Flower for the Day Globe Amaranth 9-29-23

Globe amaranth (Gomphrena globosa) is grown in containers to better insure it gets the water it needs.

And who doesn't love little purple balls.

At the end of the season after the balls have turned brown and dried out you can collect them in a bag and since

they are full of seeds they will be ready for planting next year in the late spring. These are over ten years old.

    Globe Amaranth

……

But through the sod,

Defying time and reason

That fixes seed and season,

Sudden a rod

Of blooms came slenderly —

An eloquence, a plea; 

And all the happy past 

Rose up, and held me fast!

Agnes D. Moore

Butterfly Weed 9-27-23

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is a perennial forb. Butterflies are drawn to it because of its copious nectar. 

It does not transplant well but seeds from a friend have done great. What do the leaves remind you of?

       The Butterfly Weed

 Oh lady bug, you've done a good deed.
Setting your table on the butterfly weed,
You're the custodian of all you survey,
On butterfly weed, till the end of the day.

Oh beautiful monarch, where do you feed,
I see you too love the butterfly weed.
You and the ladybug would be poor indeed,
If it was'nt for the butterfly weed.

Oh hummingbird whose throat seems to bleed,
What do you here on the butterfly weed?
All hummingbirds, good advice heed,
We love the orange butterfly weed.

God's smallest creatures, go by one creed,
To congregate on the butterfly weed.
Let the south wind blow, and spread your seed,
So that there will be millions of the butterfly weed.

Juan Olivarez

                

New England Asters II 9-26-23

The best thing about the tall New England Aster bush in the front garden is that it has drawn some long awaited visitors - Monarch Butterflys (Danaus plexippus). I have noticed for many years that the monarchs eat and lay eggs on milkweed in the late spring and early summer but during the fall migration they exclusively land on the asters. They ignore the dahlias and cosmos and zinnias growing nearby. And they do it from down to dusk.

New England Aster I 9-25-23

We have multiple New England Asters (Symphotrichum novae-anglia) both in the front garden and the gnome gardens.

Its also called the Michaelmas daisy. The one in the front garden is over six feet tall. The hairy stems are strong but they needed staking when they drooped over after a big rain. These autumn asters create magnificent color.  

The usually deep purple flowers have many ray florets surrounding the flower centers which are composed of just as many tiny yellow disk florets 

We also have lower growing  New England Asters which are a stark pink in the gnome gardens.

The bees love them.

     Reluctance

Out through the fields and the woods

   And over the walls I have wended;

I have climbed the hills of view

   And looked at the world, and descended;

I have come by the highway home,

   And lo, it is ended.

 

The leaves are all dead on the ground,

   Save those that the oak is keeping

To ravel them one by one

   And let them go scraping and creeping

Out over the crusted snow,

   When others are sleeping.

 

And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,

   No longer blown hither and thither;

The last lone aster is gone;

   The flowers of the witch hazel wither;

The heart is still aching to seek,

   But the feet question 'Whither?'

 

Ah, when to the heart of man

   Was it ever less than a treason

To go with the drift of things,

   To yield with a grace to reason,

And bow and accept the end

   Of a love or a season?

  Robert Frost

Butterly-Bush 9-22-23

We have  butterfly-bush (Buddleia davidii)  in the meadow. It is also called summer lilac and orange-eye. It is a flowering plant in the family Scrophulariaceae. Just sound it out -  Scroph..u..lar..i..a..ce..ae. 

The genus was named after Reverend Adam Buddle, an English botanist.

The honey-scented flowers are terminal panicles. Flowers have both males and female parts making them hermaphroditic. Up close the little blooms are amazing. And it also comes in purple.

                              Butterfly Bush

I didn't plant the butterfly bush. It grew there of its own accord,
in between the apple tree and the perennial sweet peas,
an uninvited party guest spiraling skywards like an exploded party popper.
It crowded out the garden path entirely, but I had not the heart
to cut it back – I enjoyed its honey fragrance too much,
the daily cohort of butterflies which arrived to sun themselves
on purple flowering cones; sometimes five, six, even a dozen
soft-winged creatures moving meticulously across the blooms,
nectar-drunk, dipping long tongues into each sweet-scented flower
in search of ambrosia. I could stand a palm's width away
without startling them, noticing for the first time how exquisite
their wings are when seen from underneath, how they give way to hornets
but hold their own among the bees, the way they disperse
into a flurry of petals around my head if I walk past too fast.
Now the flowers are fading, but every time I pass underneath
the butterfly bush I am reminded to move slowly, to show hospitality.
Wild and beautiful things take root in unexpected places if you let them,
and if you walk by too fast, you might scare away the butterflies. 

