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

At Twilight

I have been working in the garden, weeding and planting out a lot of young starts. The front porch is a jungle of potted plants, nearly all of which are divisions and seedlings of plants in the garden. There's only enough room for a path to the door and to reach the plants with a hose.

The weather is so, so much nicer than it was a month ago, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way. Still a little hot ~ upper 80's and I'm waiting for 70's so there's no "I'm in an oven" feeling in the middle of the afternoon.

The late afternoon light is fleeting and before you know it it's gone and it's twilight, time for the white flowers and evening bloomers to shine.

Garlic Chives

The Four o'clocks don't open until after six anyway.

Cardinal Flower is blooming in the ditches. This is a wildflower that I don't attempt to
cultivate anymore ~ Cardinal Flower grows wild here and I just let it do its own thing.

I do love the glimpses through the trees of the sun-bathed pastures at the end of the day ~ ours

and the neighbor's.

The Japanese Beetles were gone by August this year and so we have roses again. I think I have the neighbor's guineas to thank for that; there are more than a dozen of them and they cover great distances every day in search of food.

'Pink Pillar'

Rugosa

The longer I have this Knockout the more I appreciate it.
I like the hot pink color of the flowers with the Bidens.

I've been seeing Viceroys around for the last month and obviously the
Monarchs are here too. These cats are munching on Mexican Butterfly Weed.

Next year I'm going to put out more of this milkweed, as well as more parley for the Black Swallowtails. The Black Swallowtail cats really enjoyed the parsley! Now poor DH doesn't have any. lol So next year I'm going to put out rows of it, rather than one plant. It did better than the tomatoes, which were a miserable bust. The Black Swallowtails are gorgeous and I've enjoyed seeing them dancing and twirling about the garden.