Friday fabulous flower - yellow lawn edition

This isn't the first time TPP has blogged about this neighborhood side lawn, but it's just so damned cheerful to see this early every spring.  The Phactors have long had blue lawns (see links on above page) and the first harbingers of blue are poking up here and there before the entire lawn turns blue, but this hedgerow of yellow (Eranthis hyemalis - Winter aconite, buttercup family) has been here for more than half a century showing that if you just don't disturb things, plants can do well.  This little bulb (corm) is a bit hard to get going sometimes, and while the tree rats don't eat them, they do dig them up when newly planted.  And then they flower, fruit, and disperse their seed until eventually you have a bed of early spring golden-yellow.

Spring bulbs: winter aconite = yellow cheerfullness

Why plant spring-flowering bulbs?  An old curmudgeon TPP grew up with used to ask, "Can you eat them?" As if that were the only reason for having plants, although here in Lincolnland's maize and soybean desert it does seem as if all other plants were banished or extirpated, fortunately TPP lives in a urban area, where some diversity persists, as opposed to the country.  March has begun with a couple of weeks of mild weather and the spring bulbs are responding.  Here is an image of a property nearby where someone planted some winter aconite (Eranthis hymenalis - buttercup family) some 50-70 years ago and the plants have naturalized to the area and spread, the result of a persistent long-term neglect. Now they announce spring with a remarkable cheerfulness, which helps feed the soul as the poets might say. Even after a short winter, you need some cheering up, and this is a very cheerful plant.  A few snowdrops are thrown in for good measure. Not satisfied with just a blue lawn, and a light blue lawn, and a violet lawn, Mrs. Phactor wants a patch of yellow lawn too.