 Caroline Mellor

Blue Lobelia 9-20-23

Blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) blooms in the late summer and early fall. Also called the great blue lobelia, great lobelia, or blue cardinal flower, it is a plant species within the family Campanulaceae.

It is an herbaceous perennial dicot. A dicot is a plant with an embryo that bears two seed leaves - typically with broad, stalked leaves with netlike veins. The leaves are alternate with a toothed margin.

The plant produces a spike of zygomorphic flowers in the late summer. The flowers are more closely clustered towards the top of the raceme and become more infrequent further down with the lower flowers begin blooming first. The tubed portion of the flower is often striped. Great lobelia flowers have five petals; the three lower petals are fused, and the two upper petals are usually curled back. A curved style pokes between the upper two petals. 

Native Americans traditionally use Lobelia siphilitica to treat respiratory and muscle disorders. It was once considered a cure for syphilis by early European settlers, which is where the scientific name for the species originates.

   Lobelia

Lobelia in string of pearls, proven winner Lucia dark blue, alive blooms on fire of soul, red- breast,
Or Sakura bloom in Japan in season's moon crest;
I burnt down my soul in earth's cascading heart-work widowed, riviera sky blue, let me see you once in my lifetime angel face bright and small;
Love for this earth, in fragrance of all embracing soulful call.

Lovita JR Marang 

'Shrooms' II

Here has what has come in so far. These are all labeled as ‘could be’ which means for sure we are not so sure. I make no mention of whether they are edible. I wouldn’t be caught dead eating them. I just gaze at them in awe.

Lactarius indigo, commonly known as the indigo milk cap, indigo milky, the indigo lactarius, or the blue milk mushroom, is a species of agaric fungus in the family Russulaceae.

Hygrocybe coccinea, sometimes called the scarlet hood, scarlet waxcap or righteous red waxy cap, is a member of the mushroom genus Hygrocybe.

Flowery blewit (Lepista irina) is a species of fungus belonging to the family Tricholomataceae. Its other name is Clitocybe irina.

Calvatia fumosa (??)

Psathyrella piluliformis is a species of agaric fungus in the family Psathyrellaceae. It produces fruit bodies with broadly convex caps measuring 2–5 cm in diameter. The caps are chestnut to reddish brown, the color fading in age and with dry weather.

Fall Flowers 9-19-23

Here are some flowers still growing in my front garden just for enjoyment.

"Shrooms" 9-18-23

Well they are not flowers but they are growies - the fungi are out in force this fall.

I cannot name them but if YOU can please label them for me.

Cleome 9-15-23

I have been fascinated by cleome (Cleome houtteana) for over thirty years. It is also called spider flower, pink queen, and grandfather's whiskers. It is native to South America. It re-seeds yearly.

The intricate flowers have four petals and six long stamens. I have  a recurring urge to study this flower close up.

How did this delicate flower happen?

Rattle Snake Master 9-13-23

Rattle Snake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium) is a longtime favorite. It is  striking despite its dramatic name. It is in the carrot family and is native to Missouri's tall grass prairies. Here you can see it various stages of bloom.

Although the aggregation of many small flowers in dense, hemispherical heads makes rattlesnake master look like a thistle or other member of Compositae, it is unrelated to those plants. Instead, rattlesnake master is a member of the carrot family (Apiaceae or Umbelliferae). Break or crush a leaf, and the aroma will give it away. Rattlesnake master contains many of the same oils and other secondary compounds as parsley, carrot, and parsnip. The reproductive parts of rattlesnake master also indicate its relationship with carrots, particularly the paired schizocarp fruit.

Of course, the name "rattlesnake master" prompts all kinds of suggestions as to potential medical uses. The best documented use, made by John Adair during the 1700s, describes the use of the plant's sap as a preventative to snakebite, used during ceremonial handling of rattlesnakes. The sap and roots were also used to treat a wide variety of maladies, and as a diuretic. The Mesquakies used it in their ceremonial rattlesnake dance and used the roots to treat rattlesnake bites. The bristly flower heads are arranged like a pitchfork, suggesting a possible use as a snake stick to pin down the head of a rattlesnake. 

Rattlesnake Master, December

In semblance of brittleness it stands
still
unbowed, dry
reedy rod rising
to burry crown revealing nothing
even to breezes that demand
it speak forth its cadence of parched crackles

still it stands
confronting crisp winter
staring in its bleak eye the season
bent on bringing down lesser, larger limbs
unfit to bear the strain of snow

still rigid
unhostile in plain acceptance—
            this is being
            this is nothing more than being—
its implied dare
            reach, seize, snap
hints at the plunderer's fate
the bloodied hands
forced open in the attack

– Katy Scrogin