attracting goldfinches – MINDING MY P'S WITH Q

The Daily Post Photo Challenge Frame:
“This week, I’d love for you to look at things a bit differently. Whether it’s through an actual picture frame, a few stalks of grass, or even the spokes of a bicycle tire, find an alternative frame to the world around you and share what you see.”

I love watching the birds from my back window. Look through my window with me and get a close-up view of a male goldfinch eating sunflower seeds. A good way to attract goldfinches is to grow plants they use as a food source. Some of these are: sunflowers, echinacea, zinnias, black-eyed susan, rudbeckia, and thistles. I thought this photo was perfect for this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge. It inspired me to look up an old song from the 1960’s, “Look Through My Window,” by the The Mamas and the Papas. I think it’s a perfect way to celebrate the first Throwback Thursday of September.

Blue Cardinal Flower (Lobelia siphilitica) is a perennial lobelia. The flowers bloom in late summer. I love this plant, and if you saw my gardens at the moment you would not need an explanation as to why; the plant is growing EVERYWHERE! I started out with one plant over twenty years ago. Blue cardinal flower produces large amounts of seed, microscopic, they make up for their size by plenitude, hundreds upon hundreds of seeds in each pod. Each blossom develops a seed pod. You can imagine the millions of progeny that have been distributed in my garden beds over the years. I have also helped them out and broken pods over each and every flower bed on my property.

Yesterday I spotted a hummingbird sipping nectar from a blue cardinal flower growing in the front garden. I was ecstatic, I thought the small winged creatures had already left for warmer climates. Blue cardinal flower is an excellent hummingbird plant.

Excuse the quality of the goldfinch photograph. The moment was captured through my window screen. Goldfinches are feasting on the seedpods of my echinacea plants. They quickly flutter away anytime I try to approach them with camera in tow. Echinacea is the workhorse of my garden.

Beautiful, and full of goodness also, Echinacea is a tried and true herbal remedy. The maturing seedpods draw Goldfinches. Attracting Goldfinches is always a desire of those who watch birds.

Cockscomb (Celosia cristata), what a beautiful plant, is a perfect choice for an Autumn ornamental. I purchased this plant from a farm market this week. It is a perfect disguise for plants that are beginning to wane and fade away.