Flowers and a sea of green

Currently the big bed is a sea of green, with a few spots of color here and there: late roses, Brazilian blue sage starting up, and meadow rue that I found growing in one of the floodway fields. It looks wonderful with Rosa palustris scandens but bloomed later than the rose this year. That little patch of orange behind the Hubricht's amsonia is a butterfly weed, one of the few that has come back faithfully year after year. The grass in the foreground is Panicum virgatum. (Not a weed. ;) )

Soon the Bee Balm and four o'clocks will be blooming, transforming a sea of green to a sea of bright raspberry pink and golden yellows. I like both the greens and the colors (after all, green is a color too!).

There is color up top next to the house, with the spiderwort still going and the daylilies coming into bloom. Both are holding back a little bit, as we are two weeks into one of those typical hot dry spells. The grass in the yard is extra crispy.

Iris brevicaulis

and Iris japonica are always the last iris to bloom here, in June.

Rose 'Pink Pillar'

Amaryllis (Hippeastrum x johnsonii), also commonly known as St. Joseph's Lily

Perennial Sweet Pea
(alas, not fragrant)

Transylvanian Sage

A wild sedge that I found growing next to the vegetable garden. I don't know
what it is, but the flowers look very sweet. It reminds me a little of Baby's Breath.

I didn't get many Larkspur this year but I treasure each and every one.

I can see why Gail loves St. John's Wort so much. This year it
has bloomed and bloomed and bloomed and the bees just go crazy over it.

A passalong pink yarrow

Caldwell Pink, a polyantha with no fragrance that I can detect, but which
makes up for it by its extreme sweetness of appearance and workhorse capacity.

In this heat morning is the only time this cat is allowed outside, and even then she stays in the shade. In summer long black fur is not an advantage and she has a lot of it, especially since she's an indoor cat most of the time.

It may be hot in NC, but we don't experience heat bursts as happened in Kansas this week. Imagine the temperature going up to over 100 in the middle of the night!

On the other side of the country the weather forecast for The Belmont in NY is much cooler: lower 70's and rainy. I am pulling for Animal Kingdom.

Oakleaf hydrangeas

The bees are going absolutely mad over the oakleaf hydrangeas now. Everytime we walk by the hydrangeas clouds of bees come billowing up ~ bees of every sort, although mostly sweat bees (Halictus rubicundus). The front of the house smells like a florist's shop. I can't remember if there was this much bee activity around the hydrangeas in past years, but there certainly is this year! Still not enough to disturb the lounging orange cat. :)

Sweat bee ~ these bees are fast as lightening.

A psychedelic fly basking in the beauty

Carpenter Bee

The bees are after the flowers beneath the sterile florets.

While many of the flowers on the 'Pee Wee' hydrangeas
on the north side of the house are still a dazzling ivory

some are splashed with pink and the flowers of the 'Dayspring' hydrangea on the east side of the house have turned rose pink the last couple of days. Since the one on the east side gets more sun it always flowers earlier. Masha asked if the hydrangeas turn color here and they do. I love the fall color; like many of the blueberry bushes, it starts out a deep burgundy which eventually brightens to crimson. The color of the hydrangeas on the north side is not as consistent. Some years they freeze before they can change color because they change so late.

'Pee Wee' is supposed to top out at 4' but after just four years it's nearly there already; however, it'd have to get to double that size before it was up over the porch railing and starting to be too big. 'Dayspring' will probably easily get to 8' one day.

Summer is here!

Whatever the calendar date, summer has arrived (with an
exclamation point), although the garden still looks like spring.

The bees are really enjoying the foxgloves this year, as they have lasted forever.

I don't know the name of the blue-violet Geranium or if it even came with a tag, but in
any case it's a good one. The pink flower is Ozark phlox and the purple Penstemon 'Midnight'.

I don't think the spiderworts have ever performed as well as they have this year. They have been a sea of white, pink, blue and purple. However, we're in the middle of a hot spell and things are going to dry up fast. The last two days have been 97+ degrees. Hot would be an understatement. Time for the early summer flowers to take over. The daylilies have begun to bloom

as well as the Oakleaf Hydrangea. For such a big
strong plant Oakleaf Hydrangea has a very lacy appearance.

I love how it looks with Penstemon 'Midnight'.

The birds are really enjoying the water hollow in the paddock out back. I keep it filled and many kinds of birds have visited it: Brown-Headed Cowbirds, Grackles, Mockingbirds, Blue Grosbeaks, Indigo Buntings, Cardinals (who are currently feeding young in a nest in 'Sir Thomas Lipton'), Chipping Sparrows, Bluebirds, flocks of Goldfinches... The Chipping Sparrows really go to town bathing. Gene told me one evening he heard all of this splashing and thought a big bird was taking a bath, but it was just a tiny little Chipping Sparrow.