Late September Flowers
September 30, 2020 by New Hampshire Garden Solutions
We’ve had three nights in the 20s F. so I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to do flower posts, but for now the hardiest fall flowers, like these I drive by each morning, are still blooming. Goldenrods and several different asters make up this scene. This is when our roadsides turn into impressionist paintings. Those that haven’t been mowed do anyway.
What I call the park aster survived the cold nights and is just coming into bloom.
After bragging a few posts ago how the pink turtlehead (Chelone lyonii) in my yard never got attacked by disease this year it has mildewed and has very few flowers on it. Powdery mildew likes high heat, high humidity and poor air circulation, so with two out of the three available for months this year I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. But I am surprised, because in all the years I’ve had this plant it has never asked for a thing and has thrived on neglect.
In the woods under the trees, white wood asters (Aster divaricatus) are still blooming.
Now here is a plant that I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never seen, or maybe I’ve just never paid attention to it. Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) is also called wormwood and it isn’t much to look at, but oh what a ride researching it has taken me on. It’s an herb that has been used by man for thousands of years; the earliest writings regarding it found are from 3 BC. in China. It is also one of the herbs recorded in the Anglo-Saxon nine herbs charm from the tenth century and by all accounts was and still is considered a very important plant. Here is the U.S. it is considered an invasive weed but since I’ve never seen it before now I doubt it’s very invasive in this part of the country.
One of the ways to identify mugwort is by looking at the underside of the leaves which should be silvery white, colored by downy hairs. I’ve read that the ridged and grooved central stem can be green, green with purple ridges, or purple but this one was green. The leaves of the plant are highly aromatic and if you run your hands over the plant you smell a strong kind of sage like odor which is quite pleasant. One of the reasons this plant has been considered sacred for centuries is because it has so many uses, from culinary to medicinal. It is used in China to flavor things like tea, rice cakes and seafood and is used to treat depression, indigestion and lack of appetite. It has even been used to make beer.
These are the flower buds which I’ve been watching for a few weeks, impatiently waiting for them to open. Another way mugwort is used is to ease childbirth and to treat other women’s issues such as menopause. The plant can cause miscarriage however, so it should never be used during pregnancy.
And then the buds became bright red, and very fine filaments appeared. These filaments reminded me of the tiny female flowers found on alders in spring. I’ve seen photos online of the flowers and these don’t look like those but I think that’s because they hadn’t fully opened when I took this photo. They should become tiny greenish yellow “insignificant” blooms, and I’ll be watching for them. I can say that they were much more aromatic than the leaves and the pleasing scent they left on my hands lasted until I washed it off. In fact I wish I could bottle that scent because it was really very pleasing and not at all overpowering. I’ve read that some are allergic to the plant and can get a rash from it but though I have allergies, it hasn’t bothered me at all.
Mugwort leaves, at least the ones on this plant, turn red in fall. I’m sorry that I’ve spent so much time on mugwort but I’m very interested in this plant. I haven’t even scratched the surface of what it is supposed to be able to do.
I had to go out and see the bottle gentians (Gentiana andrewsii) growing in their moist, shaded spot along the banks of the Ashuelot River. Their numbers seem to be increasing despite being weed whacked and stepped on. Normally I would say that I love their beautiful blue color but these were so purple even I could see it. How odd, I thought. Though I know their usual color when mature is a very beautiful deep violet purple I’ve always seen them as blue until now. Maybe my colorblindness is going away.
Closed (bottle) gentians are indeed closed and strong insects like bumblebees have to pry them open to get inside. I’ve read that these plants won’t tolerate drought so we’ll have to see what next year brings.
I saw just one single peached leaved bluebell (Campanula persicifolia) blossom. A survivor.
How can you go 60 plus years and never see a plant and then, all of the sudden, see it everywhere you go? That’s what I ask myself every time I see pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea.) I’ve now found it in four different places. Last year I would have told you it didn’t grow here but I’m glad it does. It’s a pretty little plant.
I’ve discovered by watching the plant that pearly everlasting flowers close each night and open when the sun finds them the following day. Native Americans used pearly everlasting for treatment of sores and rheumatism, and they also smoked it to treat colds and as a tobacco substitute. What I see far more of is sweet everlasting (Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium,) and they used that plant in much the same way. The name everlasting comes from the way the dried flowers will last for years in a vase.
Heart leaved asters (Symphyotrichum cordifolium) are just coming into bloom. They are pretty little things that are also called blue wood asters, and they last quite late into the fall season, especially if they’re under trees. I often find them along rail trails.
