Little blooms

Gray, gray day: you will not win.

As an antidote to the unrelenting rain and murk, here are a couple of tiny beauties that I photographed earlier this week. Both were growing between lettuce plants as “weeds” in my cold frames.

Bird's-eye Speedwell, Veronica persica. So small that ten of these flowers would fit onto my thumb-nail.

Wikipedia says that this species has "no known horticultural uses." Unbidden beauty is utility enough for me.

Small-flowered bittercress, Cardamine parviflora.

Each flower is about as big as a grain of rice.

This is the first year that either of these species has shown up in the cold frames. Their seeds may have come with compost from other parts of the garden or as “extras” in packets of lettuce seeds.