Spring has finally sprung over these northern prairies.  Here are some photographs of new rhubarb leaves, May clouds, and budding trees. And a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson to go along with them:

Every cubic inch of the universe is a miracle.

Went looking around the yard for some of the last flowers of the season. The Russian Sage is in full purple bloom, with bees buzzing around its spiky stems, but I just couldn’t capture it. Tried a petunia or two, but that didn’t really do much for me, either. Shot the narrow creased leaves of a domestic Maximilian Sunflower, and nothing too appealing there. Finally I got around to one of the last hollyhock blossoms, way up near the top of the stalk. In between breezes, I managed to get one image that grabbed me.

We didn’t have much for hollyhock blossoms this year. It was so hot and dry again, and they didn’t get a whole lot of water. Hollyhocks remind me of Taos and Santa Fe, where they looked so pretty up against the earthy colored adobe walls.

Well, I thought I was through making posts about daylilies, but this beautiful little blossom appeared last Sunday, and I couldn’t pass it by. It opened in the shade, which gave me a new look, and it unfolded in a different way, which offered fresh possibilities for composition.

The edges of this flower have a marvelous ruffled appearance. I was looking through a garden catalog last night, and was amazed at the wide variety of daylily colors. They come in every shade but blue. The catalog offered combination packages of daylilies and daffodils, for blooms from early spring throughout the summer. Nice!

Later in the day, the daylily was lit by the sun, so I went back out and got a few more shots for my daylily portfolio. Looks like there is only one more bud left for this season. Will have to add more colors to the daylily corner next year.

Here are a couple of recent photos of the Prairie Walk native plant gardens in  Bowman. The chokecherries are really ripening now, and are a very dark reddish purple. Some of the area residents have started to harvest them for jelly, a regional taste treat. I’ve heard they also make wine from these plump little berries, though I’ve not yet sampled that.

There is a book I highly recommend called Chokecherry Places: Essays from the High Plains by Merrill Gilfillan. He really captures the beauty and natural history of this region through his evocative words.

Here is one of the first Maximilian sunflowers to bloom this summer in the Prairie Walk gardens at Pioneer Trails Regional Museum. This plant was named for Prince Maximilian of Wied, who accompanied the artist Karl Bodmer in his travels around the Great Plains of North America in 1832. Prince Maximilian was a German explorer, naturalist, and ethnologist. He and Bodmer spent time with some of the Indian tribes of North Dakota during their journey up the Missouri River.

Maximilian Sunflower on the 8th of August, 2008

Here are some shots taken yesterday afternoon of ripening chokecherries and sunflowers. It was a beautiful afternoon with great clouds, and just a slight breeze every now and then.

Today brought the unfolding beauty of another daylily. It is a real joy to see what the next blossom will bring! I love the names people have come up with for these gorgeous flowers: Strawberry Candy, Twilight Secrets, Always Afternoon, Prairie Blue Eyes, Pardon Me, and Chicago Sunrise, just to name a few.

This morning yet another daylily opened up on the same plant I’ve been photographing. I thought it would probably be pretty much the same as the others, but maybe I should take a look anyway. Much to my surprise, it yielded a very strong and beautiful composition that was quite different than anything I had previously gotten. Here it is in color and in sepia.

Here’s another shot of a newly opened daylily from this morning. There is a mysterious, primordial kind of feeling I get when peering into the abyss of one of these brand new blossoms. Something that speaks of creation, with an almost volcanic or cosmic tone to it, complete with stardust sprinkled on the petals.

This is a photograph of the same blossom taken in the afternoon. Notice how the tones and shapes have changed in the course of a few hours. Amazing.