Aug. 28, 2022 - Wildflower Garden

Here are some more flowers from the wildflower garden at our lake home in northern Minnesota. This is Daisy Fleabane. The flowers do resemble Daisies, but they have many more petals. These blossoms can have from 40 to 100 petals. Daisy Fleabane flowers are also small, just ½ inch across.

FleabaneDaisyWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20220730

Tall Cinquefoil has five heart-shaped yellow petals that are ½ to ¾ inches across. They grow a cluster of flowers with only a few open at a time. This photo shows several green buds that have not yet opened.

CinquefoilTallWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20220702

Heal-all produces purple flowers growing out of a club-like cluster. Each small flower looks like it should be an orchid. I’ve read several references that say this flower is edible.

HealallWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20220717

This is Mountain Mint. Despite its name, it doesn’t grow high in the mountains but rather in moist fields and forest edges. These plants produce flowers for three months, beginning in June.

MintMountainWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20220730

Several years ago, we found a Tawny Day Lily growing beside a forest road near our home. We brought it into our yard, and it has been coming up every year since then. This year I finally saw a second plant coming up, so it is apparently spreading ever so slowly. This plant has one open flower and seven more buds. True to its name, only one flower opens per day, and that flower only lasts for one day.

DayLilyTawnyWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20220717

This is Purple Prairie Clover. Its flower head reminds me of a thimble. The tiny flowers open a few at a time, starting at the bottom and working upwards. This plant produces a deep tap root. That makes it very tolerant of drought conditions.

PrairieCloverPurpleWildflowerGardenDunningLakeItascaCounty20220730