I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures
completes the world.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
I might put by themselves the November flowers, —
flowers which survive severe frosts and the fall of the leaf.
Yarrow and tansy still.
These are cold,
gray days.
Rounded white petals
of yarrow above the snow –
perfect, cold and chaste.
October 20 . Canada snapdragon, tansy, white goldenrod, blue-stemmed goldenrod. Aster undulatus, autumnal dandelion, tall buttercup, yarrow, mayweed. October 20, 1852
October 23. I notice these flowers still along the railroad causeway:
- fresh sprouts from the root of the Solidago nemoralis in bloom,
- one or two fall dandelions,
- red clover and white,
- yarrow,
- Trifolium arvense (perhaps not fresh),
- one small blue snapdragon,
- fresh tansy in bloom on the sunny sand bank.
November 3. To-day I see yarrow, very bright. November 3, 1853
November 3. Also Aster undulatus is still freshly in bloom; yarrow, etc., etc. November 3, 1858
November 6. Still the Canada snapdragon, yarrow, autumnal dandelion, tansy, shepherd's-purse, silvery cinquefoil, witch-hazel. November 6, 1853
November 9. Ranunculus repens, Bidens connata (flat in a brook), yarrow, dandelion, autumnal dandelion, tansy, Aster undulatus, etc. November 9, 1852
November 12. Tansy is very fresh still in some places. November 12, 1853
November 14. Still yarrow, tall buttercup, and tansy. November 14, 1852
November 18. Yarrow and tansy still. These are cold, gray days. November 18, 1852
November 18. Tansy still shows its yellow disks, but yarrow is particularly fresh and perfect, cold and chaste, with its pretty little dry-looking rounded white petals and green leaves. Its very color gives it a right to bloom above the snow, —as level as a snow-crust on the top white ruff. November 18, 1855
November 22. Yarrow is particularly fresh and innocent. November 22, 1853
November 23. Among the flowers which may be put down as lasting thus far, as I remember, in the order of their hardiness: yarrow, tansy (these very fresh and common), cerastium, autumnal dandelion, dandelion, and perhaps tall buttercup, etc., the last four scarce. The following seen within a fortnight: a late three-ribbed goldenrod of some kind, blue-stemmed goldenrod (these two perhaps within a week), Potentilla argentea, Aster undulatus, Ranunculus repens, Bidens connata, shepherd's-purse. November 23, 1852
December 6. Tansy still fresh, and I saw autumnal dandelion a few days since. December 6, 1852
December 12. Tansy still fresh yellow by the Corner Bridge. December 12, 1852
December 19. Yarrow too is full of seed now. December 19, 1859
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Yarrow and Tansy in Autumn
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality.”
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025
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