The flowers are quite small; this one might have been a half inch across, but is no less pretty because of it.
It isn’t hard to understand how the heart leaved aster got its name, but the leaf shape can be variable from the bottom to the top of the stem. They have sharp coarse teeth around the perimeter.
A goldenrod that I see a lot of is downy goldenrod (Solidago puberula.) The leaves have a downy coating and that’s where its common name comes from. They reach about a foot and a half tall on a good day, but some books say they will reach 3 feet. The narrow, stalked flower heads (panicles) grow on plants that live at the edges of forests in dry sandy soil, often in colonies of 15-20 plants. The bright yellow 1/4 inch flowers of downy goldenrod seem big when compared to other goldenrod flowers. Native Americans used goldenrod for treating colds and toothaches and it has been used for centuries in to treat kidney stones and urinary tract infections. In colonial times goldenrod growing naturally by the cottage door meant good fortune.
Every time I say goodbye to coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) for the year more appear, and that’s a good thing. According to the USDA the plant was used by many Native American tribes throughout North America to treat a variety of ailments. It was used as a pain reliever, anti-inflammatory, a treatment for toothaches, coughs, colds, and sore throats. It was also used as an antidote for various forms of poisonings, including snake bite. Portions of it were also used to dress wounds and treat infections. Modern medicine has found it useful to combat bacterial and viral infections and as an immune system booster. I grow it because butterflies and bees like its nectar, birds like the seeds, and I like to admire its beauty.
Nodding bur marigold plants (Bidens cernua) still bloom at the water’s edge at rivers and ponds. Though they might appear fragile these plants are tough. I’ve seen them still bloom even after being walked on and crushed. The pretty lemon yellow flowers look like a miniature sunflower. I like their deeply pleated petals.
Since I like the color blue so much it’s hard not to like vetch, even though it is invasive and is probably responsible for more than a few gray hairs on this head. Once it gets in a garden it is close to impossible to eradicate by pulling alone, and I know that because I tried many times in many gardens over the years. It’s especially annoying when it gets into shrubs. Various vetch species were originally imported from Europe and Asia to be used as cover crops and for livestock forage. They’re now found in just about every meadow in New Hampshire.
It is said that the name Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) was borrowed from the biblical Song of Solomon but others say that it was a mis-translation of the Hebrew “Chavatzelet Ha Sharon,” which was a crocus or daffodil. It could also have been a tulip, or a Madonna lily. What all of this tells me is that nobody really knows where the name came from. Even the syriacus part of the scientific name is inaccurate because the plant isn’t from Syria, it’s from somewhere in Asia. The thing is though, when you see the beauty of the flower you really don’t care what its name is or where it came from; at least, I don’t. I’m increasingly convinced that what makes nature so complicated is our inability to find the correct words and ways to describe it. Nature isn’t complicated. It is we who complicate it.
I was very surprised to see that tradescantia (Tradescantia virginiana) plants were having a re-bloom. In the mid-1600s this plant was discovered in Virginia by John Tradescant and shipped off to England. I wonder what they thought of John when they realized how aggressive it could be in a garden. In any event native Americans had been using the plant both medicinally and for food for thousands of years before any European saw it. According to the USDA they ate the young spring shoots and mashed the stems and rubbed them onto insect bites to relieve pain and itching. Something else I read recently is that tradescantia has been proven to be an effective botanical watchdog for high radiation levels. The cells in the stamen hairs in the center of the plant mutate and turn from blue to pink when exposed to radiation such as gamma rays. Will wonders never cease.
I’ll leave you with some more of those roadside flowers. Long may they bloom.
Many people have never learned to see the beauty of flowers, especially those that grow unnoticed. ~Erika Just
Thanks for coming by.
Posted in Nature, Wildflowers | Tagged Ashuelot River, Blue Tradescantia, Bottle Gentian, Canon SX40 HS, Coneflowers, Cultivated Aster, Downy Goldenrod, Heart Leaved Aster, Keene, Mugwort, Native Plants, Nature, New Hampshire, NH, Nodding Bur Marigold, Olympus Stylus TG-870, Peached Leaved Bluebell, Pearly Everlasting, Pink Turtlehead, Roadside Flowers, Rose of Sharon, Swanzey New Hampshire, Vetch, White Wood Aster | 24 Comments
We won’t see 20s here until December or January. I am glad to see so many blooming survivors!
Mugwort is a new one to me. Thank you!
