Wildflower Wednesday

Today I am joining Gail at clay and limestone for Wildflower Wednesday.

The white asters look a bit weedy during the growing season but I appreciate them when they bloom in September and October. The bees do too.

I can't be certain but I think this aster is calico aster, judging from the size and purplish hue of the old flowers. This aster blooms from the outside in. The newest flowers were further down on the stem than the older ones so the asters would be abuzz with bees that were hard to see! The finished effect of the flower was lavender/ purple because of the purple color of the center bleeding into the petals.

Like the fall color willowleaf aster 'Miss Bessie' started early this year, before Halloween.

'Miss Bessie' grows in several places, inside the garden and out: the little field up top, next to the driveway, south of the big bed, the northern part of the big bed, in the ditch next to one of the pastures, and next to the hay shelter. There's room for plenty more though, and I plan to divide rosettes and spread them around this winter. Not only are they beautiful but they and groundsel trees are the main sources of food for insects in November.

'Miss Bessie' and prairie rose (Rosa setigera)

With American beautyberry

View from front porch Nov. 5, 2014

By hay shelter

This aster is so popular with the bees, wasps, flies, and butterflies.

Honeybees

Bumble on 'Miss Bessie'

Honeybee and hoverfly

At times there were literally clouds of these bees hovering over the flowers.

Carpenter bee

Happy Wildflower Wednesday and Happy Thanksgiving!

A walk down to the creek and through the woods

In my last post I wrote about a path in the woods near the property line. On that day (November 7th) the red maples were still green. Four days I decided to see how much they had changed.

Slough near the trail

Sorrel tree (Oxydendrum arboreum), also known as sourwood

Beech

I decided to walk the loop to the creek. The first part of the trail runs next to a slough that eventually meets the creek. There are willows, red maples, and water tupelos in the slough. The tupelos still had about half of their bright leaves, some scarlet and some orange.

The red maples and musclewoods along the trail were beautiful.

This musclewood couldn't have been any more brilliant.

The sweetgums in the floodway fields were as usual like
the Joseph's Coat of trees: yellow, orange red, and purple.

Double trunk white oak at the edge of the field.

The musclewoods around the electric tape paddock were brilliant too.

This tree in particular had caught my eye when I turned the horses out, and was
the chief reason I'd thought to get my camera in the first place. What a dazzler.