millertime

September Bloom Day...two days late! First is cream gentian, like little party balloons to celebrate...
...calico aster with a backlit bee... ....monarch butterfly caterpillar. I was trying to figure out which end is the head until I realized-the head end has longer antennae!

Nice begonia blooming like crazy. I'd rescued this plant from my son's ex-girlfriend 2 years ago, and it just gets bigger and better each year. The strange thing is, it bloomed pink the first season she had it, then blooms red ever since...reversion maybe?
Check this out-my 'Ruby Giant' coneflower has morphed its' own new, trippy flower! I wonder if this is how some of the new cultivars started-by themselves?!

Phlox carrying on nicely...can't wait to see them next year after I amend the soil with cow manure, I bet they go nuts! More phlox...
...and a nice little fall composition courtesy of this mushroom and acorn...
...this phlox has an unusual flower, it's 'Natural Feelings'....

...this is my Yellow Bleeding Heart Vine (dicentra scandens) ....
....nice tall aster that was "relocated" here and growing well.
Not just pretty but yummy as well-my shiitake mushroom log produced this beauty. Our late summer has been fairly dry, so this is only the second mushroom I've harvested this year. Super-yummy, though! Clematis 'My Angel'...the blooms are small but very cute. Coneflower with bonus inchworm...

...cute pansy...

...'Little Lamb' hydrangea (the blooms have more pink tinge today)...
....this wildflower is one of my favorites, White Lettuce. It's in the aster family, which helps explain the robust growth and bloom in my gardens. It likes to re-seed and wander around also, which is fine with me. (I don't notice many of these growing elsewhere, so I'm all too happy to be helping a less common wildflower establish a nice colony.) Now this was strange...a small group of fungi I'd never seen before...
...and they look like biscuits! After some research, I decided they're likely Bird's Nest Fungi in an immature state. I'll have to keep an eye on them and see if they change.

Tree frog, pretty as a flower, IMO...

This alligator/duck combo amuses me much more than it should. My mom got me the duck w/ducklings for my water garden tubs, but she floats crooked and looks dumb. But here, she fits right in!
Impatiens balfourii.......
....this butterfly was enjoying my boneset blooms...
...and was still long enough for me to get several pictures...
...even a close-up of his face! The ID eludes me though, I think it may be a Spicebush Swallowtail, or a Polydamas Swallowtail, Black Swallowtail, or Indra Swallowtail, but I just can't tell from the searches I did. Oh well, he sure is pretty!
By the shoreline I found some Bottle Gentian, it makes me VERY happy to see wildflowers along my shore! I try to collect and scatter seeds down there, and it looks like it's working!
Another nice tree frog, napping between the screen door and doorjam...
....this Jewelweed is another impatiens...I like these a lot, and I want more colors, too!This blue beauty is a damselfly, I think it's Comanche Dancer, but I'm not certain. (The object it's sitting on is from an old vaccum cleaner, I got it at the dump.)I'm really in love with this brown sedge, and it's supposed to be perennial. This one is called "Bronco".
Katy-did sit on this daylily seed pod...
...awaiting the outcome of this "11th-hour, the-governor-called-just-in-time" resurrection of my clematis vine. See the dead lower foliage? The whole thing looked that way until I amended with worm castings and mulched. Hey, everybody needs a little help now and then! Cute little froggies are still hanging out everywhere....I'm gonna miss them when it gets colder!
This year my Snowberry is really loaded with berries....very cool.


Gaillardia with inchworm...I've seen a lot of these worms this year, and they don't seem to damage the plants so I leave them alone.
My yard is still full of Leopard frogs, too. I love having them around, but they startle me when they come flying out of the grass in front of me. Sure, I could mow and then I wouldn't have them in the yard, but that would NOT be worth it! So I guess they can "help me stay alert".
I like the way these lined up, like the Three Bears or something... ...hummingbird taking a rest....
....pretty purple asters are blooming everywhere...
...and pretty spiders are preparing for winter. This is a Nursery Web Spider... ...this coneflower is supposed to be "Jade", but the center isn't really as green as it looked in the catalog. I guess this is my year for flowers that aren't as advertised...*sigh*...ah well, at least it's pretty.Volunteer sunflower being shy, too cloudy I guess.Finally, as summer spins into fall, check out this spider in my spinning decoration. I wonder how he likes living in a moving web like this?

And after all the trouble I've had with the html and pictures on this post, my head is spinning too! Happy Bloom Day, and check out the many posts linked to our founder, Carol at May Dreams Gardens.