Just a splash of color for your mid-week blues:IMG_3383

Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

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Purple (Pink) Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea).  Check out those reflexed petals.  That’s usually an indication of a more wild-type variety, whereas cultivars tend to be bred for large, overlapping, non-reflexed petals.

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Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica) with it’s bi-color blooms.  These DO NOT like overwintering in pots.

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Purple Meadow Parsnip (Thaspium trifolatum).  I guess the tuber is purple, but I haven’t pulled one out and looked at it.  This flower structure is known as a ‘compound umbrel’ (Same Latin root as “umbrella”).  This is a possible host plant for Black Swallowtail butterflies.  Everything I read says “members of the carrot family, such as dill, carrots and queen anne’s lace” are good host plants for Black Swallowtails, but those plants all came from overseas! The butterflies were here long before those plants, so why not put this plant in your butterfly garden?  Along with……IMG_3401b

 Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccafolium)!

They are both interesting and native members of the Carrot family (Apiaceae).
This one isn’t quite blooming; those green globes atop the stalk will turn white and expand into a spiky flower that is truly unique.

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 We also have a number of Yucca (Yucca filamentosa) blooming as well.  I’ve seen so many of these blooming on the side of the road this year.  They don’t bloom every year, but this wet spring seems to have encouraged many of them to do so this year.

Orange, Pink, Red, Yellow, and White with liberal amounts of Green for good measure. Take some time to stop and smell the flowers this week!

 

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