All of this is subject to the vagaries of drought and Minnesota's tendency to get its average temperature by leaping impetuously between record lows and record highs. Also, I really cannot speak for the rest of the Midwest.
In early spring, before the leaves are out, you get a huge and gorgeous variety of woodland ephemerals. This segues into later spring flowers, also woodland or woods' edge or along the banks of streams and lakes. There are low-growing prairie flowers around this time too. Then there's a kind of pause in early June, though much punctuated with flowering shrubs and trees. Then, as day length grows hugely, everything grows like mad. The peak of most garden plants is at midsummer and in the week or so that follows. This is a sparse time for woodland plants, though you get various things in open woods and along stream and lake shores. Plants of the open prairie, as the grass gets higher, are largely a phenomenon of July and August. I haven't written about Eric's and my trip to Hyland Lake Park Reserve or Raphael's and my visit to Carver in the middle of August, but those are peak times for coneflowers and butterfly weed and sunflowers. Coneflowers and sunflowers will continue into August and September, as well as thistle and a couple of native plants I can't remember right now. September sees the peak of goldenrod bloom, with asters and closed gentian and white snakeroot. There are more August flowers still blooming now than is usual -- we had a very cool very wet June and then a weird dry end of July and August, so things are confused. In any given year, they usually are, one way or another.
One annoying thing about Minnesota weather is that there is usually a hard frost right around September 15. This does not much trouble the asters, but it usually does in other plants that were still flowering cheerfully. So you can have beautiful sunny weather right on through September and into October, but you have to switch your attention to colorful fungi and the changing trees, because wildflowers, while certainly present, are not very widespread.
This seems very muddled; I can double-check my books and do you a more expert answer if you like.
no subject
In early spring, before the leaves are out, you get a huge and gorgeous variety of woodland ephemerals. This segues into later spring flowers, also woodland or woods' edge or along the banks of streams and lakes. There are low-growing prairie flowers around this time too. Then there's a kind of pause in early June, though much punctuated with flowering shrubs and trees. Then, as day length grows hugely, everything grows like mad. The peak of most garden plants is at midsummer and in the week or so that follows. This is a sparse time for woodland plants, though you get various things in open woods and along stream and lake shores. Plants of the open prairie, as the grass gets higher, are largely a phenomenon of July and August. I haven't written about Eric's and my trip to Hyland Lake Park Reserve or Raphael's and my visit to Carver in the middle of August, but those are peak times for coneflowers and butterfly weed and sunflowers. Coneflowers and sunflowers will continue into August and September, as well as thistle and a couple of native plants I can't remember right now. September sees the peak of goldenrod bloom, with asters and closed gentian and white snakeroot. There are more August flowers still blooming now than is usual -- we had a very cool very wet June and then a weird dry end of July and August, so things are confused. In any given year, they usually are, one way or another.
One annoying thing about Minnesota weather is that there is usually a hard frost right around September 15. This does not much trouble the asters, but it usually does in other plants that were still flowering cheerfully. So you can have beautiful sunny weather right on through September and into October, but you have to switch your attention to colorful fungi and the changing trees, because wildflowers, while certainly present, are not very widespread.
This seems very muddled; I can double-check my books and do you a more expert answer if you like.
P.