botanist and Professor of Botany in Cadiz, Spain who lived in the 1700s.

This is my first entry for the letter I in the Flower Fest - the A - Z of Flowers.

Flower Fest is the brainchild of Nature & Me and Sree. Every two weeks, the focus will be on a letter of the English alphabet. The current letter is I. I am submitting photographs of flowers as my entries.

Tags: Flower Fest, Indian Paintbrush, Castellija

Flower Fest - H for Helianthus annuus

Helianthus annuus is none other than the common sunflower. "Helios" means sun and "anthos" means flower in Greek, therefore sunflower. I grew the Autumn Beauty in my flower bed in Illinois. It almost touched the second floor of my home!



The sunflower belongs to the Asteraceae family and there are so many cultivars as well as wild sunflowers that it is hard for this newbie to assimilate all that information! Colorado has several wild sunflowers. There are alpine sunflowers that hug the ground and the flowers are very small compared to the annual in my pictures. These flowers were almost 12in in diameter. I grew them from seed and it reseeded itself over 3 years. Autumn Beauty is not supposed to be tall. Mine was. Autumn Beauty has flower heads about 6 inches in diameter. Mine reached 12 inches. So either I had the wrong seeds or these were an exception!


The pattern on the flower head always intrigued me. And apparently it is not a random pattern. the number of disk flowers follow a Fibonacci sequence!


Lore has it that the Native Americans selected and planted the largest seeds, producing a much larger seed than the wild plant had. The Russians then developed it further and the Russian varieties were then reintroduced in USA. The sunflower is now cultivated for food, oil, fiber and even fuel. Amazing how such a common flower has so many uses!

This is my second entry for the letter H in the Flower Fest - the A - Z of Flowers.

Flower Fest is the brainchild of Nature & Me and Sree. Every two weeks, the focus will be on a letter of the English alphabet. The current letter is H. I am submitting photographs of flowers as my entries.

Tags: Flower Fest, Helianthus annuus, autumn beauty, sunflower

Flower Fest - H for Hyacinthus Orientalis

Hyacinthus orientalis, or the beautiful hyacinth, is a very easy to grow flower. The picture below is of purple hyacinths that I grew from bulbs in my little flower bed when we lived in Illinois. I remember planting them in fall and then forgetting about them till elongated leaves popped out of the ground in early spring. The flowers are on a tall spike that bears a large cluster of flowers. I had them right by my front door and the mild fragrance was very welcoming.


Apparently, it is toxic if ingested in large quantities! So while this is not a Colorado wildflower that is an obnoxious weed, it has alkaloids that can be dangerous for pets and for humans, when consumed in large quantities. You stand forewarned! The next time you admire a hyacinth, stop there! Don't eat it!

Greek mythology has it that the flower is named after Hyacinthus who was accidentally killed by Apollo during a friendly game of quoits. Apollo then created a flower from his friend's blood which had spilled on the ground and called it hyacinth in his memory. The original hyacinth was probably not much like what we have today but that's how the flower got its name.

This is my entry for the letter H in the Flower Fest - the A - Z of Flowers.

Flower Fest is the brainchild of Nature & Me and Sree. Every two weeks, the focus will be on a letter of the English alphabet. The current letter is H. I am submitting photographs of flowers as my entries.

Tags: Flower Fest, Hyacinth orientalis, hyacinth