The Penstemons are in bloom now and they are bee magnets.
Aren't they lovely? The fine fuzz on the flowers and buds add to their vibrancy. Not sure if this is smooth or foxglove beardtongue.
I also don't know if this is a species or a hybrid, but I love the delicate coloring.
Carolina Bush Pea is finishing up now but I wanted to include it anyway. It has such an elegant stately presence in the garden. It grows wild on mountain balds in the Appalachians but is just as much at home in the piedmont. It looks especially beautiful with the bright pink flowers of Rosa palustris scandens.
I grew this purple milkweed from seed that I bought from Prairie Moon Nursery. It's more of a rosy magenta than purple, but I really wanted to grow it since it's so different in color from the other milkweeds I've seen: white common milkweed, orange butterfly weed, red-orange few-flowered milkweed, and pink swamp milkweed. It's in a bed with Rosa palustris scandens, spiderwort 'Zwanenburg Blue' and 'Concord Grape', St. John's Wort and the rose 'Basye's Purple'. It would look great with butterfly weed too.
I seem to have a hard time getting my act together for Wildflower Wednesday. One month I wrote it down on the calendar, only to realize that I wrote it down on the 5th Wednesday of that month. lol But better late than never, right? Thank you Gail for hosting this wonderful meme.
Ohhhh I like that Purple Milkweed, what a great color! we had the Carolina Bushpea in the Learning Garden in Virginia, sure is a great bold yellow.
ReplyDeleteI need to add some Penstemon next spring. I do like them.
I love your purple milkweed. I had the orange butterfly weed for many, many years, but since Hurricane Wilma in 2005, I've had none. I thought they would come back as they always did, but NADA.
ReplyDeleteI love your Smooth or Foxglove Beardtongue blooms too.
Happy Gardening Sweetbay and have a great holiday weekend too.
FlowerLady
Beautiful photos! The pollinators seem to appreciate your wildflowers also :) I was a day late for WW also, but better late than not at all!
ReplyDeleteSweetbay~I am going to check that delicious milkweed plant out~I am dreaming if I think it will be happy in my not sunny enough space~But, it's lovely. Looking at your last two photos I find myself wondering how anyone can think of this exotic looking flowers as a weed! Happy WW! gail
ReplyDeleteI have two questions for you today. Do you do anything special to the Carolina bush pea once it has finished blooming? Should I cut off the spent bloom stalks? And I too grew that pink milkweed from seed. I am getting ready to plant my seedlings out soon. Have you had an issue with it spreading into unwanted areas? Where I walk there is a great stand of it and this winter I collected some seeds for winter sowing and surprisingly enough they sprouted. I love it in your garden and love it where I walks. It's such a neat flower.
ReplyDeleteTina I don't cut back the spent stalks of Carolina Bush Pea; I like the look of the seedheads. I haven't had a problem with any of the milkweeds spreading. In fact I wish they'd spread more!
ReplyDeleteYour wildflowers are beautiful. We see most of these on the mountainsides, but we haven't tried growing them in our garden. Maybe we should!
ReplyDeleteI love penstemons, but the only one I have growing right now is Huskers Red. I need to get more. Great closeup photos, especially that Milkweed with the bee on it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous milkweed! This might be one I could sneak into the garden without my husband getting upset:) I need to check out Prairie Moon Nursery; several people have recommended it to me for native plants.
ReplyDeleteI also wish the baptisia would spread in my garden. Unfortunately, they do not. The seed pods are super cool though. Your penstemon is a pretty thing as is the milkweed. So nice and such good food for pollinators.~~Dee
ReplyDeleteInsects must love it in your garden. I liked the white Penstemon. Lovely to see the more delicate species rather than the more colourful and robust garden hybrids (lovely though they are!)
ReplyDeleteI know I mentioned it in my last comment but that pea bush is a gem. You could plant verbascum bombyciferum 'artic summer' for a similar effect once the pea goes over.
ReplyDeleteWhite penstemons are really lovely. Bet they come 'alive' in the evening light.
Your Penstomons are so pretty. You have some wonderful pollinator flowers in your garden. The bees, butterflies and hummingbirds must love your garden. Those Carolina Bush Peas are the first I had seen on your blog. I just love them.Have a wonderful weekend!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your wonderful photography so much! Thanks for posting all these lovely pictures. Penstemons are some of my favorite plants and great companions to roses, so I grow a lot of them (probably more than my space allows...). Thank you for showing yours - they are so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteOh, how i love finding new gardeners that share the passion of Gardening! I host a garden party on Thursday's called Cottage Flora Thursday's...would love to have you come by & peek around & would love it even better if you'd link a garden post sometime? oxox,tracie
ReplyDeleteNow I want purple milkweed! Your photos are so beautiful. I also really enjoyed your last post.
ReplyDeleteAs always, I sigh as I imagine wandering through your lovely garden. We also are experiencing summer temps in the 90s. I crave some watermelon!
Good Morning Sweet bay. I love your Carolina Bush Pea and your Purple Milkweed is gorgeous. I wonder if it would be hardy here. Your plants thrive and look so healthy . . . thanks to your loving Prince I am guessing. I applaud your efforts in caring for both horses and gardens.
ReplyDeleteVery lovely photos! The white penstemon would look great in my garden, thanks - I'll look for it!
ReplyDeleteWho cares what day you post when you have all these gorgeous beauties!!! That carolina bush pea is fabulous! So stately. You can't beat a penstemon either. I try and add a variety or so each year. Some take, some don't. We'll see what blooms this year.
ReplyDeleteI love the coloring on the milkweed. Did it readily germinate? I would like to try some...
btw, your photos are all superb.
Your milkweed looks so healthy. Do you ever have problems with aphids on them? The two years I grew milkweed (the orange one) aphids swarmed all over the plants. I'd spray them off and later there would be more. Course, I also had a lot of butterflies and lady bugs those years too.
ReplyDeleteKathleen I think the Purple Milkweed seed came up no problem.
ReplyDeleteLynn there's no aphids on any of the milkweeds now, but later this summer there probably will be. They seem to like the Swamp Milkweed 'Ice Ballet' best for some reason. I tried to leave a comment on your blog but couldn't ~ the same with Alison's blog ~ there is some glitch with blogger. Unless there's a pop-up window I can't leave a comment unless there's an option for name/url and/or anonymous.
Rob I have been meaning to try Verbascums for a while. I will have to look up 'arctic summer'.
I spend my time "oohing" and aahing" at everyone's spectacular photos. The penstemons are very attracive plants.
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