Late Summer Meadows

The wildflowers continue to share their beauty, even as Summer's end is drawing near.

Cool nights and mist-filled mornings have finally prevailed.

And so as we transition into the gentler days of Autumn I share with you the last few flowers of our summer meadows.........

 

 

 

 

Joe Pye Weed, Eupatorium purpureum, is an amazing plant that is an herb, a wildflower, a butterfly plant and an ornamental for the flower bed.

It obtained its name after a Native American herbalist, named Joe-Pye, cured fevers using the Eupatorium plant.
Though we tend to think of it as a wildflower in the U.S., it's long been an ornamental plant in England where our cottage gardens are so popular.

I enjoy gathering the flowers, stems and all, to hang from the rafters of my potting shed. Surprisingly enough they stay vividly colored until late Winter.

 

 

 

 

The Wild Yarrow, Achillea Millefolium, also known as Milfoil, Soldiers woundwort, Nose Bleed Weed, Sanguinary, and Devil’s Nettle is a very useful medicinal herb.

Yarrow has also been used as a food, and was very popular as a vegetable in the seventeenth century.
The younger leaves are said to be a pleasant leaf vegetable when cooked as spinach, or in a soup.

Yarrow is sweet with a slight bitter taste. The leaves can also be dried and used as a herb in cooking.

 

  

 

 

Solidago, commonly called goldenrods, are herbaceous perennial species found in the meadows and pastures, along roads, ditches and waste areas in North America.

Parts of some goldenrods can be edible when cooked, they can also be used for decoration and making tea.

Goldenrods are, in some places, held as a sign of good luck or good fortune.

They are considered weeds by many in North America but they are prized as garden plants in Europe.

Late Summer Meadows

The wildflowers continue to share their beauty, despite lack of rain, and hotter than normal days.
It's been a HOT summer, period.
And so, as we transition into the gentler days of autumn I share with you the last few flowers of summer........

Joe Pye Weed, Eupatorium purpureum, is an amazing plant that is an herb, a wildflower, a butterfly plant and an ornamental for the flower bed.
It obtained its name after a Native American herbalist, named Joe-Pye, cured fevers using the Eupatorium plant.

Though we tend to think of it as a wildflower in the U.S., it's long been an ornamental plant in England where our cottage gardens are so popular.

I enjoy gathering the flowers, stems and all, to hang from the rafters of my potting shed. Surprisingly enough they stay vividly colored until late Winter.

The Wild Yarrow, Achillea Millefolium, also known as Milfoil, Soldiers woundwort, Nose Bleed Weed, Sanguinary, and Devil’s Nettle is a very useful medicinal herb.
Yarrow has also been used as a food, and was very popular as a vegetable in the seventeenth century.

The younger leaves are said to be a pleasant leaf vegetable when cooked as spinach, or in a soup.

Yarrow is sweet with a slight bitter taste. The leaves can also be dried and used as a herb in cooking.

Solidago, commonly called goldenrods, are herbaceous perennial species found in the meadows and pastures, along roads, ditches and waste areas in North America.

Parts of some goldenrods can be edible when cooked, they can also be used for decoration and making tea.
Goldenrods are, in some places, held as a sign of good luck or good fortune.

They are considered weeds by many in North America but they are prized as garden plants in Europe.

Queen Anne's Lace, also called " Wild Carrot" is a common plant in dry fields, ditches and open area. It was first introduced from Europe, and the carrots that we eat today were once cultivated from this plant.

The plant blooms from May to October, and is a biennial plant, which means it lives for two years.

It will spend the first year growing bigger, and then bloom the second year.

Autumn Joy

Purple Aster, the last of the perennial wildflowers in bloom.

Gracing the countryside with their heavenly colors, a treat for birds and bees alike.

A true Autumn Joy!

"I will be the gladdest thing under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

And not pick one."

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

Searching For Shade

"Heat, ma'am! it was so dreadful here,
that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones."

~ Sydney Smith, Lady Holland's Memoir

Cooling off with a walk through the woods.

Shady canopies.

"Whilst August yet wears her golden crown,

Ripening fields lush- bright with promise;

Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing

Her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn."

~ Michelle L. Thieme, August's Crown

Gentle and airy Queen Anne's Lace.

Wild Blackberry Vines.

State wildflower, the Passion Flower.

Sunny squash blossom.

Royal Lace

Around the garden, the wildflowers are in bloom..
Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota)
This wild version of the carrot is one of the most common and best known "weeds" we have. It is hard to imagine what a fallow field would look in summer without the white flower heads bobbing in the breeze. The Bird's nest name comes from the dried flower heads that curl up to resemble small bird nests.

It is thought that the carrots escaped from the gardens of the early European settlers in North America having thrived in the wild to become what we know as Queen Anne's Lace.

Indeed the roots can be eaten just like a small pale carrot if harvested while still young and tender. Pull up a plant anywhere and smell the root. You will find it smells just like a carrot.

It is so called because the flower resembles lace; the red flower in the center represents a blood droplet where Queen Anne pricked herself with a needle when she was making the lace. The function of the tiny red flower, coloured by anthocyanin, is to attract insects.

The plant is commonly referred to, as Cow Parsley ( Anthriscus sylvestris ) in Great Britain.