Again I’m late for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day (traditionally the 15th of the month). This will probably be my last GBBD until next May, though it’s possible there will something to show in October. Click any of the photos to see a larger version.
This month I’m organising by colour, because I’ve realised that 12 years into this garden, many of my perennials, wildflowers, and even shrubs and trees have re-seeded themselves all over the yard, so that the Joe Pye weed that was once only in the back yard is now still there but also in the shade garden and front yard, and the goldenrod, evening primrose, phlox, asters, and many others are everywhere.
WHITE
Not a lot of white in my garden now: native turtlehead (Chelone glabra) (one with bumblebee), Peegee hydrangea (from some angles), and white phlox.
PINK
The hydrangeas are turning that lovely pink-green now.
Below: Two echinaceas, ‘Autumn Fire’ and ‘Hab Grey’ sedums, a gazania and a zinnia (both annuals), a tiny heuchera flower, clover, Joe Pye weed (one with monarch), a garden phlox and a ‘Neon Intensia’ phlox, ‘Hot Lips’ Chelone lyonii (turtlehead; one with bumblebee), Japanese anemone ‘Curtain Call,” and New England aster.
PURPLE and BLUE
Everything likes the ‘Ellen’s Blue’ buddleia, which has managed to live here for eight years, longer than its three predecessors.
Below are willow gentian, concord grapes, borage, Eryngium (sea holly, maybe ‘Blue Glitter’), Echinops (globe thistle), seal-heal in the lawn (looking quite carnivorous!), asters, comfrey, ‘Grandpa Ott’ morning glory, great blue lobelia, and ‘Rozanne’ geranium.
RED
Bee balm (one with carpenter bee), impatiens (annual), cardinal flower – with hummingbird and monarch, red gazania (annual), and ‘Stained Glassworks Crowned Jewel’ coleus (annual).
ORANGE
All the oranges are annuals: two gazanias and three zinnias (one with fritillary).
YELLOW
Two-toned cucumber flower, goldenrods, sunflower bud (something keeps eating them before they flower), a chartreuse ‘Color Blaze Royale Pineapple Brandy’ coleus, Kirengeshoma palmata (yellow wax bells), sneezeweed, and evening primrose.
INSECTS, BIRDS, and OTHER ANIMALS
I found eight monarch chrysalises this year, with monarch butterflies successfully eclosing from five or six (not sure about the sixth) of them. One fell off early, and one just darkened and then shriveled. I saw three of those monarchs at some stage of their eclosure, including one taking its first flight, which was breathtaking.
This one eclosed today, the last of the eight. She’s still drying her wings in the third photo.
More!
LANDSCAPE
I’ll finish with a few landscape photos.
Thanks for visiting!
Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.
Featured image: two monarchs (of eight butterflies on the flowers) and a bumblebee on the Joe Pye weed.
I have enjoyed your posts from hikes in the woods/bog that often mirror my own observations and am encouraged to see the great variety of perennials and their companion insects in your garden. I inherited a garden from a woman who I think of as a spirited individual who had a vision, but was sadly whisked away unwillingly by death. Every season I think of her, though we never crossed paths, when her plants go through their destined life cycles of energetic spring resurrection, sweet summer bounty, bonus fall beauty and then long winter slumber. I am grateful for the chance to witness that cycle that first began for me in those seemingly endless winter months where gardens lie dormant, but hopeful, just as we who dream in technicolor when we binge read seed catalogs. Thanks also to you for sharing your colorful visions with strangers you chance to meet incognito.
Thank you! I love that think of the woman whose garden you inherited without having ever met her in person.