In keeping with the “spotted” theme of my last post, here’s an orange spotted jewelweed flower. I’m always trying to get the perfect photo of this flower.

A dream set-up would be when the sun is shining just *so* on it, to give the illusion of stained glass. There would be some nice glistening drops of water at least in the frame somewhere.

In the meantime, I snap a pic when I see a pretty one.

Later on as the plants begin to make seeds, I’ll try to collect some. Today I collected common milkweed seeds and some Echinacea purpurea. I’ll get these packaged up in some pretty way to sell at the farmer’s market soon.

Seeds on the list to be collected:

• Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
• Great Blue Lobelia (L. siphilitica)
• Milkweed (Asclepias spp.)
• Thimbleweed (Anemone virginiana)

Perhaps next year I’ll be able to add our wild-simulated American ginseng to the list. This year all of the seeds I collected went back to replanting the hillsides.