Visiting the Arboretum: All members and visitors need to make a reservation in advance of their visit to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. We hope to see you soon!

By Mary Beth Pottratz

It's another hot one at the Arboretum. The strong summer sun dries the dew in minutes. A light breeze fans me, making 88⁰ seem pleasant.

Gray-headed coneflowers

Gray-headed coneflowers bend and swish their golden skirts in the wind. Monarchs are far more plentiful this year. They flit and glide silently over the prairie, wetlands, and woodland edges, nectaring on lavender florets of blazing star and common milkweed.

Rattlesnake master

A song sparrow calls and a common yellowthroat answers repeatedly. I wonder if different species of birds communicate with each other? Rattlesnake master flowerheads are opening their buds. A small white skipper flaps by.

Hairy False goldenasters

And a plant listed as Endangered in Minnesota, wild quinine, is starting to open. Look closely – its ¼" wide florets often camouflage the spider that resembles it! Hairy false goldenasters have yellow daisy-shaped flowers facing up to the sun. Great St. John's wort are sporting the last of their yellow flowers, and the cone-shaped ovaries are turning maroon.

Common milkweeds

Common milkweeds are just starting to develop their pods full of seeds. The fortunate wetland plants and shrubs have their feet in soggy ground. Arrowheads have bunches of waxy white flowers in front of their large arrow-shaped leaves in the wetlands. Indigo buntings called back and forth to each other from treetops. Song sparrows, common yellowthroats, chickadees, nuthatches and cardinals serenade us. I stop to watch as a white slant-line moth nectars on a plant.

White slant-line moth
Great Indian plantain

Great Indian plantain is preparing to blossom. It's listed as threatened in Minnesota. Several Master Naturalist Volunteers helped at the Arboretum's Plants Conservation Program to clean and count the seeds of another threatened species, Tuberose Indian plantain. Each tiny seed was attached to fine hairs that typically would spread the seed in the wind. It was painstaking but rewarding work.

Bee balm is abuzz with native pollinators, and its delightful scent hangs in the warm air. A single lavender flower appears ragged and delicate. But mass them together in a border with complementary colors, and you will delight both people and pollinators.

Mary Beth Pottratz is a Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteer. More information about the program is available at www.MinnesotaMasterNaturalist.org.