....it kept growing, yet I couldn't see a bit of green anywhere! Was it a fungus of some sort? It has definate leaves, though....
...still growing taller all the time...
....and developing buds! I scoured my wildflower books, and at this stage I thought it might be pinesap , but it just didn't look right.
About a week later, this is what I saw! Friends, I think we have an orchid of some sort here!
There's a pinkish hue, no fragrance, and still no green in the leaves! More internet searches, and I discovered the identity:Epipactis helleborine , a.k.a. "weed orchid"! Weed?! What?!
Someone considers this cute little orchid to be a weed? That's just kooky talk! According to the links, most of the time this plant does have green, as well as some other colors. Mine is an aberration-even more cool!
As the orchid died back, I was hoping for seed pods...
...but that was not the case. Ah well, I sure hope it comes up again next year!
There's a pinkish hue, no fragrance, and still no green in the leaves! More internet searches, and I discovered the identity:Epipactis helleborine , a.k.a. "weed orchid"! Weed?! What?!
Someone considers this cute little orchid to be a weed? That's just kooky talk! According to the links, most of the time this plant does have green, as well as some other colors. Mine is an aberration-even more cool!
As the orchid died back, I was hoping for seed pods...
...but that was not the case. Ah well, I sure hope it comes up again next year!
....causing some plants to hang onto their lives-and blooms! (Like this borage, too bad my tomatoes couldn't survive this well!)
They're mixing with the fall foliage that's already been established....this is spirea 'Mellow Yellow'.
Of course the grasses are swaying in the breeze, showing off their flashy seed heads (this is 'Big Bluestem').
Indoors the Christmas cacti have been blooming rather early, like this red and white that my friend in Texas was kind enough to send (it's grown to 5X the original size! :)
And check out my cute little witch hazel! This tree is barely 4 feet tall, yet blooming more vigorously every year like a champ! (Always in fall, though many varieties bloom much later).
And finally, my own situation is "heating up" as well...the career choice is up for re-evaluation and I'm hoping to make big changes, my garden pics are scattered half on the web and half on my laptop causing continual frustrating confusion, and until I get a better connection than dialup, my blog posts will be fairly short (but not my sentence "structure" as usual :) But for what it's worth, I'm still here and looking forward to posting more frequently and with more substantive content. What's that, Gizmo? Bentley? 
