Tiny flowers, especially ones growing all on their own, don’t get nearly as much credit as they deserve. Everyone talks about big flowers like roses and daffodils and lilies, but hardly anyone talks about daisies and… See, I don’t even know the names of other tiny flowers.
Someone should do something about that, so today I’m devoting a whole post to tiny flowers.
I walked outside with my camera to see what tiny flowers I could find. Once you start looking for them it’s amazing how many you see. They grow in the cracks in the pavement, in a fields full of hard stalks of grass, and in wasteland that used to be something and now isn’t.
Here are a few of my favourites.
This intrepid little guy shouldn’t be growing in the crack at the bottom of the step, but he is and I can’t bear to pull him out.
These guys are even smaller and disappear almost entirely into the grass, but look closely and they’re there.
This one’s waiting for friends.
These are weeds and they get everywhere, but when there are only two they’re so pretty.
This guy’s my excuse for not mowing the lawn.
I don’t know if this is actually a daisy, but he looks like one to me, and he’s sure chosen a rough neighbourhood to live in.
And finally, because seven is the best number, some natives. I think these are some kind of tea tree.
I’m glad I took the chance to wander around and look for things I don’t usually see.
I know this isn’t really an ode. If you’re more of a poet than me and want to add a real ode in the comments I know you’d make tiny flowers everywhere very happy. If not, do you agree tiny flowers are underrated? What are the most intrepid flowers you’ve met? What else is everywhere that most people don’t usually notice?
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I love this post! Thanks for the pictures, they’re lovely. You’re right, we should pay more attention to little things. Tiny flowers are just as pretty as the big flowers, you just have to look closer. Isn’t that profound XD
(I’m terrible at poetry. I don’t even know what an ode is. Does it have to rhyme?)
I don’t remember meeting any intrepid flowering plants, but I’m awfully fond of ivy. It doesn’t grow in Finland and me and my countrymen consider it a beautiful, exotic plant that you might be able to cultivate in a pot indoors if you’re lucky. Here in Germany it grows wild everywhere and the locals consider it a weed. I’m shocked when my hubby speaks disparagingly of ivy and says it should be cut back. But it’s so pretty! I’m super excited to see so much ivy everywhere! How can you not like ivy?
Aw, thank you!
I love ivy too. I have a plant in my office that I grew from a cutting. It’s basically one strand that runs from one end of the office to the other and back again. I love how luscious and green ivy looks, especially when it grows in the shade and gets big pale leaves. It looks like it would taste so good. It’s just a shame it’s poisonous.
very nice
Thank you. 🙂
This was strangely insightful. Maybe I’m grasping at straws here, but I think this can play into a larger metaphor about undervalued things in general. I feel people overlook a lot of the small joys to be found in the world. A cool breeze, the night’s sky, a blade of grass in the wind. Appreciating tiny flowers might just be the first step to finding a much happier life.
Or I’m just seeing metaphors where there aren’t any. Either way, rock on you tiny flowers, rock on!
I think you’re entirely right. My “insightful” tends to turn sappy, so I stopped where I did, but I agree there’s a lot of happiness to be had in stopping to notice and appreciate small things of all types.