Wildflowers

Its been an unusual weather year with too much rain in the spring and now early cool temperatures in September. Many of the wildflowers I usually see throughout the spring and summer made no appearance this year, so I was glad to see the golden rod, the wild white aster and the Jerusalem artichoke this month.  In fact, the stands of these flowers seem more lush than usual. The one fall wildflower I've not seen  yet is the purple aster, but it often blooms later in September, so I hold out hope for it.

I keep a copy of Robert Henn's "Wildflowers of Ohio" book on hand and like to see how many wildflowers I can find. It's a great book with color pictures.  However, not everything is included in the book so I am on the hunt for additional sources. For example, this year I found a sweet smelling blooming vine in among the asparagus. It had little white flowers with a light sweet scent.  I consulted Henn's book and thought it might be Virgin's Bower, but now with it setting a large seed pod that looks a lot like a milk weed pod, I am not sure.  If any of you have any please let me know.

Many of the fall wildflowers are classified as weeds, though some of them are really quite pretty. Golden Rod is one of those. It also gets a bad rap because a lot of people find its irratates their hay fever. Some sources say Golden Rod isn't the culprit, its rag weed.  I remember bringing a big bouquet of Golden Rod into the house once and my sister immediately started sneezing, so I'm pretty sure its a hay fever plant, though maybe not so bad if its kept outside. According to Henn, Ohio is home to several different species of Golden Rod and if you check out the fall perennial plant catalogs you will find Golden Rod listed as a garden plant.

All of our garden plants were wild plants originally. Somewhere along the way they caught the attention of plant enthusiasts who selectively bred them for various reasons. The herbs, vegetables and flowers we purchase and spend hours nurturing in our gardens all are the progeny of ancient wild things.