yellow Sternbergia, aka "fall crocus"

One of the advantages of writing this blog is that it forces me to try to remember plant names. The little yellow flower below is often called a fall crocus, but it's actually a plant called Sternbergia. There are crocuses that bloom in the fall, but this isn't one of them. I love it when the Sternbergia blooms, not just because it's always a surprise but because it reminds me of the place where I first saw them blooming en masse--in Hatton,Virginia. There, Sternbergia bloom in the lawns and borders of almost every house (there aren't many houses in Hatton!) and it seems so very clear that this has been a pass-along plant, passed from neighbor to neighbor.

The foliage in the vase with the Sternbergia flower is lily-of-the-valley.