This week, temperatures are in the 90s. Fall is happily just around the corner, but many beautiful blooms are attracting bees and butterflies to enjoy.
Some Monarchs have been passing through for nectar, hopefully taking note of the milkweed for next year. I’ve also seen Tiger Swallowtails, Black Swallowtails, an American Lady, and a Painted Lady. This is the time of the year, too, for the little skippers to be active. Skippers apparently make up about a third of North American butterfly species, so I’ve just about given up trying to identify them for now.
And the flowers going to seed, like Purple Coneflower and Purple Hyssop, are drawing in the American Goldfinches. One of the most exciting visitors has been a Northern Flicker that forages for insects in the ground and visits the birdbath.
If you grow native plants, a wide variety of pollinators and birds will appear in your garden.
Here’s a quick list of what’s blooming now in Cincinnati:
Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)
Ironweed (Vernonia gigantea)
Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia)
Stiff-leaved Goldenrod (Solidago rigida)
Sky Blue Aster (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense)
Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale)
Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
Beeblossom (Oenothera gaura)
Field Thistle (Cirsium discolor)
Tall Boneset (Eupatorium altissimum) and Late Boneset (Eupatorium serotinum)
Clustered Mountainmint (Pycnanthemum muticum)
Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)
Joe Pye (Eutrochium sp.)
Sharpwing Monkeyflower (Mimulus alatus)
Pink Turtlehead (Chelone lyonii)
