THE DAINTY BLUE FLOWERS layer the front lawn of a central Faribault home like a lovely carpet. There’s no denying that. After months of viewing a primarily beige, grey and white landscape, it’s a visual delight to see this vibrant spread of Siberian Squill set against the backdrop of an aged brick house painted white.
Thanks to Valerie at Valerie’s Voice, I now know the identity of this spring wildflower. Valerie photographed a similar scene in neighboring Northfield.
Wanting to know more about these brilliant blues, I searched online. And what I found on the website Minnesota Wildflowers, a field guide to the flora of Minnesota, gave me reason to reconsider my appreciation of Siberian Squill. According to Minnesota Wildflowers, this plant is invasive to our state. The comments section proved especially interesting.
As I consider other particularly invasive plants, several obvious ones pop to mind—dandelions, Creeping Charlie and buckthorn. We’ve battled all three on our property. So, as much as I really really really like those Siberian Squill, the lovely blue wildflowers won’t ever be purposely introduced into my yard.
I’ll just enjoy the ones growing in that front yard along Fifth Street Northwest in Faribault.
TELL ME: Would you plant these flowers in your yard? Perhaps you don’t consider them invasive.
© Copyright 2017 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
They do look pretty, don’t they? We have something that looks like this pop up in our lawn every spring, but only here and there like little surprise packages in the grass. I’m wondering if ours aren’t the same thing though because they don’t seem to be taking over anything. I would not knowingly introduce an invasive plant to our yard. We’re pretty big on trying to keep native plants around.
I like your comparison to “little surprise packages.” I don’t know how quickly these flowers spread. Reading about them makes me think of lilies of the valley, which can take over an area if left uncurbed.
This is interesting Audrey. I will have to rethink my planting over the weekend.
At least give it some thought and more research.
We have a tiny few of those that pop up in our backyard yard. I’ve always thought they were pretty but I had no idea what they were.
So they’re staying contained?
They haven’t spread much. Maybe the neighbors spray them because I always find them between our houses.
Ahhhh, could be.
As the saying goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” invasive or not these flowers do add beauty! My experience is that the plants that we consider invasive are much hardier and easier to care for. While everyone tries to get rid of dandelions they do have a particular beauty to them in their own way (except in my lawn). I would be happy to plant Siberian Squill in my flower boxes/gardens even dandelions if they would stay out of my lawn and in the flower boxes/gardens were I want them!
Laughing…
We have a lot of “weeds” that grow in large patches in our yard and in the pasture. I used to kill them. But then we started wildlife rehabilitation and everything changed because we realized all of those horrible weeds were important to nature. So the weeds grow now and the deer and other mammals and birds feast on them or their seeds. And oddly, I often have neighbors and passersby ask what kind of flowers grow in our pasture or yard. They’re always surprised to learn the splash of color is from ordinary weeds! It’s all about the importance you give them… society dictates how our yards should be. I like what nature puts there.
“…society dictates how our yards should be” is so true. Thankfully in my neighborhood dandelions are OK.