Scallops of Pink © 2008 Bo Mackison

Does anyone remember reading the book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney? It is a children’s book written in the early 1980s, popular when my children were little. Miss Rumphius was a woman who wanted to do three things in her life – travel the world, live by the sea when she grew older, and make the world a better place. She easily accomplished the first two, but was a little stumped on how to accomplish her third goal until she hit upon the idea of scattering lupine seeds wherever she went. Wow! She must have made her part of the world really beautiful. Certainly a better place, too.

I think these flowers are pretty spectacular, standing about 3 feet high. This is an eastern Lupine, grows east of the Mississippi River. There are about 200 lupines in the family, and many of them are strictly West Coast plants. Many more are native only to California. This sweetie blooms from now until early June, though if the plant is dead-headed it will send up a second, though less spectacular, blossom.