National Fall Foliage Week at the Pawnshop

23 Sep National Fall Foliage Week at the Pawnshop

When someone here at the pawnshop said that we should celebrate National Fall Foliage Week, which happens to run from Sept. 27 through Oct. 3, we really weren’t sure what to think. After all, most people aren’t thinking of the lush greens of Florida’s tropical landscape when they think of fall foliage. 

We’ve been providing Boca Raton with pawn and jewelry services for three generations, so it’s not like we are recent transplants from one of the northern states where the trees are undoubtedly turning colors and offering up a fantastically fiery display. It must be breathtaking and worth celebrating, but fall has never been that showy here in South Florida. 

But that doesn’t mean we don’t have fall colors worth celebrating!

Florida’s Fall Blooms

Up north, fall colors are usually red, orange and yellow or gold. Here in Florida, it’s more like purple and yellow. For some reason, most of the wildflowers that bloom this time of year in the Sunshine State come in one of those colors. 

And, if there is a silver lining when it comes to all the rain we’ve had lately, it could be that our native wildflowers seem to love it, so this might be a good year to go out and see what you can find. (It might also be a nice, safe way to get out of the house with the family!)

If you like purple, look for gayfeathers (liatris). 

“Blazing stars (Liatris), also known as Gayfeathers, are showy purple wands of flowers that are hard to miss, even when speeding down an interstate at 70 mph.  They are in the daisy family (Asteraceae) but lack the showy petals typical of plants in this family,” the folks at the Florida Wildflower Association report. 

If you are prone to allergies, you might not like this one too much – they are in the same family of wildflowers as goldenrod. But if you want to plant a butterfly garden, keep these in mind.

The Florida Wildlife Federation calls them liatris or gayfeathers, “This tall, perennial wildflower is often found in well-drained sandy soils in flatwood, sandhill and scrub habitat,” they say. “It blooms in late summer though fall and provides nectar for butterflies, moths, bees and other pollinating insects. Liatris is an excellent native plant for attracting pollinators to gardens and landscapes.”

We don’t have gardening supplies here at Barry’s Pawn and Jewelry in Boca Raton, but we do see some beautiful examples of floral designs in some of the estate jewelry we handle. Come in and see what’s blooming!