Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Dodecatheon hendersonii

[best appreciated at full size against black] (Thanks to Donald Tedrow for identifying this flower!) There is a steep path that goes up to the top of our ridge and a few days ago I climbed up there with the dogs to go on a walk along the ridge line. As I made my way up, I took a look at the progress of the plants that were popping out of the ground. To my delight, I saw that some were sending up flower stalks! And then I found one which was developed enough to see its color...PURPLE!!! As it was late in the day, I decided to wait until the next morning to see about taking pictures. The next day I was on my way up the hill again when I nearly stepped on a buttercup, which I showed yesterday! How exciting to see such an explosion of growth everywhere, and it's only just begun! Here, then, is the fifth flower of spring, and I don't even know what it will look like when it's open! It's like Christmas in March, only I have to wait for my present to open itself! :D This image was taken in Mzrch, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] A week or so ago, I posted a picture of some pretty purple flower buds, which I found growing on our hillside. I didn't know what they were, but happily, one of my Flickr friends did! Donald Tedrow was absolutely right, and here is one of the buds, open and showing exactly why it has its name! If you can believe it, our hillside is positively COVERED with hundreds of these! It's actually difficult to put my feet down where there ISN'T a Shooting Star plant! They are only now beginning to bloom and I hope to get some group shots if I'm lucky! This image was taken in March, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] Back in March, our hillside exploded into blossom as Henderson's Shooting Stars burst into bloom. Hundreds upon hundreds of flowers covered our property wherever there were trees to protect them from direct sunlight. These flowers are almost always a deep purple, but once in a rare while I would discover a very pale lavender one. Of course I needed to take pictures!! I think both color variations are beautiful! This image was taken in March, 2012.

In the early springtime, our hillside is covered with thousands of these stunning blossoms! I took many pictures but wasn't able to show these until now. I have dozens of extra flower pictures I need to squeeze in, so here is one of them! :)

There's nothing so irresistable as sun shining through just about anything...that glow is so wonderful. Here we have the empty seed heads of a Henderson's Shooting Star, glowing in afternoon beams of sunshine. This is also a great example to show that even after a flower has died long ago, its seed pod can be lovely too!

Aren't these interesting and beautiful looking flowers?! If you can believe it, they will turn much of our hillside purple as hundreds upon hundreds of these pretty flowers reach the height of their blooming phase. Below you will find many pictures I took last year! ENJOY! :)