Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM) - Outdoor division

Asclepias tuberosa - Butterfly Weed.
Image most certainly not my own.

High summer has hit, and with it has come the rollover in my garden. The peonies and iris are, of course, already long gone. The salvia and columbine still have a few buds on them (I'm letting the columbine go to seed), but look tired and shabby. The foxglove, too, are pretty much washed up. The yarrow continues sturdy, but the blooms are definitely fading a bit.

But now comes the summer stock: I have three different varieties of butterfly weed in white, orange and a sort of burgundy, all of which have opened up. Indeed, I've suddenly noticed lots of seedlings coming up as well, which I will gladly leave in place. In addition, my Alcea ficifolia (hollyhock), although severely chewed by bugs, are in full bloom, as are my shasta daisies. (Two of the plants, alas, have come down with rust of some sort.) And my Echinacea purpurea (white and purple coneflower) are opening this week, as are my Rudbeckia Goldstrum. (The purple coneflower also reseeded itself and has babies coming up.)

The capper of the summer will be the Eupatorium purpureum (Joe Pye weed) and the Buddleia (Butterfly bush) that dominate the back. The Joe Pye is already six feet tall and the Butterfly bush is about eight feet. When it blooms, the scent is so heady that you can smell it all the way up the hill on the back porch when the wind is right.

I had exactly the kind of hot, sultry, but rainless weather we're experiencing in mind when putting this garden together - all of these plants are heat and drought resistant, which means I don't have to go out and water every evening. Sometimes the fact that they produce such beautiful flowers and foliage is almost a secondary benefit compared to this.

Speaking of such things, our pal Chan the Bookish Gardener has a nice post about garden colors. (Message to Chan: the Japanese beetles are back - can I borrow some kerosene?)