Spring Blooms

These are some of the newest spring blooms to appear around the village at the moment.

Greater Stitchworts have been popping up since the end of March, but they’re now at their finest, with lots of little white star-like flowers coming up and taking the mantle from the Celandines. I’m rather pleased with how this photo looks 🙂

The Blackthorn is flowering beautifully now. Again, there were a few flowers at the end of March but now the hedgerows are full of them and the Blackthorn leaves are starting to appear.

In the trees the Elms are flowering. Within these un-petalled flowers, beneath the dangly stamens (male parts) are the female parts of the flower (the pink fluffy bits). As time goes on and the flowers get pollinated (by the wind), the female parts develop into seed cases develop and it looks like clusters of green flowers. The first photo is from yesterday. The 2nd photo is from May last year so you can see how the seed cases look later on.

 

Near the pond I spotted the first of the Cowslips appearing. They are hard to photograph and I’m never really satisfied with a Cowslip photo. However, I’ll let you see it so you can see what flowers are blooming at the moment.

You’ve already seen the Flowering Currant, but now is the time when it’s at its full glory and the Forsythia is making a beautiful backdrop, so here it is again 🙂

The Bluebells in the wood are getting going now. Not quite at blue carpet stage but in some areas there are many flowers now emerging. I’m becoming better at telling the difference between native and non-native Bluebells now I think. This first one I’m pretty sure is native, as are pretty much all of them in the woods. However, the 2nd picture is one of the many non-native or hybrid Bluebells that are growing in the hedgerows (and in my garden). As you can see they are quite different.

There are some flower buds on the Hawthorn which is now sprouting lots of fresh green leaves.

Willows are now sporting new leaves as well as catkins.

And here’s a plant I first discovered in 2014 – Fringecups. Later on the flower buds will open with frilly yellow or pink edges around green cups. Not the most beautiful of flowers but very interesting.

And finally, the Columbines are showing lots of flower buds on their way now so I’m looking forward to them putting on a show pretty soon.