Fall flowers

In a few days, Autumn will arrive but new and familiar flowers continue to surprise. The latest additions are autumn crocuses that emerged over the weekend next to the lupines I seeded a year ago. Their unusually large form, emerging from the ground with a white stem transforming into light, blue petals seems so ephemeral. Light yellow stamens pop from the center, creating the perfect complement of colors.

Zinnias and cosmos have been familiar friends all summer and continue to crank out colorful blooms despite the fact I have not watered them at all this very dry year.

Japanese anemones (part of the Ranunculacae) family emerge like clockwork every year in Juana’s circle garden in the center of our front lawn. The coneflowers and comfrey are fading and drying up but this perennial continues to crank out numerous blooms.

Pulling out some Japanese stilt grass, bright yellow coreopsis flowers emerge underneath reminding me that I need to weed more often.

And my weeding lets me discover a lone aster, that has sprouted, complementing the larger stand of wild relatives along a nearby stone wall.