Nov.15, 2020 - Wildflower Garden - 1

I’ve mentioned before that we have a wildflower garden at our home in northern Minnesota. Here are some flowers that grew in the garden this past summer.

Wild Bergamot, also known as Beebalm, was the dominant plant in our wildflower garden this year. During the middle of the summer, the whole garden had a light blue tinge to it from all the Bergamot flowers. It’s a native plant and is widely distributed across the lower 48 states and Canada. It’s a member of the mint family and I’ve read that the leaves are used to make mint tea. However, we didn’t try to do that. It is very attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies.

BergamotWildWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty2020716

This is Tall Cinquefoil, another native plant and also found in many of the lower 48 states.

CinquefoilTallWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20200628

Ox-eye Daisy is not something we planted, but it is so common in Minnesota that it was bound to show up on its own. It’s a pretty flower, but it’s also considered an invasive species. Our garden is so densely packed with native species that a few Daisies will not be a problem.

DaisyeyeDunningLakeItascaCounty20200704

We are happy to see the number of Long-headed Coneflowers increasing each year. It’s a hardy native plant, and we expect to see even more of them in the future. On the left is a flower just beginning to open. The flower on the right shows a mature central cone which consists of 200 to 400 florets. At the bottom of the cone are some of these florets which have opened.

ConeflowerLongheadedWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty2020724

Daisy Fleabane is another plant that just showed up on its own. It’s a native plant and is found in 43 of the 48 lower states. Bees are especially attracted to this flower.

FleabaneDaisyDunningLakeItascaCounty20200613

Heal-all has many orchid-like flowers that grow out of a central stem. They open at different times, so it is almost impossible to get a photo with more than a few of them showing.

HealallWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20200629