Wildflower Wednesday

The Bidens are fading and going to seed now, but this is what they looked like at their peak one week ago ~ a vast sea of golden yellow.

So such yellow needs a counterpoint of something else, blue, pink or purple.


Japanese Beautyberry

The rich royal purple of American beautyberries

Delicate sprays of purple muhly blooms

Spiderwort 'Zwanenburg Blue'

The Bidens display extends for over a thousand feet beyond the garden, in the ditches next to the pasture. I always wish there was more.

Insects of all sorts love them.


Pearl Crescent

Buckeye

Gray Hairstreak

Female Cloudless Sulfur

I don't know what this little guy is but he's cute.

Eupatorums other than Joe Pye Weed and Blue Mist Flower grow wild
here. Here is an elegant-looking wasp on Hyssop-Leaved Thoroughwort.

Today I am joining Gail at clay and limestone for wonderful Wildflower Wednesday. Better late than never!

Blooming Friday ~ Diamonds are not forever

Riches abound in the garden. These sweet Prairie Phlox from this spring and Spiderwort 'Zwanenburg Blue' are graced with a delicate coating of diamond glimmer

while Purple Muhly Grass sports a fortune's worth of sparkle.

While these diamonds are ephemereal their worth is priceless. Join Katerina at roses and stuff for more Blooming Fridays.

A Big Bowl of Sunshine and What's in the box?

The farm is literally a big bowl of sunshine right now, even on cloudy days.

The show started with a few hundred flowers

and quickly progressed to thousands. There are the
brilliant yellow flowers of Bidens aristosa everywhere,

all abuzz with insect life.

I wish there were more along the upper part of the driveway

but there are tons in the new beds in front of the house,

at the front of the big perennial bed,

and in the bed beside the neighbor's pasture.

Not only are the Bidens themselves brilliant, they combine brilliantly with other colors.

The Bidens-less parts of the garden provides a rest for the eyes. lol

Look what I found in a box intended for recycling. Penny doesn't usually do cat-like things such as this so I was surprised to see her in there. She is slow, deliberate, without the usual balance and athleticism that cats possess. We used to think that she was perhaps drain-bramaged from being dropped on her head as a kitten (before we had her) ;), but after watching a program on Animal Plant I think she's just a throwback to her Persian ancestry. lol