September 19, 2021
I’ve long appreciated the beautiful late summer blooms of Orange jewelweed—tangerine-orange chalices with tiny red polka dots on their insides—but as a weed I thought it was best left to grow on the moist margins of the woods, not a volunteer I should keep around in a flowerbed. But I’ve been changing my ways of late, paying more attention to native plants (Orange jewelweed is native to Maine) and their role in providing food and habitat resources for our insects, birds, mammals and more.
Orange jewelweed
we left unpulled last July,
hummingbirds’ fall feast