The weather finally dropped below 90 degrees this week in central Texas. The cooler weather was much welcomed by us! The Monarch Butterflies have also arrived to enjoy the fall flowers.
Along with the cooler weather, came the gayfeathers (also knows as Blazing Stars). These purple stalks of flowers have always been a symbol of fall for me. My mother planned her entire mowing schedule around the timing of these flowers blooming. Since they actually grow most of the summer, but don’t bloom until the end of September, you really can’t mow past early May. We have been anxiously waiting to see these flowers bloom!
Lucky for us, our field has quite a display of them this fall. The first one bloomed September 29th and with this cooler weather, they are really popping out. This weekend we noticed Monarch butterflies soaring high above the garden, one by one they flew on. We walked out to the field to see a butterfly show.. There must have been nearly 100 Monarch butterflies slowing moving from flower to flower. The butterflies were spread out across the field and the flowers, so there wasn’t a large compact group, but just a nice even flow of monarchs fluttering about.
This year we had a wonderful wildflower season all around, from March onward we have had something blooming. All the flowers have lasted for lengthy periods of time and have just been gorgeous. For the first time last fall, Tony collected some of the gayfeather seeds and stored them. He spread out a good amount of the seeds this spring. Between our wonderful wildflower season and his help of spreading the seeds, fall has been even more rewarding.
Another wonderful thing about these specific flowers, is that they can be easily dried. Once they are picked, they make a beautiful dried flower that can add a bit of color to fall and winter wreathes to give you a pop of color all winter long.
Monarch Butterfly on Gayfeathers
