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Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 19.30 - Wildflower Extravaganza, OMG [1]

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Date: 2023-07-29

A wildflower explosion in the Colorado high country has occurred this summer. None of these following photos can do it justice. We had a great snow year, which got our state out of the drought we were in. Then it rained for about two months. This has caused great excitement among the flower lovers around these parts. I’ve been spending the better part of this last week heading up to the high country, which fortunately for me can be about a ½ hour drive up the hill from my river valley to see them. I’ve been taking as many pictures as I can with my phone camera and my Canon Rebel EOS. The mountains are literally covered with flowers this year.

The photos I’ve chosen for you are in an area that is close to our house which has been a good resource for great Christmas trees over the years. We get a permit from the Forest Service and go up the Buford Road, which is a road between New Castle, CO and Buford, CO. It winds through forest at about 7’000 to 8’000 feet elevation. In 2021 we blithely set out in early December, hand saw and permit in hand. It was a very dry year, so there was not a lot of snow cover yet. We got up to our favorite stand of pine trees and …. it was all LOGGED. Ok, don’t get excited. I don’t mean clear cut. Here, the Forest Service lets the logging company take trees only from certain areas, which they mark ahead of time. These logging areas become open meadows in about a year, which improve forest health for all living forest beings. Still, it’s a shock to come upon a scene of destruction such as this…

Logging 2023. We expected it. Lots of forest products come out of this work.

As you can see, plenty of trees left. It actually made it easier that year, less to try to choose from. We got a really nice tree.

But the flowers… when they log, it opens up the forest floor and clears the dense tree canopy to make room for more diverse flora, and it really works.



Larkspur and cow parsnip in the background.

Every meadow was a different flower type. One was all orange sneezeweed and aspen sunflower. The entire meadow was yellow. A flower called scarlet gilia covered entire hillsides and turned them orange-red in most places. On the Buford Road there is a gilia that is pink. Entire meadow, pink gilia. Next meadow, all cow parsnip. (Some call it Queen Anne’s Lace, although that’s not what it is. Maybe a more elegant reference?)

Cow parsnip and sticky geranium

Pink gilia

Pink gilia meadow

I just can’t photograph how splendid this meadow is. It just can’t be done.

Here’s a photo showing last year’s logging. This area is now going back to aspen, they are about 3 feet tall in this picture. Another flower-filled meadow in the background.

Logging operations from 2022

Closer to home, I’ve got lilies and gladiolus blooming. The hummingbirds are here. There’s not a lot of hummers in the high country, and I feel like a lot either stopped somewhere warmer because it was so unseasonably cold here, or just didn’t make it. At any rate, the rufous that owns my yard is now here overseeing his territory.

The zinnias are blooming too. I started these from seed. All sizes. I planted dwarf all the way up to the giants, and I put them in a pot. I may be sorry but they are very pretty.

Pink zinnia

I’ve managed to keep these alive for three years now. I have purple, peach, red and yellow. Stunning!

My phone camera actually got the bee in focus. This year there is a bumper crop of bumbles also.

My big camera does a better job of capturing bees. They move too fast for my phone, usually. This came out well. The bumbles are the size of my thumb. Since I live on the edge of town I get all the native bees and they like what I am planting for them this year.

One more wildflower to send you on your way.

A marsh-loving wildflower. The flowers look like little pink elephant heads. Guess what, it’s called Elephant Head.

If you are interested in my source for the flower i.d., here’s the link. Keep in mind they list some non-native, noxious weeds. The blurb about the flower does note this.

Finally, I leave you with a gratuitous hummingbird shot. I actually managed to get this on my phone also. Maybe I’ve gotten better at it. It helped that I was standing about two feet away. They are used to me up to a certain point.

Female rufous hummer. I have a nesting pair this year.

Have a wonderful weekend! I hope everyone is looking toward a little cooler weather. The weather people are telling us the monsoon will start next week and we will get a little more rain. Good news. It’s been darn hot here.

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