GBBD: I Love Autumn

 The cool mornings and crisp air are a welcome relief after a long season of droughts, heat, humidity and mosquitoes! 

Ulmus rubra

It's an absolute joy to be outside, to dig in soil that has been softened by fall rains and to watch the color change begin overhead. 

It's an active time in the garden. Wildflowers welcome the foraging bees, the nectaring butterflies and a host of other pollinators as they make a mad dash to mate, to provide for offspring or to prepare themselves for migration.  

The shrubs are festooned with seeds, drupes and berries that are quickly stripped by mammals and birds or carried away on the wind. (The Gardens Not Seedy, Those Are Seed Heads)

It's the best time to photograph the critters, they're slower and I like to think they're savoring the last of the pollen and nectar. So if you don't mind, I offer these wildflowers with their humble bumble and skipper visitors for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by the always delightful Carol of May Dreams Gardens!

Pollinators congregate on the Goldenrod.

They cling to the salvia.

Yellow-collared Scape Moth has a beautiful iridescent blue/black body

They nectar upon the ex-asters and carry a dusting of pollen to the next flower they visit.

Even the grasses get into the show as they begin to bronze and go to seed, making food for dozens of birds, including a pair of Mourning Doves that nest in the garden.

Helianthus salicifolius replaces the Susans and hides small crab spiders that grab bees and other unsuspecting visitors.

 Skippers are every where flitting about...

On the Blue Mistflower,

On the New England ex-asters

On the Goldenrod.

Back on the asters...chasing one another, perching on flowers and trying to catch the big eye of a mate!

I love my garden in Autumn. I love the critters who visit and live in the garden. I love the changing colors. I love the fresh smell that blows in as the weather changes. I love the rain. I love the blue October skies. Autumn is just beginning at Clay and Limestone and if we're really lucky it will last until almost December!

xoxogail

PS. As a friendly reminder...If you want pollinators to visit and live in your garden, you must, never, ever, ever, ever use pesticides. They are a lot of other alternatives.

From the top:

Photo 1~A mixture of oaks, elms, ash and shagbark hickories
Photo 2~Slippery Elm against the October sky
Photo 3~Dogwood and Oakleaf hydrangea
Photo 4~Joe-Pye weed in seed
Photo 5~Ex-aster~Symphyotrichum shortii
Photo 6~Unknown solidago
Photo 7~Salvia azurea
Photo 8~S shortii with moth
Photo 9~Panicum virgatum
Photo 10~Helianthus salicifolius
Photo 11~Aster tataricus
Photo 12~Conoclinium coelestinum
Photo 13~Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
Photo 14~Goldenrod
Photo 15~Aster tataricus
Photo 15~The Susans bed with Hibiscus 'Kopper King',  ex-asters, Goldenrods, mist flowers, and lots of other treasures


Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.