Seeds and stems

Sunday here in Rochester was a wonderful sunny day, but a day that never-the-less, was a fine autumn day.  The hollyhocks have a few flowers and flower buds left amid the seed pods.

 

I took this opportunity to harvest some seeds and strew them in an area where they could grow on their own.  The deer love to eat the leaves, so I distributed the seeds in area where it won't bother me if the leaves are deer fodder.  I love how the seeds are packed into the seed heads so neatly.

The pod on the photo below is on a plant I spotted for the first time last fall.  I have no idea what it is.  The inside is reminescent of a loofah sponge.  The spines on the outside are fairly soft and pliable.  If you peak inside the pod, you can a couple of seeds still in place.  The other seeds have already fallen out from the pendant, bell-shaped pod.

Some sections of the woods behind our house are filled with pale lavendar fall asters, like frothy lilac clouds.  There is no denying the arrival of autumn when you see these flowers.

The milkweed are flagrantly dispersing their seeds with no apparent ill-effects from the abundant milkweed bugs that supposedly feed on the seed.

With a heavy frost and below freezing temps in the forecast for Saturday night, we moved many of the plants that had been on the patio into the sunroom.  It looks like a jungle!  Since that photo was taken, we have managed to distribute the plants throughout the house near windows and some to a space in the laundry room where we installed a gro-lux light.  Maybe having all these plants inside will make the winter less dreary; one can always hope ...