Last spring around April and May the wildflowers were really coming alive and blooming everywhere. It seemed like there was hardly a day when I didn’t go out and see something new blossoming. The colors were absolutely amazing and changing daily. I made sure that I took my camera everywhere with me and tried to give myself extra time to get places in case I wanted to stop and take pictures. One of the things I love about our county is that when the wildflowers are really blooming the road service people will leave large patches unmowed until the flowers have passed. One of the plants that I learned to really like during that time is the purple thistle (also called bull thistle, spiny thistle, or yellow thistle).

When you are driving down the road at 65 mph, the wildflowers pretty much look like a blur of color, mixed pink, purple, yellow, and blue. But most of those flowers are relatively close to the ground, while the thistles are usually 2-3 feet tall by then. They have a bright pinkish (similar to the mimosas) or a deep yellow flower, and they tend to grow in clumps since they are a plant that sends out rhizomes (basically long shoots of root that run away from the main plant and put out new, baby plants). The flowers occur in small clusters at the end of long stems, and when fully blooming, they are decent sized. So when you are driving by, you see this mass of color on the ground with clumps of pink floating above them. It is impressive, and quite pretty.

One gorgeous spring afternoon, I stopped to take photos of some of the low lying wildflowers and there was also a large group of thistles there. I shot some of the wildflowers and was getting ready to go when I thought I should take a closer look at the thistles. They were in various stages of flowering, and as I took photos of them I realized that their bristling leaves, stems, and flower bases had their own kind of beauty, so I decided to take some closeups, too.

I have to say, I had always thought of thistles as pretty flowers, but kind of obnoxious with all their prickles, and generally, something to stay away from. As I looked at them through the lens, with a different perspective, I realized that they had some beautiful pattern. I had always heard that some people planted thistles in their gardens, but I never understood why. I knew that they were great sources of food for bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, and the like. I also knew that the seeds provided food later in the year for quite a few types of birds, but I had always thought that something more attractive would do the same thing and look nicer. But as I looked through that lens, I finally saw the beauty that I had always missed before. What an eye opener! Now I can’t wait for them to come up and start flowering again this year. Have you ever had an eye opening experience like this? If so, tell me about it!