If you live near a park or natural area, there’s still time to see some wildflowers in bloom before the growing season ends.
Right now the pretty purple asters are putting on a show:
I used the Seek app by iNaturalist to help me ID this aster:
It’s called a Calico aster. Look how tiny the flowers are!
This native perennial can be grown in a backyard for pollinators, but I learned that it self-seeds and has an extensive root system. Two characteristics that give me pause! Those tiny flowers sure are cute, though.
I only saw a couple of goldenrod plants still in bloom at this park, but there are still plenty of sunflowers:
And White Snakeroot is popping up all over our city (and my yard) now that growing native plants is all the rage. The plant can be poisonous to animals and humans, but it’s also loved by bees, butterflies and moths. It spreads by seed in the wind.
I let a couple of the volunteer plants bloom for several weeks, but then I pulled them out.
The long-range forecast shows a possible hard frost by the beginning of October for my area which would put an end to our growing season.
Just in case, I’m trying to enjoy all of the last flowers of summer as much as possible!