A few days ago, @thematzing and I embarked on a quest set by her Austrian botanist associate: to find wild #Pulmonaria #angustifolia, a rare species once common in #Austria, now nearly vanished.

The tip? A nerdy botany forum where someone mentioned spotting these plants in the middle of nowhere near #Włocławek, #Poland, back in 2015. Armed with this, we trekked out to the GPS coordinates. Hours of searching later, we (well, @thematzing) finally found it — no blooms to guide us, and the leaves blending in perfectly with everything else. A true needle-in-a-haystack adventure.

DNA samples are already on their way back to Vienna. The hunt paid off. 🌿

#Pulmonaria or #Lungwort, flowering in the last days of #winter. This plant came originally from my parents’ garden in #Austria more than 25 years ago.
When I was out gardening yesterday, I noticed the first bumblebee. Shows how important early flowering #plants are.
‣ Upright. Click to see all.

#ArtistsGarden #ImperfectGarden #garden #gardener #gardening #GardenPhotography #Artist #wolfkettler #Photography #GardenWiltshire #WiltshireGarden #Wiltshire #EarlyFlowering #sustainable #biodiversity #natural #NaturalGarden #WildlifeFriendly #PlanetFriendly #PollinatorFriendly #ecology #climate #ClimateChange #conservation #sustainability @gardening

Happy #BisexualVisibilityDay 🩷💜💙

#BloomScrolling #Hydrangea #Lathyrus #Ipomoea #Pulmonaria