Category Archives: Roger Williams Park Botanical Center

Fall magic at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center Display Garden

Butterfly weed seed rests on Joe Pye weed at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center Display Garden.

Butterfly weed seed rests on Joe pye weed at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center Display Garden.

There’s magic in the air again this fall, as silky puffs burst out of butterfly weed follicles like bright white fireworks bursting out of a purse, each carrying what looks like an aged miniature copper penny that is actually a seed about to take flight.

I had the pleasure of volunteering with the URI Master Gardeners at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center Display Garden yesterday, weeding and edging beds (aka bed maintenance) just in time to spiff up for this weekend’s plant sale, URI Master Gardeners soil testing and info kiosk event, and the Botanical Center Conservancy Photography Contest Exhibition.

Even though I garden practically every day, I was in awe at the early fall colors in the Display Garden.  Blooming plumes on grasses push back and forth in the wind, contrasted against stands of perennials, some in full bloom and full of pollinators, others done blooming but still beautiful with their fall-colored crayon foliage and seeds about to drop.

Native butterfly weed follicles burst open at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center Display Garden

Native butterfly weed follicles burst open at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center Display Garden

Big milkweed bug nymphs on Asclepias tuberosa, butterfly weed

Nymphs of big milkweed bugs, Oncopeltus fasciatus, on butterfly weed follicles at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center Display Garden

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