Purple Lupine: A Series of Photographs Showcasing the Beauty of the Every Day Wild Flower

The lupine plant is part of the legume family. I happened to know about this plant as it came up in my garden a couple of years ago. I did not want to take it out (as it is technically a weed: plant in the wrong place at the wrong time). I let it grew big and I was met with the most wonderful yellow flowers. I harvested a couple of hundred seeds over the years and since planted them throughout the garden, no more as a weed but rather as an ornamental plant. Due to my knowledge of the plant now, I spot it everywhere in the spring and early summer. I am not sure if the plants that I photographed in this post are grown for the lupine seeds (legumes) or if they just grow wild.

In any case, these flowers are always so beautiful. A sea of purple flows on the hillside and in the fields like waves. I do not normally take my camera on my walks, but this time I did as I knew these flowers would be blooming and giving this wonderful show.

I always appreciate these flowers, especially in the wild, as they force you to slow down and appreciate them. They call you from afar and force you to bend down to look and touch them. The flower itself is so soft and feels like velvet. The bees happily pollinate them. These flowers are on the side of a hill holding water for a vineyard. They are on my daily walking and jogging route. They always beg me to stop so that I can appreciate them.

And in this forceful moment in which they grab me out of my everyday mode of unreflective being, they are so fragile. Their stems are easily bent and then the flower dies. The wind blows the ones on the periphery over. The seedlings always so fragile dies in droves (at least in my garden). I only manage to get a handful to flower, but in the wild they seem to flourish in their numbers. If one plant dies in my garden, I am saddened because there is not a lot. In the fields, there are thousands of plants. Those that do not make it will not impact the beauty.

I find it sad that people walk past them and do not see them. I am sad that people do not experience the forceful pull of their beauty because they have other things on their mind, or because they are looking on their cellphone screens. It saddens me that people cannot slow down to feel the texture of the flower between their fingers. And sometimes I wonder if I am maybe the strange one to touch the flowers, or to look at the colors.

These plants remind me of a painting. The stark contrast of colors, again forcefully pulling your eyes towards them. Almost as if they are pointing to the sky challenging the blue heavens to compete against their striking purple color. The one plant after the other pulls you in with their color, asking you to feel the smooth texture against your skin.

I hope that you will find some time in your busy day to be forcefully slowed down by the beauty of the everyday flower. Even what people classify as weeds, have the most beautiful flower. In a world with so much turmoil and fighting, the sight of a perfectly shaped flower with colors your wildest dreams does not even know about can bring some calm and peace. Is it not that peace is captured by the gesture of giving someone a flower? Take nature up on her offer and bend down to look, feel and smell the wildflower.