Purple-Flowering Raspberry
Rubus odoratus
(ROO-bus) (oh-dor-AY-tus)
Synonyms: Flowering Raspberry,
Virginia Raspberry
This wild beauty was spotted
growing in between a garden and the road in kind of what I would consider a
waste area. This was the first time I had seen this plant growing around here
but we are in its natural range, which covers the eastern United States and
parts of Canada. There were no berries but a good crop of flowers. The foliage
is stately and handsome. This plant is very hardy, likes moisture and can
spread rapidly. It grows to about 4 feet tall and has good deer resistance.
Sunday again so here is a
bonus snapshot of a unusually colored Grape Hyacinth. In my never ending quest
for variations on a common theme we have planted several mixtures of these
flowers. It is always kind of fun and exciting to see what shades are going to
come up. The fall bulb season looks good after we have secured several orders
for the autumn.
Yesterday our little dry
patch ended in a big way. We got several inches of rain and even a little hail.
There was a tornado watch for several hours but thankfully we only ended up
with some strong wind gusts that didn’t seem to do any local damage.
