a perfect growing month

We’ve had a long stretch of warm days and rainy nights, which makes for perfect growing conditions. And that combined with our exceptionally fertile midwestern soil means that most of our perennial plants are already thigh high! Today on my walk I saw these delicate stems poking up above the ground cover. The starburst pattern of the leaves caught my attention. It reminded me of lupine. So I picked three stems which I pinched gingerly between my fingers all the way home; but by the time I got back the stems were stuck together beyond extraction, and completely wilted. I did some googling to find out what it was, and it’s name is Sticky Willy! But I was so besotted by those leaves, that I went back outside to find a single new stem, and dashed home to take it’s portrait before it melted into a limp pile of matted leaves.

sticky willy (Galium aparine)