Good morning from the garden!

Last Sunday I shared the interesting desert plants that were along the Harry Reid Union Pacific Railroad Trail near my mom’s house in Henderson, Nevada.  So today I thought I would tell you about the beautiful wildflower garden along the railway trail that Mr. Q and I walk on near our house here in the Twin Cities.

Illinois and Wisconsin started turning abandoned railway lines into hiking/biking trails back in the 60’s, but the movement didn’t become really widespread until the late 80’s.  According to the Rails to Trails Conservancy, there are now over 26,000 miles of rail-trails in the U.S.

The Gateway Trail was built along the former Soo Line Railroad and goes from St. Paul to Stillwater.  The first segment of the trail was completed in 1993.  So Mr. Q and I have been walking on this trail for probably around 30 years.  Well … actually … back in the day we biked on it more than we walked on it, but these days we are walkers.

It’s unfortunate that the section of the trail nearest our house also happens to run alongside a very busy highway (because there is a lot of traffic noise).  However, back in 2020, as part of a project to replace a stoplight, they re-worked this area of the trail adding a tall sound barrier wall between the highway and the trail.

They also must have purposely planted wildflowers all along that stretch of the trail at the same time, but I can’t find any definitive info about that online.  It feels like it had to be deliberate though.

As it turns out, I’m not that good at identifying local wildflowers.  I recognize some of them, like the bee balm.

And I believe this next purple one is Blue Giant Hyssop.

I’ve always called this next one Black Eyed Susan …

I did a little research and this wildflower is found in all of the lower 48 states, plus all 10 Canadian provinces.  So it’s pretty common.

I had to look this next one up, and I think it must be Prairie Fleabane.

So called because it was once thought that the dried flowers would repel fleas.

I tried to find this next wildflower on the Minnesota Wildflowers website, but without even a clue as to its name I tried to look it up by color alone.  However, there are 278 varieties of purple wildflowers in Minnesota.  I just didn’t have the patience to sift through them all.

If any of you know what this one is, please leave a comment.

As for this next purple flower, I thought it looked as though it must be in the verbena family so that gave me a starting point.

I found Hoary Vervain, and I’m pretty sure that’s it.

It’s amazing how many flowers are in the verbena family, all the way from Verbena bonariensis to the Proven Winner’s Superbena Cloudburst that I used in my planters a couple of years ago.

Even lantana, which is grown as an annual here in Minnesota and as a perennial in my mom’s area, is in the verbena family.  Who knew?

Although we can grow some of the same plants, like the lantana, there is definitely a vast difference between the landscape in Southern Nevada and the landscape in Minnesota.

But I enjoy walking on each of these trails and looking to see what sort of wildflowers I might find along the way.

How about you?  Do you have a favorite spot for wildflowers where you are?  Leave a comment and let me know.