Thursday, May 6, 2021

Wildflower Presentation

This evening my second virtual presentation for the Thornbury Library, this one on 'Spring Wildflowers in the Beaver Valley', goes live on YouTube at 7 p.m.  After the success of my waterfall presentation (it has now had 803 views - for this rural community that's a lot!) I'm looking forward to the results tonight.  Here's a sneak peek without all the background explanation and details.

The iconic White Trillium, Ontario's provincial flower.  This is the flower most people think of when they hear 'spring wildflowers'.

But there are a lot of other spring wildflowers, including one of the most widespread here, the Dogtooth Violet or Trout Lily.

One of my own personal favourites is this totally weird Blue Cohosh that comes up looking really purple, though it doesn't amount to much as a flower.  It grew near our former house in the country, and I swear that on warm days in May you could actually see it grow, easily putting on 4" in a single day.

Another favourite is this Wild Ginger, our only brown flower, which lies right down on the dirt under the leaves.  You have to crawl on your stomach to get a picture like this.

The Red Trillium or Wake-robin always looks best when backlit by the sun.

But it's the White Trillium that most people look for, actually one of the later flowers to bloom in the spring.  You don't often see it like this though; you have to know where to look!  

Hope you get a chance to get out for a walk in the woods this May, and spot some of the wildflowers in your neighbourhooad.  Here's the link for my presentation:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLLZ2IXCwBc   

It goes live at 7 p.m. tonight, but of course once it's there you can sign on anytime to see it.  We're actually enjoying some sunshine today, though it's still chilly.  Hope you're having a sunny day too!


20 comments:

  1. Beautiful flowers. It's sunny here today.

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  2. Love the blooms you’ve featured. That red trillium is spectacular!

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  3. Gorgeous!! I'll try and remember to check out the YouTube video. :)
    The field of trilliums is so beautiful!💝

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  4. That's really exciting. What a great way to share your expertise!

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  5. What a treat to see these wonderful shots!

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  6. That colony of white trillium is spectacular -- haven't see a patch like that since I was in college (almost 60 years ago -- yeah, I'm old).

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  7. Beauties. We aren't seeing much around my Ottawa Valley home as yet.

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  8. What lovely flowers! It's a beautiful day here at 16C, with the sun shining and a bit of a breeze. Hope you'll see these temps there soon.

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  9. Beautiful spring wild flowers. Will check out the link later.
    Nice to have a bit of sunshine here today after all that rain yesterday.

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  10. WoW!! you are proficient in so many things. i watched and enjoyed 1/2 of the video, and will com back later to finish it!! beautiful pictures, the weather was perfect here today!!

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  11. Great video presentation, FG. I am very stingy with our wifi usage so haven't watched the whole thing but will love flitting back to it when I need help recognizing one of the wildflowers. Thank you! :)

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  12. Great presentation Stew and I watched it from beginning to end. Very educational and I did learn things. A few weeks ago I had photos of some of those very flowers but I couldn't remember their names at the time. I'll have to keep your presentation handy for next Spring when I will have forgotten all the wildflower names again.

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  13. I watched some of your presentation on You Tube and will watch the rest later this evening. So far I'm finding it very interesting.

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  14. Excellent flower pictures. I've marked the video and will come back to it later this evening.

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  15. How very wonderful that you are doing this and that it is appreciated. Those presentations are hard to pull together. My husband did one for our community for the Master Gardeners recently. I helped, but it was a challenge!

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  16. Your trillium are different from ours, and we NEVER have such prolific groups as you show here! Lovely indeed.

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  17. I watch the whole presentation on Wild Flowers, thank you, I learned a lot. You are so knowledgeable and a pleasure to listen to.

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  18. There is a patch of white trilliums that i have visited several times before, but when I drove by yesterday,it cold no longer be described as patch. I found it quite dismaying.

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  19. Stew,,, last year and this year we have had a small bunch of burgundy trilliums! They are unusual to see,,, have u ever seen any!
    Enjiyed the video, elaine

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  20. I missed this one. Life gets to be too busy. I will check it out this afternoon. Your photos are so great.

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