Wildflower Wednesday

I'd missed the last couple of always-excellent-Wildflower Wednesdays hosted by Gail at http://www.clayandlimestone.com so this post will be a petit-buffet of offerings of wildflowers, weedy wonders and home-grown terrors.  

I took a walk in my favourite meadow to see just how the weather had changed things this year.

So last year:  Same time - more colour, brighter colour, more in bloom at the same time.

Again from last year - notice how the trees had begun to change:

This year - same spot.  I find it interesting to see how the asters and solidago have done less colour blocking, and more - everyone for himself during this very dry hot summer:

In my own garden, it has been a brilliant year for the Eupatorium coelestinum - a shade-loving native that really is blue; blossoms in fall and takes heat and dry.  My only knock would be, it's not for small gardens, in the wrong spot, it might become a home-grown terror, spreading everywhere.

I've let this solidago take root next to the Eupatorium just so I could do the Provence colour thing.

One of the last Echinacea in bloom.  You can see the cuts I've made taking off the sunflower larva infected blossoms.

At this time last year, there was an enormous run of monarchs, sadly just a few this year.  Hopefully it means they've followed the blossoms south earlier, and there isn't a problem with their numbers.

I remember the great shots I got of the monarchs on the purple asters - definitely a lot less purple in the meadow this year.

But when one plant disappears, another seems to take its place,  look at this beauty having its blond moment - isn't it gorgeous.  Using the key from the Ontario Wildflower site, I'm declaring this to be a:

Heath Aster
(Symphyotrichum ericoides)*
(formerly Aster ericoides)

*yet another plant in the witness protection program.

Like a fool, wore sandals - all I could think of was Ellen talking about that upcoming show that's all about people being impaled - a whole show about being impaled, madness.  Fortunately I managed to avoid my chance with fame and thistles in order to...

get my shot of my favourite rose hips (and a finger it would seem):

And then it was back to the car with one long flattened shot to show the prevailing colour of the moment - the gold of the solidago - a touchstone of fall.