Mid Summer

There are a couple signs that we've reached the middle of summer--besides the calendar.  The one that really tells me it's here is when Liatris (Liatris punctata) starts blooming.  This is the latest of the purple flowers that bloom on Green Moiuntain, and in the middle of the yellows and golds, these purple spikes  add some needed color.  They're starting to bloom all over the mountain  but haven't reached their peak yet.  Liatris is known as Gayfeather in some parts of the country.  

Liatris 

The other sign of oncoming fall is Goldenrod.  I saw a couple on Saturday, so they're just starting up.  We have a couple varieties on Green Mountain but they look pretty similar.  This one is called Rough Goldenrod (Solidago nana).  The other is Western  Goldenrod (Solidago occidentalis).  The main differences are just what the name implies--the Western Goldenrod can be 18" tall, but has a smooth leaf while the smaller Rough Goldenrod has leaves that feel rough if you run your fingers across them.

Rough Goldenrod

I found a few Nodding Onions (Allium cernuum) yesterday, too.  In the Spring we had a lot of Wild Onions, which have white flowers and stand erect, but this time of year you can occasionally find these Nodding Onions.  They're about the same size--like a small chive, but have pale purple blossoms that flop over.  Look for them in shadier spots, especially on north-facing slopes.  The photo below is a closeup of the small flowers.  The plants are about 8" tall.

Nodding Onion

Landscaping with Natives

The summer wildflowers are all that's left from a great Spring season.  There are lots of sunflowers, a few roses and yarrow, but that's most of it.  As you look out on the mountain, though you can get some good ideas of how to landscape your yard with native plants , which are more drought-tolerant and will give you some color after the spring blooms are gone.

A lot of these summer flowers leave their skeletons behind in the fall, but they can be interesting even as the snow falls on them.  We have several Black-eyed Susans and condflowers that come up each year which give us lots of flowers through the heat, but are interesting after they've dried, too.  

We planted some Little Bluestem a couple years ago.  This time of year it's only about 6" tall, but it will get up to 18" in the Fall and turns a deep orangish red.  If you have a bigger area, Big Bluestem will grow to 4-6', especially if it's getting some water!  

One smaller wildflower that comes in lots of varieties is the Buckwheat family.  We have several on Green Mountain.  The one that's blooming now is James Buckwheat (Eriogonum jamesii).  It's gold flowers are on an umbel, so they have a lot of color in a small area.  The other I'd recommend for a yard is Sulfurflower (Eriogonum umbellatum).  It blooms earlier, but both of these flowers keep their shape after they've gone to seed, and the plant turns a rust color that's still attractive. 

James Buckwheat

Sulfurflower

There are others I've mentioned before--Prairie Coneflower (also known as Mexican Hat in nurseries), Blanketflower, and Purple Prairie Clover that can give you Summer flowers and an interesting Fall and Winter garden, too.

Crested Butte Wildflower Festival

We just returned from a week in Crested Butte where the wildflowers are spectacular.  There are lots of places with whole hillsides covered in lupine or various sunflowers.  The Wildflower Festival (www.cbwildflowerfestival.com) ends today, but is worth planning a trip for next year.  They offer lots of different wildflower hikes and classes specializing in everything from medicinal and edible plants to photography, sketching, and batik.  If you'd still like to get away this summer, they offer lots of information for self-guided hikes.  

The 403 trail above Crested Butte

Beyond the wildflowers, CB is a colorful town with lots to do.  There's plenty of mountain biking and fishing, and art, music and food festivals.  But now we're back in Lakewood and I hope Green Mountain dries out so I can see what's been happening over the last two weeks!

Clustered Penstemon in Crested Butte

Some unusual wildflowers to look for

Now that the summer heat has started some of the more interesting flowers are showing up on Green Mountain.  We've been able to plant a couple of them in our garden, but wildflowers are notoriously difficult to get started.  For all the seeds they put out there aren't that many plants, and it seems lots of them like to find nooks between rocks or right up against the sidewalk when they do sprout.

The first one we'll look at is Prairie Coneflower (Ratibida columnifera).  It's fairly common on the mountain and can be found in nurseries.  It's known as Mexican Hat in garden shops.  It's in the aster family so it has the bright yellow ray flowers (which look like individual petals) around the outside.and a tall cone of disk flowers in the middle.  They may have some dark red mixed in with the yellow, but most of the natives are only gold.

Prairie Coneflower

Another summer favorite is Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea).  It has a similar form to the Coneflower with the long tall cone of ray flowers, but this one's not an aster, but is part of the pea family. Ringing the cone are a row of tiny purple flowers.  The first picture shows the whole plant with some golden asters mixed in.  The second is a closeup showing all the individual flowers with their yellow pollen-bearing anthers.  There is also a White Prairie Clover (Dalea candida), which is blooming in abundance in a few areas on the mountain.

