Flower Fireworks

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Against a dark sky, all flowers look like fireworks.

~Gilbert K. Chesterton

It is a strange Fourth of July this year for me. I have mixed emotions about the things I see happening in our country (and our world). And, while I have enjoyed watching the big firework displays offered in many communities, I am not a huge fan of the many noisy backyard fireworks sounds we hear for several nights each year around the holiday. I worry about pets, wildlife, and people with PTSD or other conditions that might suffer when hearing all this noise (and the potential for accidental fires near homes). So, this year, we opted to hang here in the woods (plus, one of us is under the weather). As I walked around the yard this morning, I realized that our flowers offer a hint of a fireworks display of their own in their varied shapes and colors. Here are a few of those blooming in our yard today (along with a couple of critters found lurking in the plants)…perhaps best viewed with the sounds of the 1812 Overture in the background…

Queen Anne’s Lace (click photos to enlarge)
Bottlebrush Grass
Bee Balm
Scudder’s Bush Katydid nymph on Bee Balm. These little guys are all over the yard flowers now.
Garden Phlox – the swallowtail butterflies and bees are frequently seen feeding on these flowers.
Tiger Lily. These majestic flowers are not native, but have taken up a section of our yard, much to the liking of swallowtail butterflies and the hummingbirds.
This small jumping spider grabbed a planthopper nymph off a Tiger Lily leaf and was taking a lunch break when I saw it.
This is one of the few Cardinal Flowers that is not caged to protect it from the ravenous rabbit that unfortunately seems to prefer cutting this wildflower species over all the others in our yard. We’ll see how long it lasts.
One of the best pollinator plants in our yard, the long-blooming Starry Rosinweed.
The Smooth Oxeye plants are often defoliated by Silvery Checkerspot butterfly caterpillars, but not this year (so far)
Narrowleaf Mountain Mint
My new favorite wildflower, the rare Plymouth Gentian. I bought two of these at a native plant sale this summer and put them along the edge of one of the water gardens (they grow naturally along riverbanks that experience drawdown in the summer).
Plymouth Gentian close-up.

Hope you can see some of your favorite firework shapes in these beauties. And I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. May we all work to make our country a more inclusive home for all of us and the wild places we share it with in the coming year.

24 thoughts on “Flower Fireworks”

  1. So beautiful. Thank you for sharing these beauties. And I took your suggestion and played Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and it was a nice addition. You are living in a beautiful world!

    Reply ↓

  3. My feelings about our country on this Independence Day are not fit for publication here, to be honest. Each day is more heartbreaking than the last.

    Your photos are lovely, thanks for a bright spot on this sad day.

    Reply ↓

  6. Loved your photos especially the Tiger Lily and the Plymouth Gentian!! Thank you Mike and Happy 4th of July!

    Reply ↓

  9. Thanks, as always.

    Your emails bring so much joy to me (and my mother who lives in NC–I’m far away in Japan; we often discuss what you’ve written).

    Daniel

    Reply ↓

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