Feel the Darkness............Fritillaria obliqua

“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.” Mary Oliver

That quote is some deep shit right there if you stop and think about it. This flower is just dark, some folks will say the flowers are brownish purple, but if you look close it's something deeper than that, it's midnight, or the hour right before dawn where the moon has faded and now is nothing but complete still and void of light. 

Fritillaria obliqua Charles Hervey Grey's 1938 Hardy Bulbs: A native of Greece. The bulb is globose, over half an inch in diameter: the leaves many, cauline, oblique, narrowly lanceolate, acute, very glaucus, two to five inches long; the stem fairly stout, olive-green, about twelve inches in length; the flowers one to three large, nodding, obconical, unchequered, brownish-purple, on stout, subarcuate pedicils; segments oblanceloate, sub-acute, apically incurved, over an inch long; stamens less than half as long as the segments; the anthers prominent, yellow; the ovary conical, obtusely angled, green; the style trifid, yellow. It flowers in March-April and should be grown in a sheltered position in very gritty, well drained soil. It is not I think an easy plant to establish, although it does extremely well in gardens where conditions suit it.

Maybe a hint or two of brown, but mostly just dark. This flower has always meant a lot to me and while it's never been a great increaser, or helped put much cash in the larder. It's one of the reason's I wait for spring so patiently year after year. This one here never dissapoints, its stunning in it's simplicity and it's complicated in it's basic form. It's a black flower, it caught my eye years ago, and it still captures my imagination to this day.  Overcast and somewhat sullen today, the freshening breeze says something is blowing in from the pacific. After a week of sun it's no surprise. Temps in the 50's. Cheers, Mark