Sarracenia purpurea...

I have another unusual North Carolina native plant, in addition to the Lady's Slippers. Only this one doesn't grow wild in my backyard (figuratively) on its own. I had to build a habitat for it, but it seems quite content with what I have provided.




This is my Purple Pitcher Plant, also known as Sarracenia purpurea. Yes, I know. The new leaves don't quite look purple. As they mature and widen out into the pitchers they form, they will darken. You also might be interested to know that not all Purple Pitcher Plants are purple.




This is the first year it has bloomed, even though I've had it for two or three years. I always consider that a plant is happy with the care I am giving it if it is providing flowers for me in return. So I must be doing o.k. for my Pitcher Plants.




Last winter, the "bog" freezing heaved the plants, so this past winter, I put hay bales around the container to keep it from getting as cold. And it worked. The plants weren't pushed out of their "soil," which is actually a peat moss and sand mixture, by ice.



Have a beautiful day!

Colors of Winter...

It is too cold to write. It is too cold to take pictures. But I am forging ahead any way. (I was just informed that if I was a sculptor, I could forge a head.) I braved the freezing temperatures and the frigid wind and ventured out to capture the colors of winter.

{Buddleja davidii var. nanhoensis 'Nanho Blue'}

I think of winter as being a grey, colorless time of year. Except for my Johnnies, of course. But the past few days, I have been noticing subtle colors.

{Hydrangea macrophylla}

These are definitely not the bold, dashing colors of summer. Or even the sweet, enchanting colors of spring. They are wise, subdued colors, beckoning closer inspection.

{Gaultheria procumbens ‘Red Baron,’}

The leaves of the Creeping Jenny trailing over the edge of an abandoned birdbath have bronzed.

{Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea'}

Shifting shadow patterns have sun-burned the camellia's leaves.

{Camellia}

One lone periwinkle bloom hangs on despite the cold.

{Vinca minor}

The underside of the leaves of one of my coral bells shows an astonishing purple.

{Heuchera}

Sunlight glows through the new leaves of one of my pitcher plants.

{Sarracenia}

Delight! Oh, delight! I was thrilled to discover a bud forming for a bloom to come in spring.


Have a beautiful day!