Summer flowers

A field of lupines... pretty common in our neighbourhood (Vancouver and here)

Camilla has been my main source of Swedish botany information so far, and I have learned the spring and early summer flowers, how they usually bloom, where they grow, which ones last the longest in a vase, and their Swedish names.  I was surprised to see that lupines grow here too and look just the same as at home… until I learned that they are the same as at home, and are invasively taking over habitat from native species here.  People are reluctant to cut them because they are so pretty, but the local ecosystem is suffering so there are “cut the lupine” campaigns.  

Camilla says there is a good way to tell plants form weeds:  if you water it and it still dies, it is a plant.  If you pull it out and it grows back, it is a weed. Lovely as they are, lupines qualify as the latter!