It's Lily Week Along Bog Meadow Trail!

My photo files alerted me to head on out to Bog Meadow Brook Nature Trail this week, if I wanted to catch the brilliant show the Canada Lilies put on.  In past years, I've found dozens of this gorgeous native wildflower growing the second week of July in the forested swamp that borders this trail, located just east of Saratoga Springs.  I remember in particular a gigantic one that towered over the trailhead sign-in, as soon as one enters the trail from the Rte. 29 parking area.  So that's where I started my explorations today, expecting to get my lily fix right away.  But my heart truly sank when I stepped on the trail and saw that the mowers had recently been there, mowing a swath so wide a semi truck could drive down the trail.  Uh oh!  That super-tall lily that towered over the sign was gone!  Weed-whacked away, along with much other trailside vegetation.  Would I find ANY lilies today?

Well, I needn't have worried!  I hadn't gone more than a few frantic steps than I spied this trio shining out from the shadows.  And over the next few hundred yards, I counted over 50 in glorious bloom.

Some were quite a distance off in the swamp, glowing like lamps amid the dark shade of the trees.

Others were close to the side of the trail, leaning out as if to greet me.

I found all the colors this beautiful native lily comes in, although most of the flowers were the same deep orange as this carousel of three blooms.

But I did find a few like this sunny yellow pair.

Some were colored about mid-way between orange and yellow, like this plant that had grown up right beside its stem from last year, still tipped with its spent seed pods.

And one or two were colored an orange so deep it was nearly scarlet, with every other tepal lined with yellow.  Gorgeous!

Most of the plants I found were about chest high, but I did find a few that towered way over my head. All the better to see your charming freckled faces, my dears!