I wish I could say that!
I’ve never seen Pearly Everlasting growing in the wild. It has a quiet charm.
I like the flowers but the plants I see are quite short so I don’t know how they’d look in a vase.
I suspect the flower parade will slow down fairly soon, darnit! The mugwort is lovely in its fall attire, and aren’t it’s flowers interesting? I get a second bloom period most years on spiderwort, I guess because I whack it to the ground mid summer when it starts looking ugly (and to avoid it seeding everywhere). It comes back without fail and frequently blooms in a minor way. Fall is definitely under way! Can’t believe it’s October already. Sigh…
Yes. flowers are becoming more scarce each day here Ginny, but I hope to be able to still get a flower post or two in.
The mugwort is an all around interesting plant!
I’ve never seen tradescantia rebloom but I’m glad to hear that they do.
It is hard to believe that summer went that fast!
I have taken literally hundreds of photos of mugwort (I’ve posted 877 to iNaturalist for instance) over the years (it’s certainly one of the 10 most common plants in my area) and I have never seen little red balls with white filaments where the flowers should be. Fascinating. You make me want to go reexamine them (which is something I’m not generally inclined to do: they have one stem gall that I’ve never gotten a name for, one leaf miner, I almost never see insects on them, and they cover everything). I do agree that all your other photos are classic mugwort, though.
Hi Sara,
That’s the great thing about nature study; there’s always a surprise!
All of the shots in that series of mugwort photos were from the same plant but it took maybe a week and a half for the buds to become red. I looked at the plant today and now the red buds have opened into what looks like pale yellowish green flowers just starting to show. If they ever open completely I’ll show them on the blog.
I spoke to a botanist I know at the NY Botanical Garden who happens to be running a program that this month is focused on mugwort. He said he thinks the red bits are probably swollen stamens perhaps infected by a fungus, linked me to another photo of the same thing : https://nhgardensolutions.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/8.-mugwort-buds.jpg?w=500&h=365 Unfortunately they probably won’t develop into the typical mugwort flowers,
There are flowers coming out of each red “bud” but whether they’ll open fully I don’t know. There are two plants in this area, and they both look the same even though they’re far apart.
wrong link, here is the one I meant: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60822410
Thanks!
That looks much like what I’m seeing on these plants. I’m watching them each day and getting photos of what’s happening.
I am staggered that so many flowers survived three nights of frosts.
I only know of wormwood in connection with gall as a byword for bitterness.
Plants that grow under the trees at the edge of the forest usually escape the first few cold nights, but the writing is on the wall.
Mugwort is related to wormwood as it is in the same artemesia family but it’s not the same wormwood plant once used in absinthe.
I see. Thank you for the information.
I had also thought of my bottle gentians as (Gentiana andrewsii), but someone corrected me online and said they were Gentiana Clausa. It took me awhile to see the difference, as they both have the same common names, closed bottle gentians. The difference though, is that the Gentiana andrewsii is fringed on the top and the fringe peeks out and is quite noticeable difference! I have a bank on the Smith Brook that is covered in bottle gentians, only because no one has an opportunity to walk on them!
Thank you Deb. I’m not sure how I missed your comment!
I’ll have to look a little closer at these gentians. You’re very lucky to have them on your land!
I so appreciate waking up to this blog twice a week! I have been noticing everlasting this year too. I though, perhaps, this is because they are drought tolerant. – Susan
Thanks very much Susan. I haven’t seen either pearly or sweet everlasting show signs of wilting so yes, they must be very drought tolerant.
Mugwort has been the bane of my existence since moving to Westchester County NY from the NH sea coast! Our property has a very steep slope that runs about 100 yds starting at the back of the house. Giving me approx. 25 feet of lawn, then stone wall. I’ve planted perennials 3ft back atop the stone wall. The mugwort is the most invasive thing I’ve ever encountered! It continuously encroaches into the perennials,
The more you pull it out, the more it comes back. Maybe I could sell it!? I love love love pearly everlasting!! My Grandmother and my Mother would always pick some in late summer, hang it upside down and have a vase of the dear things. I love your posts!!
Thanks very much. I wonder why you have so much mugwort. You must have ideal conditions for it to thrive. I have to search for it here and so far I’ve rarely found it. But we have plenty of ragweed!
I want to pick some pearly everlasting and dry it this year. I’m also going to try sweet everlasting.
You are so clever at finding colour even with the lower temperatures, I loved the bottled gentians for their colour.
Thank you Susan. The gentians were very purple this year!