calling all gardeners

Do you know this plant? I happened on this preposterous plant for the first time ever just this week. Someone had planted several along their boulevard. There was a grouping of about a dozen plants, all about 8 feet tall and now mostly stripped bare of their cold intolerant non-native leaves, so that just these magenta colored flowers were bobbing and weaving in the September sun at the ends of their absurdly thin stems and branches. I was so mesmerized by the site, that I made Steve go see the spectacle a day later. And then, because the Twin Cities is really just a big small town, it turn out that the owner of the flower patch was getting her mail, and she was…a tax client of Steve’s. And permission was granted to take a couple stems. I know many of you are gardeners. I’m curious, are you familiar with kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate? I think it might win for best colloquial name ever.

kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate (Persicaria orientalis)

common backyard mushroom

This is a fairly common backyard fungus, both in North America and Europe, found growing among short green grass after a rain. It’s called Dunce Cap, but that feels a little antiquated to me: Tilted Lampshade feels more modern to me.

white dunce cap mushroom (Conocybe apala)

amor y amargo

Amor y Amargo is a bar in the east village that has a deep history in our family. It is an amaro bar introduced to us by our friend Erik Eastman, and it has long been our favorite bar in New York City. As part of my son and husband’s ongoing and very idiosyncratic search for native plants that can also be used for food and beverages, they planted this bottle gentian last spring. Gentian root is the bittering agent for many if not most amari, and lo and behold we have one that is native to Minnesota. In related news, Amor y Amargo means “love and bitterness” in Spanish, and as of this afternoon, there is a mostly friendly war in our household between my newfound love of these spectacular fall wildflowers, and my boys’ desire to dig them up for their bitter roots. I don’t think i’m going to win this one.

closed bottle gentian (Gentiana andrewsii)

an unusual fall color

My daughter has been in town for six days for a family wedding. She leaves today–back to California. I will miss her dearly. We are great art partners. Both of us messy, experimental, carefree, and most importantly…finishers! In other words, we get a lot done. As a result of her visit and all the family events the past two weeks, I haven’t been getting into the woods as often as I like. But I did find this today. It’s red elderberry leaves which is a ubiquitous shrub around here. But the color on this particular plant is not ubiquitous at all. It shone in the dark woods like a flood light.

red elderberry leaves (Sambucus racemosa)

zippered

Happy Autumnal Equinox everyone! I do love me an equinox: 12 hours of sunshine, 12 hours of daylight. Warm days. Cool nights. It all feels so properly balanced, as if all is right with the world for one fine autumn day.

Have you heard about the Super El Niño yet? I am guessing you all have. I don’t own a tv, so I am always late to these things. Our daughter Eva lives in California. She told me today that the whole state of CA has been put on a “state of emergency” for this winter, due to the expected storms resulting from the record breaking Super El Niño. For Minnesota the prediction is a milder winter than normal, with several mid-winter thaws. While on the one hand it sounds like a welcome reprieve for us northerners, in reality it will wreak havoc with our flora, which relies on winters that remain frozen until March. Tell me, what are they predicting in your part of the worl? A Super El Niño is a global event.

wild blue flag iris seedpods (Iris versicolor)

p.s. These are the seeds Steve and I have been spreading along the edge of our dock. And this year it paid off: a big patch of wild blue flag iris with blooms that lasted throughout June!