NC State Fair

We usually go to the State Fair on the first Friday that it's open. I didn't want to lug my camera around the fair, so I used G's iPhone to take pictures.

I'm always surprised by how much I enjoy the cut flower competition/ exhibits, especially the plants that I don't or can't grow in my garden.

I can never really see coleus fitting anywhere in my garden -- too gaudy, too
tropical in appearance -- but I can be wowed by the various patterns and electric colors.

I hate houseplants (and they hate me), except for my
Christmas cactus, but I was impressed by this begonia

and this Plectranthus.

I love dahlias and grow them, just not very well. Many cultivars struggle in our heat or die outright and they do not tolerate drought happily. Also, like tomatoes they need to be staked before they grow tall, and staking with forethought seems to be beyond my abilities. Dahlias perform very well in our mountain region however, and one of the organizers told me that many State Fair dahlia entries come from the mountains. When I was a kid my family took a lot of trips to the mountains and I remember seeing all of the lemon yellow daylilies (as common as the orange ditch lilies here) and the dinnerplate dahlias that many people grew in their yards.

So many beautiful types and colors.

The last two were my favorites.

I also enjoy looking at the roses, many of them hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras
or David Austin roses, all of which are the equivalent of the bubble boy in our climate.

The miniature rose collection.

Unfortunately few of the ribbon tags had names
on them this year, but this one did: 'Orangeade'.

I was happy to see the swamp sunflowers. Perfect timing for the state fair!

Brazilian blue sage and Mexican bush sage. The
white sage is Danielle's Dream Mexican bush sage.

Can anyone tell me the name of this mum? I must have it!

This bumble had followed the blooms inside
and was going from flower to flower.

There were a number of plantings around the garden exhibits, like this gorgeous plumbago,

aromatic aster 'Raydon's Favorite'

and swamp tickseed. I used to have swamp tickseed but I think my hardy ginger ate it.
It's a beautiful low-growing tickseed and like swamp sunflower the flowers really pop.

There were competitions with garden plots planted according to different themes. The best garden
plot I ever saw was a beautiful and intricate Harry Potter-themed garden that we saw years ago.

I loved those dark chocolate-y sunflowers. Typically I don't like
red sunflowers, but the depth of color on these was excellent.