Piedmont Gardener

A firefly rests on a volunteer Morning Glory.

You’re in luck, loyal blog readers. Wonder Spouse found himself with some time this weekend, and he spent much of it post-processing the backlog of yard and garden photos that he had accumulated. All of the shots in this entry were taken in one morning in early September, as summer plants were fading, and autumn fruits and flowers were starting to appear. Remember that you can click on any photo to see a larger version.

Late summer through early fall is the peak bloom period for one of my favorite moisture-loving wildflowers: Jewelweed. Here’s a clump blooming on our floodplain:

The deer eat it, but sheer numbers ensure its reappearance each growing season.

You really need a close view to appreciate the delicate beauty of the flowers:

So gorgeous!

Late summer is always adorned with lobelias in my yard. Some are planted deliberately, but many randomly pop up without any input from me. I do take the ripe seed pods each fall and walk about the yard sprinkling tiny cinnamon-colored seeds as I go.

The deep scarlet of a Cardinal Flower contrasts with the gray tree trunk behind it.

Equally breath-taking are the Great Blue Lobelias — same genus as the Cardinals, but a different species.

What’s not to love about these deep blue towering beauties?

Seed production was getting serious in early September when Wonder Spouse took these photos. Check out his gorgeous close-up of a Bigleaf Magnolia Seed Cone:

Magnolia macrophylla seed cone

The Jack-in-the-Pulpits in the wetland still held on to their ragged-looking leaves, but they were being pulled down by the weight of their bright red fruits.

Bright red Jack-in-the-Pulpit fruits are easy to spot among the dominant greens and browns in the wetland.

One Joe Pye Weed cluster was still blooming just a bit:

Joe Pye Weeds finishing their bloom cycle.

While a large one in the front yard was all feathery seed head:

Joe Pye Weed seed head

The seeds of these River Oats made a nice resting spot for this little butterfly.

The butterfly is some kind of skipper, I think. I’m not good at identifying them.

I don’t think I’ve ever written about my Garlic Chives. This easy-to-grow herb sends up lovely flowers every late summer. The leaves have a more assertive onion flavor than Chives.

Ornamental and tasty Garlic Chives

Pollinators always swarm the Garlic Chive flowers when they open.

Fireflies seem especially fond of the flowers of Garlic Chives.

As is always the case, we encountered a few animal residents as we wandered our five acres that morning.

The Eastern Cottontail clan had a productive year, thanks to our abundant rainfall.

Web worms create unsightly webs in the trees, but never seem to negatively impact their hosts.

Cicadas thrummed their summer chants as usual. We spotted this shed skin during our wanderings.

An American Toad didn’t appreciate our accidental intrusion into his territory.

And, finally, to close this impressive display of Wonder Spouse’s photographic skills, one of our many dragonflies. This large one was briefly resting on our TV cable line high above us, making for a positively artistic shot.

Most of the dragonflies left about the same time that Summer officially departed.