I want [insert name of plant here]. Want.

Last week DH was on vacation. He spent a lot of time mowing but we also went on a couple of days trips, one to the beach and one to Chapel Hill. Every time I go to Chapel Hill I see more plants I want.

I saw this lovely anemone growing in the Arboretum on campus. The flowers looked a little wan in the hot summer sun but look at those silvery lavender buds. Exquisite. Unfortunately something like this would be breakfast, lunch and dinner for the black blister beetles in my garden. They love anemones.

Passionflower grows wild down in the floodway fields and I really should
move some up to the house, as there is nothing like a passionflower bloom.

Green-Headed Coneflower also grows in our floodway fields, and should have a place in the garden. It looks its best lurking at the woods' edge where its beauty shines to best advantage, especially with companions Joe Pye Weed and Ironweed.

This tall stand of Green-Headed Coneflowers in the full sun border looked good too! Wouldn't they also look great with some tall feathery grasses like Panicum 'Cloud Nine' and Velvet Mallow (Hibiscus grandiflorus)?

We also visited the NC Botanical Garden, a treasure trove of plants to put on the want list.

Check out this Pine Lily! Isn't it beautiful? The option
of a bathtub/bog garden is looking better every second.

And look, cranberries! I didn't think it was even possible
to grow cranberries this far south but there they are.

Even though I don't yet have a bog garden I couldn't pass up getting some
"bog cheetos", as Orange Milkwort is affectionately known by the Garden staff.

A view of the bog beds, with Pawpaw tree in the background.

The Summer Phlox looked magnificent. I have Phlox but I don't
have this much of it, and not in this variety of colors.

I had some Ironweed but DH mowed it. But I can't complain too much, at least the garden paths got mowed. :) Anyway, it might still come back next year. But, I need more. I think there's some seedlings in the jungle on the front porch. I hope so, because that color purple in August is a beautiful thing.

American Spikenard was on my want list just from reading a description of it. Isn't the color of the fruit gorgeous?

Common-as-dirt Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' looking beautiful in dappled shade. I would love to have a full planting like this again, as the one down by the old house site is being encroached upon by summersweet and seedling sweetgums.

Few-Flowered Milkweed looks like Butterfly Weed in this picture, but trust me it doesn't. It's tall, tall, tall (to 6-7') and willowy.

Now this plant I think I already have. I used to think we had Highbush Blueberry here, but after seeing this I think we have this species instead. The fruits have that familiar dusty dark blue but darken to purple and then black as they fully ripen.

Besides the Bog Cheetos these other plants came home with me: a Culver's Root, the species Rudbeckia fulgida (which looks more like Rudbeckia triboba than 'Goldsturm'), and a beautiful Summer Phlox named 'Katherine' which is snow white suffused with lavender pink.

I haven't even covered the list of wants from our June visit yet. ;)