Since my earlier article about wildflowers, I have new ones blooming. I'm bored with taxonomic order. In the last article with this subject, I listed my entries by color. This time, I'll describe my yard and the location of the flowers that are blooming now.
Turn left at my mailbox. You will know it's my property because of a sign an artist friend of mine painted for me. It says ''Ann's Sanctuary.''
Right now, there is mostly Queen Anne's Lace or Wild Carrot in that area. Even though I have always enjoyed this lacy flower, it is very invasive and an alien. I need to remove as much of it as possible. When the lacy flowers turn to little closed flowers, it gets its other name, Bird's Nest. Yes, you can eat the root, and yes, it does taste like carrots.
Article Photos
The Obedient plant is a native flower.
Photo by Ann Beebe
Just a little further on your right is my vegetable garden. I think that I'll do another article sometime about vegetable gardening.
A path begins at the gate to the garden. It surrounds a section of the yard that gets a lot of sun. I should have told you about the Great Lobelia in that area in my last article. I couldn't see it from the driveway because of the goldenrod, which is also native. I pulled all the goldenrod out, because it is so invasive. I'll enjoy it along the roads. The ones growing in this area of my yard were growing up to five feet tall. The lobelia only grows to about three feet tall. This pretty, blue-flowered plant looks similar to the Cardinal Flower. They are cousins, after all. Although the lobelia is poisonous, Native Americans smoked the leaves to help overcome asthma, tonsillitis and bronchial problems. Here's a change. We have many alien plants that originated in Europe. The lobelia has been sent to Europe, because it was thought that the roots might combat syphilis. Unfortunately, people had bad reactions to it, so that idea didn't work. I just thought that it was neat that plants from the New World were sent to the Old World for a change.
Scattered throughout this sunny section of my yard is New York Aster. It has a pretty violet flower with leaves that clasp the stem a little bit. There is one that is tough for me to identify. It might be the Small-flowered White Aster. Its little white flowers are so pretty mixed in with the violet-flowered New York Aster. Both of these plants are about three feet tall. Perfect.
I have another flower which I can't identify. It has many white rays with a green disk. The narrow untoothed leaves are alternate on the stem and two inches long or less. I think that it is an aster. I'll keep hunting for it in the field guides.
Let's tour the sunny meadow on the other side of the driveway that is in front of my house. I have a nice patch of False Dragonhead or Obedient Plant. One might think that this plant is in the same family as the turtlehead. It's not. This member of the mint family, with a square stem has two lips in the flower. The upper one is stiff. The lower one is smaller with three parts. The middle part is the biggest.
Also in the area, is a Tall Meadow-rue in seed. At this time of year, its round leaves are topped with clusters of seeds. Oops. I just walked out to look at the seeds. There aren't any. I bet the birds ate them. Yeh! That's what my yard is all about - feeding wildlife.