Some Wildflowers at the Botanical Garden in Iasi

As I made my way into the gardens, I noticed that away from the main alleys, they were not very well tended. And even on the sides of the main promenades, there were plenty of dandelions in spots where I would have expected a clump of flowers or other plants. I imagine there just isn’t enough money for these gardens to be perfect. But they are wonderful nevertheless. I discovered some trees and shrubs I have always wondered about, and plenty of tiny wildflowers. I didn’t have time to step into the glasshouses. I did visit them many years ago, however, and loved it there. Plan to do it again sometime in the future.

This place also has one of the largest collection of roses in Romania (around 800 varieties). It is topped only by the Rose Park (Parcul Rozelor) in Timisoara (Timișoara), which arguably showcases 900 different varieties.

And now some of the wildflowers I photographed in the Anastasie Fătu Botanical Garden of Iași.

Cerastium tomentosum L. (snow-in-summer) is native to alpine regions of Europe. Nowadays it is also a garden escapee in places like Cork, Ireland, and Dorcas Bay, Ontario. This flower is a good choice for sites with poor soil. It needs full sunlight.

As its name says, it blooms in late spring / early summer -- which is why you don't see many flowers in the photo. It seeds freely, forming a fast-spreading mat. I saw a photo online where carpets of these flowers surrounded the roots of two trees. Snow-in-summer indeed.

Eastern bluestars are native to the American Midwest. Their flowers come in clusters. They were not in full bloom when I photographed them. Their time is in late spring through early summer. They like sun to partial shade.

I see they're also called blue ice, among other things.

I wish I had taken a closer shot, but I was really rushing through the gardens because I only had an hour and a half to visit the grounds. Not enough! Not to mention that I would have liked to visit the glasshouses as well.

Phlox divaricata or wild blue phlox is native to the forests of Central United States and eastern North America up to Quebec. Its midly fragrant leaves attract butterflies and hummingbirds. It thrives in part shade to full shade (the clump to the right was planted next to a large bush), and in rich, moist, well-drained soil. You'll find it in forests, fields, and along watercourses.

Of all the wildflowers I saw at the Botanical Gardens, these, the forget-me-nots, and the creeping gromwells (what a name!) were my favorite.

Forget-me-nots (genus Myosotis) come in about 50 species. They're very popular in parks in Romania. Also in literature (their name translates as forget-me-not in many European languages; the English name was calqued after the French "ne m'oubliez pas"), and yet until now I failed to make the connection between the flower name and the actual plant. I used to call them albăstrele (and I wasn't alone), which is actually a different blue wildflower, Centaurea cyanus.

I think the species shown in the photo is Myosotis alpestris, the alpine forget-me-not, which I read is the county flower of Westmorland in the UK and the state flower of Alaska.

There were two large beds of Myosotis alpestris in the Botanical Garden, mixed with daffodils, which have by now faded. There were also forget-me-nots in the Exposition Park, in front of the entrance to the Botanical Garden.

I love the color of the nodding catchfly (Silene pendula L.). (Its other common name is dropping catchfly.) This flower is native to Southeastern Europe (Italy), and naturalized in several countries in Europe, British Columbia in Canada, several states in the US, along with Argentina and Uruguay in South America, as well as South Africa and New Zealand. The USDA Plants Database shows its distribution in the US in Oregon, Wyoming, Michigan, and Maine.

The nodding catchfly likes light and well-drained soil. This flower seems to be another favorite for garden walls and hanging baskets. Silene pendula is related to Silene armeria, known as simply catchfly, or Sweet William catchfly, or, hear this, none-so-pretty. Indeed.

The name catchfly has to do with the plant's sticky stem and flowers. As for the word Silene, it's the feminine form of Silenus. Silenus had many incarnations in Greek mythology. It ultimately came to designate a faithful companion of Dionysus.

According to Wikipedia, wildflowers in the genus Lithospermum can be found pretty much everywhere except Australasia. (I tried to verify this information but could only find one other page that seemed to have reproduced the same bit from Wikipedia.)

Lithosperm wildflowers are collectively known as gromwells or stoneseeds. I see many species are distributed in the US. The USDA Plant Database lists the species that you can find in the US. Lithospermum prostratum, the gromwell with dropping flower heads, is not among them.

As a side note, if you're wondering, as I was, not knowing much about botany, what those L. and Loisel. and Griseb. mean, well, it appears that besides the two Latin words for genus and species, which we're all familiar with, botanists also use L. for Linnaeus (or any other name or abbreviation) to indicate that Linnaeus or another authority named the plant. If there's a name in parenthesis and one after that, as in Lithospermum prostratum (Loisel.) Griseb., then that's to say that the species was first named by the authority (biologist) given in parenthesis (with his name sometimes abbreviated), and later renamed and reclassified by the authority given last.

I hope you have enjoyed my little tour! As a bonus, here are two photos of lilac blooms. Lilac is one of my favorite flowers. Looking closely now at these wildflowers I have briefly presented, I can see there's some resemblance!

My camera is sold in the US as the Digital Rebel XT. It's a 2005 camera that has some drawbacks (low ISO by today's standards, and it doesn't shoot film), but this DSLR is a top semi-professional camera that you can get used on Amazon for cheap. Do note that mine did stop working after some 10,000 shots (which I heard was common with some cameras -- haven't looked into that statement yet), and I had to have it repaired, but it was well worth it.

I only have the lens that came with it (18-55mm, 35mm equivalence of 29-88mm), which served me well for what I needed to do with this camera. This digital camera has 8MP. The best thing about it is that it shoots great RAW photos, with superb whites, something that a point-and-shoot Canon camera like the PowerShot S110, which is otherwise rather fast and shoots Full HD video, doesn't match by any measure. But if you want to shoot video as well, the 2019 model EOS Rebel SL3 records 4K video at a fraction of the cost of other, more top-of-the-range Canon cameras.

If you want to use a telephoto lens and to shoot film, then I recommend the Canon PowerShot. I haven't tried it myself but it has great reviews, and I intend to buy it. It shoots 4K video and has a 40x optical zoom! And from what I've read it captures great whites, unlike my old Powershot model.