Friday Flowers and Wanderings

            At the RBG, we have been waiting for a new freezer for weeks now. We use the freezer to attempt to keep our pressed flower collections bug free. There have been many delays and I just heard that we will be getting a smaller freezer as the one ordered just will not go through the doors. Anyway, without a freezer to work with, I have had more time to look for flowers on Fridays and have been able to get home earlier too.

           Yesterday, I was able to find 61 wild flowers in bloom. I don't bother counting the many, many flowers that are planted in the various gardens. There are still many, many roses in bloom in the rose garden as well as others that have been planted this year.

            Below is one of the flowers that I found and photographed yesterday. I found this plant blooming for the first time this year on June 15th. It is still going strong and will probably continue until covered with snow. I have found it blooming until December in past years.

            It is a small flower in real life. It is smaller than the smallest fingernail on my hand. In addition, there is another flower that looks almost exactly like it, Small-flowered Galinsoga, that one almost needs a hand lens to see.

            The other interesting observation from yesterday was the Pumpkin Trail that was set up by the RBG. The staff carved over 200 pumpkins and placed them along some of the trails in the area of the Rose Garden and the Hendrie Valley just behind the Rose Garden. I was told that over 5000 people came to visit and walk the trails on Thursday and Friday. Below is one photo from the Hendrie Valley trail: