Sept. 8, 2019 - Summer Wildflowers

Asters are blooming; a sign that summer is ending here in northern Minnesota. So, here’s a collection of summer wildflowers that I have photographed this year.

AsterPurpleDunningLakeItascaCounty20190907

One of the early blooming plants in our wildflower garden is Downy Phlox. It provides a bright pink/purple splash of color before most of the other plants have flowers.

PhloxDownywildflowergardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20190703

We have a few Indian Paintbrush plants in our wildflower garden. They are deceptive because the red leaves appear to be flower petals. However, the actual flowers are very small, tubular, and yellow/green in color. One of those flowers can be seen poking out between two red leaves in the middle of this photo.

PaintbrushIndianWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20190628

This is a Long-headed Coneflower, also known as a Prairie Coneflower. We were happy to see many more of these in our wildflower garden this year. The cone has hundreds of tiny brown flowers that open from the bottom up. Notice that some at the top are not open yet.

ConeflowerLongheadedDunningLakeItascaCounty20190814

Swamp Milkweed seems to be the favorite plant for Monarch Caterpillars at our home. As mentioned in a previous post, we have groups of these plants around our lake. This photo was taken near our dock.

MilkweedSwampDunningLakeItascaCounty20190724

Three varieties of Blazing Star were included in the original seed mix for our wildflower garden. Finally, after five years, this one bloomed. Its Latin name is Liatris pycnostachya and I’ve seen it referred to as either Meadow Blazing Star or Prairie Blazing Star. We were told that some wildflowers take a while to establish themselves and that appears to be true. Perhaps the other two varieties of Blazing Star will eventually bloom as well.

BlazingStarMeadowPrairieLiatrispycnostachyaWilflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20190822

This showy flower is from a Wild Onion plant in our wildflower garden. It wasn’t included in the original seed mix so it’s apparently one of those plants that was already here.

LeekWildAlliumtricoccumWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20190822

Diana recognized this Closed Gentian flower from seeing it in her wildflower books. However, neither of us had ever seen it before in the wild. She noticed it growing near a small pond along our driveway. She tells me that, true to its name, the flowers stay closed like this. Only large insects, such as bumblebees, are strong enough to force the blossom open to pollinate it.

GentianClosedGentianasaponariaDunningLakeItascaCounty20190901