Renville County Fair

Globe thistle-makes a great cut flower, lasting for weeks in the vase. It also dries well.  I like it because it adds the color blue to my flower beds.

Blackberry Lily-The leaves of this lily remind me of an iris. The flowers are so dainty about 1"- 2".  The seed pods open in the fall, showing clusters of black seeds whose fancied resemblance to a blackberry gives the plant its common name, "blackberry lily".



Coneflower- Here are the coneflower I brought to the Renville County Fair.  I have had a few plants that had Aster Yellows. This is a disease transferred to the plant by the aster leafhopper. This can cause the death of coneflower plants. It is caused by a type of bacteria known as a phytoplasma, which is a parasite that feeds off the plant's phloem (the tissue that carries nutrients throughout the plant). Symptoms include the loss of pigment in older leaves and yellowing of new leaves. Stems may get anemic and the flowers distorted. There is no cure for aster yellows.  Here are a few good articals about aster yellows.

Read more: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/efans/ygnews/2012/07/aster-yellows-common-in-cone-f.html
http://blog.northerngardener.org/tag/aster-yellows-on-coneflower/

Here are 3 of the flowers I brought to the Renville County fair:
Globe thistle-1st place
Blackberry Lily-1st place
Coneflower - 2nd place

My garden flowers

Asiatic Lily
Lilium

What makes it an Asiatic Lily?

1. Flowers upright, cup-shaped with recurved tips, 4-5 inches in diameter.

2. Stems 20-36 inches long, 3-12 flowers per stem depending on species and cultivar.

3. Plant is a herbaceous perennial from a bulb, classed as a monocotyledon, leaves mostly parallel veined.

4. Slight or no flower fragrance.

Asiatic Lilies have advantages as well. Because they are not scented, they are non-allergenic, and their smaller blossoms make them more appropriate for mixed lily bouquets and table arrangements.

Monarda, a plant that is also known as beebalm, bergamot or sometimes Oswego tea was named for Nicholas Monardes (1493-1588) a physician and botanist living in Seville, Spain.


The common name bergamot comes from the resemblance of the plant fragrance to the bergamot orange.

Beebalm comes from its ability to attract and apparently soothe bees.

The Oswego Indians of the eastern United States shared their fondness for Monarda didyma as a tea with colonial settlers. Soon after the Boston Tea Party, a shortage of imported tea forced the colonists to substitute monarda as a tea during the shortage. The Shakers learned to use the tea for treating colds and sore throats, and other settlers inhaled the fumes of steamed plants to clear sinuses. If you read the list of ingredients in Earl Grey tea now, you’ll see Monarda or beebalm listed on the packaging.

These last two photos are orange coneflowers.

Echinacea
Coneflower

The prominent, bristly seed head inspired the generic name of the plant, taken from the Greek word echinos meaning hedgehog.

Native American plains Indians relied on echinacea as an all-purpose antiseptic. The Sioux tribe valued the root as a remedy for snake bite, the Cheyenne tribe chewed the root to quench thirst, and another tribe washed their hands in a decoction of echinacea to increase their tolerance of heat.

In the late 1800s, it was included in a cure-all that was bottled and patented by Dr. H.C.F. Meyer and promoted as Meyer's Blood Purifier. However, the growing field of medical research did not take Dr. Meyer's patented cure-all seriously.

It was only after a family business, Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists, produced its own Echinacea products that it gained widespread popularity in America as a treatment for colds and infections. However, with the advent of modern antibiotics during the 1920s, Echinacea's usefulness as a healing herb declined.

Today is outdoor Wednesday. Please check out the others here, thanks to Susan at A Southern Daydreamer.