Another Daily Flower Report

I think of DYCs as a late summer thing, but some bloom early!  This, I believe, is an ox-eye sunflower.  Perhaps more interesting, in this case, is the plant's scientific name -- it's a Heliopsis species.  "Helio" is Greek for sun... opsis is Greek for "appearance" -- so it looks like the sun.  Its specific name is helianthoides, which means "like Helianthus" (that being the genus of sunflowers).  So it looks like the sun, and like a sunflower!  Heliopsis species are sometimes called false sunflowers. 

Also just starting to bloom are Asclepias species, here a butterflweed. Though a member of the milkweed genus, these plants don't have the milky sap associated with most milkweeds.  They are, however, still larval hosts to monarch butterflies! 

We're Back

We're safely back from the UK with loads of pictures... so many that the task of choosing them and blogging them seems terribly daunting. I will get around to it soon, though!

Here, coreopsis and spiderwort are still blooming, and a few foxglove beardtongues, but the primroses seemed to have finished while we were gone. Bergamot is at "almost" and butterfly week and queen of the prairie are just about to get started, too... Puple coneflowers are also flowering.

I'm Back...

Butterfly weed sketch and queen of the prairie starting to bloom.

Playing Catch-Up

Last Friday -- yes, a full week ago, we went to the beach... and now, I am finally catching up on writing a little about it. Here are some of the flowers that grow there that we don't see too many other places... Flowering spurge, a diminutive flower atop a green leafy plant... you'd miss it if you weren't looking.

Prickly pear would be hard to miss.

Hoary puccoon.

And, at school, a very early rudbeckia shows its colors...

And butterfly weed is starting to bloom.

Happy 4th!

Independence Day was mostly cloudy, temperature pleasant, and the sky teased of needed rain or most of the morning. It spitted a few times in the morning, but I stayed outside with a book through it all, so no real water. Finally, this afternoon, a steady, pitter-patter of rain fell, refreshing. It felt good to stand out in it. But I don't actually think it gave us a substantial amount of water. Finally, it got sunny in the early evening -- good luck, I guess, for all the fireworks watchers out there.

Flowers on a linden tree, nearly spent.

Big red-orange lilies blooming in my yard.

The first butterflyweed bloomed in my yard this morning (although most is a few days behind, and at school it is in full bloom. And I cannot figure out the pattern, really, because this flower is in a shadier spot than the other stand in my yard...)
Seedheads beginning to form on the northern sea oats.

Cedar Waxwings

Today is a Cedar Waxwing Day.  Every so often they come through in large flocks, and then I won't see another one for months.  Technically, they are year-round residents of this area, but it sure seems like they're migrating!  

At any rate, they didn't choose the prettiest day to be here.  As this photo shows, they are all facing the same direction -- which is west, into the extreme winds we are experiencing at the beginning of what they say will be a crazy storm.   (Note the ash leaves are all blowing to the side, and it was quite dark for the middle of the afternoon!  Not good for showing their black masks, etc.  But I promise, those are waxwings in the picture!)  It was so windy that I saw one fly backwards, I don't think on purpose, and several hovering in one spot before finally landing on the tree again.

Anyone know this little blue flower?  I found it at school, and am not entirely uncertain of its identity.  But my guess is Lewis' prairie flax.  I bought seeds of this prairie (but west of here) native at Monticello 2 years ago as part of a seed collection of plants that were discovered on or named by or were otherwise related to the Lewis and Clark expedition.  (The collection also included Clarkia, monkey flower, w. Jacob's ladder, osage orange, blanketflower and others -- plus a booklet about them!)  I thought the flax was quite lovely and planted it in my garden, despite it being not technically native to Illinois, where it now grows in 3 clumps.  Chris also planted some of the seeds at school, and this may be one of them.  Mine aren't close to blooming yet, but this one is in a sunnier spot.  When mine opens, I will be able to confirm the identity (or disconfirm it).  I could also study the leaves of the plant at school... but that sounds like work. 

Speaking of Monticello... Thomas Jefferson took some pretty meticulous and informative phenology notes... so I guess I'm in good company.  (I suppose I am presuming that my phenology notes are informative and/or meticulous.)

Another observation!!!  Butterflyweed emerged today, just peeking up, less than 1/2 inch tall.  (Yea!  I was worried... And now, for next year, I'll know not to worry until after May 15 or so!)