It’s no secret that I need new knees.
I wasn’t sure how bad the operation was going to be, so I let my wife get a new knee first. After watching her results of the first three weeks, and all the rehab, I have decided to limp forever.
Being the wonderful, gentle husband that I am, I have been driving her places just to get her out of the house — and in search of food. On one of these jaunts, I noticed a lot of violet blue wildflowers growing in fields and along the road. I thought they might be phlox, but phlox doesn’t bloom this early. I mentioned to my dear wife that I would have to ask botanist Paul Skuta what they were.
She said “They’re Sweet Williams.”
It’s a wonder I didn’t have the big one right there on Route 224. ”Carol the Cook” knowing an answer to a plant question — that I didn’t — almost caused me to roll the car.
It just so happens that this year, I have the same plant growing by the stream that flows through my yard. I began comparing that flower with photos of Sweet William. They didn’t look the same.
I contacted Paul Skuta and just as I suspected, they aren’t Sweet Williams.
Because of her delicate condition, I did not gloat, nor did I do my usual finger-pointing tribal dance, chanting that she was wrong. I’ll just let her gently read about it in the paper.
The plant now blooming in shades of blue, pink or white is the wildflower Dames Rocket (Hesperis matronalis). It’s in the mustard family, Brassicacea, and is related to the cabbage, broccoli and radish. I like Dames better than I like her relatives.
If you are into aromas and are an evening Dames Rocket sniffer, you will notice the sweet scent increases more then than sniffing it in the morning. No, you don’t get on a high from this.
Everyone in this family has a flower that has four petals and resembles a cross. If you look closely at Dames Rocket, you will notice a stalk with stems alternating off it. On these stems are the four petal flowers, alternately spaced on the stem.
If you observe the tall phlox, it has five petal flowers. The Sweet Williams also have 5 petals but with serrated edges. In the wild, they are mostly red with a white base, again proving my wife was wrong.
Dames Rocket is what you might call an attractive weed. It is a short-lived perennial. The first year only, the rosette leaves appear. The second year the 2- to 3-foot plant grows with plenty of blooms. It is very prolific at producing seeds in a long sac called a siliques. Birds eat these seeds, but not enough to control this weed.
If I lived in Connecticut, I would be breaking the law by having this flower in my yard. It is banned from Colorado, Connecticut and Massachusetts because it can take over native plants. It is originally from the Mediterranean region and was brought over by the early settlers.
I don’t have any good sources on how the plant got its name. We didn’t have rockets back then, and the song “There is Nothing Like a Dame” hadn’t been written yet. You do have my permission to sing it when you spot these wildflowers.
I guess I will have to get new knees someday, but I want to wait until my bikini wearing era is over. I’ll just put if off until they can replace it without pain, therapy or leaving a scar.
Make your space a green space.
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GREENSPACE: Dames look nice, smell sweet
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