My September blog focused on my favorite Actaea (formerly known as Cimicifuga), A. Racemosa purpurea. Since we’ve had such a wonderfully long Fall, I’ve had time to take more pictures between fall chores.
This is the same plant shown in the older blog. The first image was taken on the 28th of September, showing all the secondary blooms in their glory, while the primary blooms are going to seed. The second image was taken the morning of October 25th. It shows another feature that differentiates the A. Racemosa purpurea from the species (A. Racemosa) — fall color. (Some of the green leaves of the species, which flank the Purpurea, can be seen in the image.)
Carl's Backyard Blog 
Actea is such a great plant, they’re all so horribly underused. Thanks for the comment on my blog!
They are pretty big, so not every yard can handle them. Of course, they love living under oaks, so if someone has an oak, they should have room for at least one.
BTW: I’m just now getting back to the blog. I have a backlog of stuff, but it took this most recent picture to get me online. I’ll be putting stuff up over the next couple of weeks. Looks like you’ve settled well in Chicagoland.