“When life is not coming up roses
Look to the weeds
and find the beauty hidden within them.”
― L.F.Young

Another season is just about over for these pretty plants, whose colour ranges from white to dark purple.

I posted another image, a few days back, of the flowers, blooming in my garden. The post was also shared by me on an amateur botany page, where it received comments about being non-native, invasive, and a weed. All these points are true, to some degree. It is absolutely non-native, coming from Eurasia as a garden flower in the 17th century, along with other common wildflowers like dandelion, plantain, violets, and clover, to name a few. Is it invasive?

By the standard definition, an invasive species is one that can escape cultivation, that can crowd out other plants and that is not native to the ecosystem in which it is growing. It certainly can do that. In fact, I have found it difficult to cultivate, as it goes wherever it pleases. Currently, there is a large,flourishing colony, on the other side of my fence. So, by the above definition, it has ‘escaped’, it does crowd other native plants and, as I mentioned earlier, it’s not native.

Is it a ‘weed’? Like the well-known garden quote by Ella Wilcox, “A weed is but an unloved flower.” So, if I love them, are they weeds? The jury is out on that, depending on who you consult.

For me, the Dame’s Rocket adds a splash of early colour to my gardens, and the field behind it.

As for the studio image, like so many flowers lately, I’m enjoying the ability to take time to really appreciate the flower and all its complexities, and the isolated, studio images let me do just that. By the looks of this one, there are still a few days of bloom ahead.

Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
0.5 sec, f/32.0 ISO 400

High Resolution image on 500px

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