When Life Gives You Orange

When life gives you orange, well... you have orange!

Orange is not my favorite color, but it's sort of interesting because there aren't very many flowers, and very few wildflowers, that are orange. Most of the ones that are orange are lilies.

The common "Ditch Lily" is always orange. It is not native, and a lot of people are trying to get us all to get rid of it, but it's so naturalized, I don't see that happening. All the day lilies are imports from Asia.

However, there are a lot of orange butterflies. This is a Northern Crescent. Google tried to tell me it was a Pearl Crescent, but my good butterfly book says Northern. They don't look THAT much alike. It's enjoying some Joe-Pye Weed.

Did you know that some kinds of baby carrots grow on tall stems?

You know I'm kidding, right? But I've never had Tiger Lilies before, so watching them color up and take days to open was sort of mysterious. These are also ornamental plants, imported from Asia about 200 years ago for gardens. There are some native orange lilies.

Here's a view looking up into the flower.

For one of the native orange flowers, here is Spotted Jewelweed or Touch-me-not. It likes to have damp feet.

I tried to make today be more calm. I did a good amount of editing, finished my LDN column for the month, started the third weed-through of the season on the rock garden, dug a little dirt in the moon garden where it was shadier- but there were biting gnats. If I can get my butt in gear to go get gas, I think I'll mow a little yet this evening.

See PFS 2019- Orange

An Orangely Success

As everyone in the northeast knows, the air quality is terrible due to the fires in Canada and Minnesota. It is unpleasant, but it affects my ability to function much less than the heat and humidity.

Next topic. Some of you know I signed up for the Onekama 30-day Challenge. This is just to help motivate me to get into shape for the longish hike I hope to do this fall. At 78, I can't just "wing it" the way I used to be able to do without conditioning.

So I set my goal for the challenge to hike 100 miles in those 30 days. That's 25 miles a week. Today is the end of the first week, and I needed 6+ miles. I could NOT make myself to get up and hike early- besides, it was already hot in the morning. Then it got hotter. Then the air quality went bonkers due to the fires in Canada and Minnesota. But the smoke blotted out the sun enough that the temperature declined to 82°. Still not great, but better than it was all day.

So... I headed out at 6 pm to get my 6 miles.

What the heck? Someone's been using spray paint in the woods?

Then I saw spots like this all over. Then I realized there were also stripes on the trees. It's the sunlight from the very orange sun through the haze!

Just for fun, I saw little orange mushrooms.

And other little orange mushrooms.

And the evening sun trying to shine through the haze.

A great horned owl flew across the trail in front of me, but no picture.

How'd I do? Got my first 25 miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 213.1
Miles walked for the Onekama Challenge: 25
Miles walked for Hike 100 Challenge: 76

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, from Timber Creek to 8th St and back and a little more.

In other news: I stayed inside and edited a lot.

See The Small of Orange

Philadelphia Flower Show 2026 - Warm Colors

I need to do an easy post tonight, so I'll just show you half a color wheel with warm colors.

One thing that's so cool about the show is how lavish the plants are. Here are many shades of red and pink.

A spray of very orange orchids.

Orange shading to yellow in this Gloriosa Lily.

And yellow in another orchid.

I did get to my meeting. I wore a mask to help keep the germs to myself and stayed upright and contributed. But I've slept most of the rest of the day and hope to continue that all night.

I had been thinking I'd walk after the meeting, but there was too much snow in the woods, and I didn't have the energy.

See PFS 2026- Floramere- Block

Orange We Happy?

These plants were looking healthy this year, so I was hopeful they would bloom. It's Blackberry Lily, Belamcanda chinensis. I don't think they've bloomed since 2011. They haven't been a huge success although they do survive. In fact, they have spread a bit. However, they never really fill in to make much of a splash of color. But they are pretty interesting. I may share again when the seeds pods open.

Here's something I never noticed before, and I love it! The buds are spiraled like a soft-serve ice cream. They close at night and open later in the day.

I haven't showed you the blanketflower this year (except the seed heads). The variety is 'Arizona Sun.' I think next year I'll look for one other variety. They tolerate the heat of the rock garden quite well and bloom for a long time.

You will hear more about the marigolds later. A few are blooming.

And I gave in to temptation and bought one of the popular Heuchera. This is 'Caramel,' sort of orange. Not marked down. It's not my favorite, but it is a bit different from the others I have.

I was doing well until about mid-afternoon. Not sure if it's the horrible air quality, the humidity, age, or just whatever. But I did work some on most of my projects and the gardens. Walked 3 miles this morning and braved the store. Meijer was a zoo. Maybe I'll blame my fading energy on the stress of shopping.

Miles hiked in 2025- 324.6

See Back to the Blackberry Lily

The Orange Doors

 
I've wanted to show this on the blog for years. I finally stopped and took pictures.

