In February and March of last year I published 3 posts about the wildflowers I found in our area during the summer of 2006. If you're interested in seeing them you can find them here, here and here.
This winter I've been sorting out the rest of the wildflower photos I took during that summer, and am finally ready to post them.
I carried my camera with me constantly and stopped often to capture the natural beauty of abundant blooms sewn by Mother Nature, and no human hands.
Milkweed and Wild Parsnip
Milkweed closer.
I love these dainty little clusters, and so do the Monarch butterflies.
Knapweed and Queen Anne's Lace
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) 
Mallow
Chicory
Edit: Kathy of Cold Climate Gardening has kindly let me know that what I'd labeled as Poison Hemlock is actually Wild Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). I had a hard time correctly labeling this one because they look so much alike. Kathy tells me the P. Hemlock has white flowers.
Wild Parsnip and Vetch
Vipers Bugloss (blue flower) and Sweet Clover (the tiny white sprays).
Edit: What I call Harebells is Creeping Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides)
Ural False Spiraea
Toadflax (Linaria)
The Birdfoot Trefoil blooms all summer
Daisy Fleabane
Goldenrod
Goldenrod closer
Oenothera (a wild version of Evening Primrose)
Yellow Hawkweed by the roadside.
Hawkweed closer
Even the common Burdock, terrible nuisance that it is, has its own beauty.
Jewelweed, which is related to Impatiens.
The seed pods of this plant burst when touched, and because of this, it also has the common name of Touch-me-not. Jewelweed is often used as a home remedy to treat poison ivy rashes.
Pale Jewelweed
Meadowsweet
Milkweed seedpods, with a bright pink Perennial Sweet Pea, planted long ago.
Money Plant
Wild Parsnip going to seed. Can you see the hawk sitting on the wire?
Wild Parsnip closer. I love the seedheads.
Poke cherries or Choke cherries.
Here are the poke cherries again when ripe.
I'll have more wildflowers to show you next time. We're blessed with an amazing variety of them around here!
I hope you all have a restful Sunday!
23 comments:
Just awesome, Kerri! Looking at these, I could remember summer heat...so nice to think back when we've another snowstorm coming our way.
Amazing! This great variety of wildflowers. Some of them I know (because of the picture and they are also growing here, either in the garden or in the forest), and some I have to look for as I don't know the translation. Anyway, I agree that even so called "weed" can have its own beauty when looking a bit closer.
This was a very interesting post. Thank you!
Have a wonderful Sunday! We actually have a very sunny period!
Barbara
You certainly have some wonderful photos! I admire your ability to name things by their proper names. I've always thought it would be fun to attend a hands on informal botany class, so I could learn the names of thigs around me...I think it's becoming less and less common knowledge. Do you agree
Hi Kerri, beautiful. You certainly have a lot of colourful wild flowers in your neck of the woods..
ive just posted some of my Bromiliads,,,
You seem to have so many more varieties there than I see here. In 2006 the jewelweed here was amazing. It filled in a huge section of the woods. Last year the plants were withered and sad. I really missed the show a mass of them makes! Hopefully they'll be back this year.
What a plethora of wildflowers you have and you can name them. I am impressed. I love seeing all these flowers. They are just gorgeous and I did notice the hawk on the line. :) Days for all these beauties seem far away right now. This just makes me more anxious for warmer days. :)
Hi Kerri, and thanks for the lesson on wildflowers. It's great to be able to put a name to all the flowers we see around here all the time in the spring and summer. :)
Kerri - you certainly have an amazing number of 'wildflowers' in your area.
Are they generally growing only in uncultivated areas, ie. along roadsides and in the woods?
Are any/many of them classed as noxious weeds, or environmental pests?
I wonder how many are garden 'escapees'?
Every year here in Canberra (and possibly other places) there is a nominated weekend when gardeners can take any 'environmental pests' they have growing in their gardens to a nursery where they can swap them for a non-invasive plant free of charge. The pests are then destroyed.
Thanks for these photos, Kerri. It must add a lot of interest to your walks, checking out what's flowering when.
Great pics Mummy. You sure know your wild flowers. Did you know they also use jewel weed as a remedy for stinging nettles?
xo
Hi Kerri - It's so fun to visit your blog, I've missed it. I enjoyed see all the green! It won't be long before our flowers are coming up the way time flies! I really enjoyed your post on the containers. You have a good eye for what goes nicely together.
As I was looking through your photographs., I went back in time to the days when I lived in Ottawa. Often a friend and I would be out hiking and making pressings of wildflowers. So many of them were the same - I recently uncovered several books containing the old and dried specimens (over 20-years-old).
At the time I didn't know many of their names, so I would painstakingly go through and identify them. I loved the name Viper's Bugloss - besides loving the colour of the flower.
I have to check, but I think we call Pokecherries here, chokecherries. They are abundant here. The park near my house is filled with them and it is quite something to come upon the birds eating them and leaving purple stains all over the paths.
not fair!!!!! all this while I was in Florida, I was itching to have a glimpse of wildflowers while they were growing with wild abandon in your "land of plenty" :)
i cant take my eyes off that delicate blue (is that what they call powder blue???) of chicory..........i have a summer t-shirt in that color and i love it to bits too :)
Kerri, What a wonderful collection of wildflower photos. You've equipped all of us with a good guide for our own wildflower forays! It won't be long now till we see the first of these popping up through the ground. It's 67 here in Florida, but around 0 at home. How cold is it in upstate NY?
Hi Kerri,
Your beautiful wildflower photos truly brighten my day!
Thanks for your continued prayers for Grandpa as well as your love and support..
xoxo
I am sitting here at my computer looking longingly at your beautiful photos and wondering if I will ever see green again. Hasn't it been a long winter? We had our first snow in early December and it seems as though it has snowed every other day since. I will so cherish every summer day when it finally gets here and I promise not to fuss about any hot days.
No wonder you carry that camera with you, Kerri - this was great. You notice everything and share it with us!
Chicory used to grow along the roadsides in Illinois before mowing and spraying and the color was so beautiful. We used to call toadflax 'Butter and Eggs'... they do look like little yolks in your photo.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
its good to remeber what we're waiting for a s we sit in the cold. . .
hope your snowstorm passed without too much hassel, its not unknown for it snow right up till may here but it doesn't ever lie really.
Kerri, seeing this wildflower display is just what I needed today!
We had lots of snow during the night, and now have freezing rain. Guess I just have to think all this moisture will grow more wildflowers in the spring!
Nature is just so beautiful on her own isn't it? I love wildflowers and in my younger days spent many hours moving natures beauties closer to my home but leaving them to grow in their own natural environment. I was always careful to plant it in the same place (sun or shade) that it thrived in. I had my best luck with wildflowers because they always thrived.
Your pictures are lovely Kerri as always.
LOVE those wildflowers! How nice that you shared with us all these beautiful pictures!
You have the knack of making even the most common weed look like the loveliest of flowers.
Kerry, what you call Poison Hemlock might actually be Wild Parsnip. They look similar but the flowers are different colors. I think the parsnip is yellow and the hemlock is white. Also what you call harebells I know as creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides)
And your containers look fantastic!
Once you found me I had to return the visit after you mentioned your wilflower cravings. Surprising how much you can find if only you take a break long enough to notice our surroundings. Of course we have the advantage of living rural.
Only difference I saw in common names was:
Poke Cherry. Around here everyone refers to it as Pokeweed.
The Meadowsweet I believe is Wild Cucumber - Echinocystis lobata. Does it grow a green prickly pod that turns brown when dry?
My field guide lists meadowsweet as Spiraea latifolia (rose family)
Thanks for visiting. You know I'll be back
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