My backyard bouquet of wildflowers.
I decided to go one-for-two: my backyard bouquet for this week is also my Wildflower Wednesday post. Instead of picking plants from my garden, I decided to limit myself to those plants growing wild. Actually, I limited myself to the tall wildflowers. I didn’t pick any lobelia or turtlehead or jewelweed.
Two kinds of Joe Pye weed, two kinds of ex-aster, one or two kinds of goldenrod, and a tall spike with prickles.
The rosy flower clusters belong to spotted Joe Pye weed (
Eutrochium maculatum), which I’ve known for a long time as
Eupatorium, but I guess it isn’t anymore. The similarly shaped white clusters are boneset (
Eupatorium perfoliatum), which I guess is still
Eupatorium. These two flowers fill the swampy area that is a pond in spring.
Joe Pye weed and boneset grow in a wet area near my house
I think the creamy white asters are flat-topped aster (
Doellingeria umbellata formerly
Aster umbellatus). But I don’t know what the blue/purple asters are. The leaves don’t clasp the stem as New England asters do. They were also growing in the wet area but there weren’t very many of them. And I guess I’m not even going to try to identify the goldenrod. That leaves us with the spiky things in the back of the arrangement. I’m pretty sure they’re pigweed (
Amaranthus retroflexus), though I usually don’t see them get so tall.
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Posted for Wildflower Wednesday, created by Gail of Clay and Limestone, to share wildflowers/native plants no matter where you garden in the blogasphere. “It doesn’t matter if we sometimes show the same plants. How they grow and thrive in your garden is what matters most. It’s always the fourth Wednesday of the month!”
I’m a member of the Garden Appreciation Society: The idea is to appreciate our own gardens more this year. To have a daily reminder of the bounty that our gardens provide. To catch a glint of beautiful color out of the corner of our eye while standing in the kitchen, or the bedroom or the living room. Every week, go out in the garden and cut a few flowers or interesting foliage and bring it in your house to display. Take a photo of it and link it at The Impatient Gardener.
Tagged as:
asters,
backyard bouquets,
boneset,
goldenrod,
joe-pye weed
About the Author
Kathy Purdy is a colchicum evangelist, converting unsuspecting gardeners into colchicophiles. She gardens in rural upstate NY, which used to be USDA Hardiness Zone 4 but is now Zone 5. Kathy’s been writing since 4th grade, gardening since high school, and blogging since 2002. Find her on Instagram as kopurdy.
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
~Albert Camus
in
Albert Camus quotations
Excellent choices for your bouquet. I am amazed at the wide shot of wildflowers–just beautiful!
Such a stunning bouquet, beautiful!
Look at all that Joe-Pye growing wild! I’m so envious, Kathy–I’ve had to buy seedlings to get more than one to grow here. Your bouquet is beautiful; I’m not much of a flower arranger and would never have thought to use these flowers, not to mention arrange them in such an artful way. I had to pin this to my Pinterest board so I wouldn’t forget it; I hope you don’t mind.
I am fine with images from the blog being pinned, as long as they link back to the blog. I don’t think of myself as a flower arranger, either, but I was inspired by Debra Prinzing’s Slow Flowers
, as I mentioned in my book review.
Now that is a beautiful bouquet! I hadn’t heard of the Impatient Gardener’s project! I love the idea–but it would be challenging (but not impossible) for me during the winter months. Happy Wildflower Wednesday!
The bouquet is beautifully composed. And they look jut as pretty in the garden photos, too!
Lovely use of wildflowers. I bought a container of wildflower seeds from Lowe’s this year but none came up. Guess I’l try again next year.
Your wildflower bouquets are gorgeous…it is the inspiration to grow more “wild flowers” next year in and around the garden.
Beautiful!
A beautiful bouquet and a wonderfully creative Wildflower Wednesday post. xogail
Lovely wildflower bouquet!
Have a wonderful day!
Lea
Lea’s Menagerie
Beautiful! You have an eye for boquets. I love Joe Pye and good thing, too, since it is spreading itself around all over my garden. Need some of that boneset, though. Notice I didn’t mention Pigweed. I love to grow wildflowers obviously. What a beautiful nearby spot! Any butterflies? I like the Garden Appreciation philosophy since lately, all I see is everything wrong with my garden. I usually don’t cut flowers – hate to see them die – only if they blow over in a storm, but maybe I should and appreciate them more!
If I find pigweed in my garden, I pull it. I actually had to look it up, because I rarely let it get to blooming size. We have not seen many butterflies compared to last year. I don’t know why. As for cut flowers, most of them seem to last in a vase about a week, which is about as long as they’d last outside. With annuals in particular, it will stimulate the plant to bloom more. And sometimes, as with peonies, if I cut them right before a heavy rainstorm they may actually last longer in the house. Flowers in the house are good for your mental health and don’t add pounds like chocolate does. You don’t mind cutting vegetables for your health, so why not cut flowers for your health?
I din’t realize how pretty Joe Pye Weed could be in an arrangement – so very lovely.
Just lovely! Creating a late summer wildflower bouquet has just been added to my To Do list for today. Thank you for the inspiration.
Loveliness, inside AND outside!
The bouquet is lovely, Kathy, but the wildflowers growing in situ blew my slippers off!
You’re welcome to come up and see them in person, Frances.