This is fun on many levels. In the first place, it's a wall that hides a junk yard. Secondly, it's made from old steel doors, so it's a great upcycling project.



And it's rusted and weathered to the point where it has become almost a work of art. I always enjoy looking at it as I drive past.



On US 10, just west of MI-37.

In other news: Well, I worked on the book in the morning, but then I had to make yogurt, do a bunch of small odd tasks, errands, and then bell choir practice and writer's group. Long day. All good. I got through the entire list. Received a stunning review on Accidentally Yours, the collection of my short writings. I'll finish the formatting for that in the next few days, and then it will be available for purchase.

	See Maggie Says, "More Orange Mom"
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Philadelphia Flower Show 2019 - Orange

 
Let's just go through the colors at the 2019 Philadelphia Flower Show. Next up is orange.

I'll start with an interesting cactus in bloom. It's a Parodia, a genus of cactus native to South America. (Doesn't seem to fit that genus to me, but I'm no cactus expert.)



This is the winner in one of the miniature contests, the theme of which was "Light My Fire." Plant materials are a Ginger blossom, and Curly Ting-ting, a dried grass.



Next up is one of the displays from a commercial exhibit called Happy Together. It's supposed to explore relationships between plants and people. It had one section for each color with neon tubes. I'm not sure I understand this one but it sure is orange.



Tulips are always wonderful to see in early spring. They never disappoint.



And I love the variety and colors of Begonias. You may see a whole day of them.



Can't let you go without one more kind of tulip.



Finally, this is from the World Cup exhibit by Korea.



The furnace is fixed. Can't say I mind. It didn't get below 58 in the house, but it's nice to have indoor spaces be indoorsy. I finished the book I needed to read, and wrote in the morning. Didn't accomplish much else. The forecast was rain, so I didn't walk. Should have... no rain.

	See Red or Bright Pink
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Aposematic Coloration

 
Orange and black are colors of warning, "aposematic," at least in the insect world. They usually mean "I don't taste good and will make you sick" to other insects and birds. In fact, some insects have adapted to use the colors when they don't taste bad at all, but the warning still works.

The reason a lot of them taste bad is that they feed on the leaves of milkweed and milkweed relatives. The sap of these contains high levels of cardiac glycosides. If you've ever accidentally tasted milkweed sap you know how bitter it tastes. (And this is why you should only eat baby milkweed greens and boil them thoroughly)

Today I found two of these little larvae on some milkweed. It will become the Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle, Labidomera clivicollis, which is-- you guessed it-- orange and black.



This is common milkweed, but they aren't too picky although they prefer swamp milkweed. They can chew through a lot of milkweed, but they are native, so I'll let them live.



I did learn that you want to be careful to never get milkweed sap in an eye-- it can cause severe inflammation and blurred vision for days. You'd think with all the bad press giant hogweed is getting that someone would mention the danger of this common plant. I also can't believe I've never had this happen, since I rub my eyes way too much.

Right next door on a goldenrod were some End Band Net-wing beetles, adults, Calopteron terminale.



Ah! I did find what I was looking for-- a Monarch caterpillar.



In other news: I started planning hike food, but didn't get enough done to bother to share yet. Walked 4 miles with 26 pounds. Oof. I'm not in very good shape. Started writing the next chapter of DMS Mistletoe. Oh yeah, and I did laundry.

	See Little Brother
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Yellow and Orange Make Me Smile

 
Just got home from writers' group, so I'll do a fast post and call it a day. The two brightest flowers from yesterday are so intense they just seem to glow.

The yellow is hoary puccoon, Lithospermum canescens. It's really similar to hairy puccoon, but it's less hairy. Now you know. I think these two plants come the closest to having the exact color of the old Crayola boxes called yellow-orange.



The other is a flower that is stunning to find in the wild. The color is outlandishly fluorescent red-orange. It's commonly called Indian paintbrush (as are several other plants), but this is Castilleja coccinea. It's secret is that the color isn't the petals. the actual tiny flower is hidden inside the bright calyx.



I had never seen either of these flowers till I moved to Michigan.

In other news: I hung out laundry and wrote chapter 3 in The Bigg Boss. Also participated in a meeting via computer about trail stuff, then went to writers' group.

	See Hairy Puccoon
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Day-Glo Orange, Small and Large

 
Today was totally consumed with working on book formatting and related stuff. Wow. I've posted all that where it belongs, on the author blog. See The ABZ Affair - Color Cover.

What I'll bring you is a nifty sun-shot leaf on the Pigeon River from my trip to see Ester,



and, today's sunset.



My head feels like it's going to explode from all the concentration, but hopefully I can keep it up a couple more days.

See the other blog for all (almost all) the other news!

	See Very Early Spring Color Wheel for another leaf made orange by the sun
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