Garden Closeups

Ken took my little camera out to the garden this evening and came back with these. I don't know why I can't get the same camera to take such great shots, but I'm not complaining.

A new coneflower we planted last year.
Lead plant has such beautiful blooms and interesting leaves. We love the contrast of its blueish color to the green grasses, too.
The bee balm (Wild Bergamot) is just starting to pop open.
We're so happy to have Wooly Verbena coming back. Hardly any came up last year, but it's making a comeback this year.
Our purple coneflowers are coming on nicely.
We call False Sunflower (Heliopsis) "Old Faithful." This flower has been our most loyal standby since we sowed the wildflower mix. It blooms early, all season long, and profusely.

4 comments :

Melanie said...

I'm intrigued by that leadplant. .I saw it listed in someone else's blog too. I'll have to check about that. I got a start of the wild bergamont from Gaia Gardener, and I noticed this morning that it is starting to bloom. .I am super excited about that, as I have never been able to grow other varieties! And I noticed last summer at the Chaplin Nature center that the swallowtails were feasting in abundance!! I hadn't thought about trying to get the verbena to grow in my garden. .Did you seed it, or transplant it? Looks like your gardens are bursting with beauty!!

Deborah Raney said...

The wooly verbena was part of a wildflower mix we got from Prairie Frontier. It was a nice mix with enough annuals that we had color the very first year while waiting for the other things to get established.

We're pretty sure the lead plant rode in with some farm dirt we brought in. Same for our Butterfly Milkweed. We love that, since the goal of the gardens along the fence is to recreate the prairie pasturelands from both our childhoods. Of course we've brought in a lot of invasive weeds that way, too. We're really fighting the bindweed this year! It has a pretty flower, but it strangles the other plants as it blooms. :(

Ruth said...

I also sowed a sunflower mix this year but have had no joy. Did you sow in starter pots or right in the ground? I have a feeling that I should have sown right in the ground...

Deborah Raney said...

Yes, Ruth, we sowed right into the ground. Quite a few of the flowers in our wildflower mix did not come up until the second year. Also, there were a few annuals in the mix, so we would have "joy" that first summer. There were a few things that were supposed to be in the mix that never did come up, but those False Sunflowers and Wild Bergamot have been the stars. This is our 8th summer here.