May Flowers

Bugle or Aguga is a non native garden plant that belongs to the mint family. These purple flowers seem to attract butterflies and hummingbird moths, so we don’t mow them down until they are done blooming.

Creeping Phlox is named for the foliage which creates a blanket of leaves along the ground. A taller flower stalk will shoot up with the blossoms at the top.

Visitors often ask us about the weird pine cone looking things they saw in the woods. Well, it’s actually a native wildflower! It is called Squawroot. In the photo above, there are a few of the flowers in bloom. They are the white parts of the plant. Notice anything different about this plant? Yep, it doesn’t have any green parts to it! This flower cannot make its own food so it is parasitic on the roots of oak trees.

Our official state tree is the Ohio Buckeye. We don’t have any here, but we do have lots of Yellow Buckeye. Here is an up close look at the flowers. They seem sort of reminiscent of snap dragon flowers, yes?

Dwarf Crested Iris is in bloom now. Individual flowers don’t bloom for very long, but they sure are nice while they last!

Finally, lots of butterflies are our and about now, including the Harvester butterfly. The larval form (i.e. caterpillar) of this particular species does not eat plants like most other caterpillars. It eats aphids!