Purple Prairie Clover with Golden Asters

Purple Prairie Clover closeup

While I was running on the Summit Loop Trail Saturday I found another flower that's unusual for Green Mountain.  This one is Miners Candle (Oreocarya virgata).  It's fairly common in the mountains, but I've only seen it on GM a couple times.  It's in the Borage family which means it has lots of hairs all over the stems.  If you brush against it your arms or legs against it you might feel the itch that come from the hairs.

We'll be heading to Crested Butte for a few days over the 4th.  Should be some great wildflowers up there so I may post a few pictures from up there next weekend.  Enjoy the holiday!

Some great summer flowers

Over the last week some of the really interesting summer flowers have started showing up.  The Mariposa Lilies (Calochortus gunnisonii) are all over the mountain.  They look good from a distance, but looking inside them is like looking in one of those sugar Easter eggs with a whole new world inside the calyx.  Lilies always have each flower part in 3's and you can easily see the three petals and six anthers the male, pollen bearing part) when you look inside.  The flower opens up to welcome pollinators and you there's lots of pollen to go around!

Mariposa Lily

The Prickly Poppies (Argemne polyanthemos) are just starting to open up, but I've seen them in several spots on both the north and south side along the trails.  Like the poppies in your garden the petals unfold from the bud into a papery white blossom that ripples in the wind.  Inside the petals are a bunch of bright yellow anthers (thus poly (many) anthemos (anthers) in the name.)  The pistil, or female part of the flower is the bright red button in the middle.

Prickly Poppy

One last white flower that is unusual, but doing pretty well this year is a White Larkspur (Delphinium carolinianum).  Some years there may only be a couple on the mountain, but they can be found in several places this year, including right above the Utah Ave parking lot.  The more common Larkspur is a small purple one that blooms very early.  This one is tall (up to 24" on GM) very pale purple to white, and has purple spots on the flower.  It's pretty distinctive with a spur coming out the back of the flower.  Look for it!

White Larkspur

Out on the Plains

The last three weeks I've had the opportunity to take a Native Plant Masters class at the Plains Conservation Center in Aurora.  This is a great facility way out east near E-470 and Hampden, but I wanted to compare what was in bloom out there with what we see on Green Mountain.  As I expected a lot of the flowers were the same although there were a couple that we don't see here.  Although it's pretty dry, there are a couple streams that provide some contrast, and lots of raptors soaring.  One flower that really seems to represent the plains is Sand Verbena (Abronia fragrans).  Attractive as it spreads across the dry dirt, it has a sweet fragrance to attract pollinators.

Sand Verbena

The other thing I found fascinated I touched on last time.  When we showed up for our first class on June 3, the whole area was bright yellow with Wallflower (Erysimus  asperum).  We were told that usually the Wallflowers are scattered around, like they are on Green Mountain, but the late snows in April apparently were just right to germinate all those Wallflower seeds just waiting for their chance.

Yellow Wallflowers cover the ground at the Plains Conservation Center

Like the Jeffco and Lakewood Open Space Parks the Plains Conservation Center has some good programs, and I'd recommend checking it out if you're on the east edge of town.

Summer Arrives

A couple weeks of hot weather and all of a sudden the Spring flowers are giving way to the Summer blooms.  Penstemon are still looking good although the Blue Mist are showing signs of the heat.  

Summer brings flowers with lots of yellow.  The Bush Sunflower (Helianthus pumilis) and Golden Aster (Heterotheca villosa) are all over.  The Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) isn't out yet that I've seen and usually we don't have as many as the Bush Sunflower except along roadsides.  It's easy to tell them apart because the Common Sunflower has a brown center.  One other Sunflower\-like late Spring flower is the Blanketflower (Gallardia aristata).  It's the most colorful of the bunch with a bright red center.

Common Sunflower

Bush Sunflower

Blanketflower

Another interesting little flower is the Sulfurflower (Eriogonum umbellatum) .  This is a kind of buckwheat and has flowers in an umbel (like an umbrella) and all the leaves are at the base.  These flowers will last for a month or so and another, larger, relative, James Buckwheat will take over as the Sulfurflowers fade.

One of the things I find interesting about tracking when things bloom is that some years a particular wildflower will be abundant, but the next year there will only be a few.  A couple years ago Yellow Sweet Clover (Melolitus officinale) covered the mountain.  I thought they would take over and choke out lots of the natives, but the next year and, ever since, they've been scattered around but nowhere near the profusion of 2009.