Procrastinators of the World - Unite & Take Over
Well, maybe later. I just didn't get my act together in time for August's Blogger's Bloom Day. So here it is, a day late.
The prairie garden is at its peak in August, with Liatris, Ecinacea purpurea (and one white one), Phlox 'David' and Phlox 'David's Lavender.' I just got Phlox DL last summer and I think I'm going to replace 'David' with it when it gets big enough to divide. As the garden grows and changes, so does the gardener. I have now reached the conclusion that I do not like white flowers and I do not want them in the garden. This is mostly because they age to such an amazing shade of brown. Nothing is quite as stomach turning as faded Phlox 'David' blossoms after a rain: soggy, mushy brown yuck.
In the shade garden, Anemone 'Andrea Atkinson' has just started, the Lobelias look great, and Campanulas 'Sarastro,' 'Samantha' and C. persicifolia are still plugging along. Geranium 'Rozanne' is still doing its thing, and I just found yesterday that the Yellow-eyed Grass (Xyris caroliniana) started blooming. Tricyrtis 'Tojen' has also started blooming. I think I'll have to move the second 'Tojen,' it looks like a dwarf variety compared to the original plant. I just don't understand why several of the same plants, planted next to each other, can't perform the same. Why is only one of my Heuchera 'Raspberry Ice' blooming, and with three flower stalks? Why does only one out of three Actaea/Cimicifuga 'Black Negligee' have buds?Edit - I forgot to list that Ruellia humulis, Actea/Cimicifuga racemosa and the plant formerly known as Aster divaricatus are also in bloom.edit. 10/8/07 I may have erred in giving the Latin name of Yellow Star Grass. According to Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers, Ladd/Oberle (The Nature Conservancy/Falcon Publishing, Inc. (1995)), the Latin name for this plant is Hypoxis hirsuta.