Some of the top late spring bloomers are beginning to show. The bare spaces are beginning to fill in as the garden continues to grow. Much needed rain has made a significant contribution to it and I hope that will continue. I would consider this to have been a wonderful spring so far.
I have some new additions to my garden to show you but I am also pleased with my veterans. The bees and butterflies continue to be busy. My summer vegetables have been seriously damaged by big critters. I assume it is deer but I have seen evidence of rabbits and I have seen a groundhog. There is a cost to living near a woodland. They are leaving the perennials alone except for the purple coneflowers.
Even though I will be out of town, I hope to post this blog with the Six On Saturday website. Here is the link https://gardenruminations.co.uk.
First, a pair of veterans. The Japanese painted fern is off to a good start. There are several in the shady parts of my yard.
The veteran on the right is the pagoda plant (Blephilia ciliata). It makes a good ground cover plant since it has a tendency to slowly spread.
The newcomer on the left is Denver daisy which is a cultivar of Rudbeckia hirta. It is a drought tolerant and a deer and rabbit tolerant beauty which is a good thing for my yard. It may be a short lived perennial so if it follows its advertising, I will have to start it from seed again in a year or two.
The veteran on the right is Stella D’Oro daylily (Hemerocallis sp). It is a very hardy perennial.
The newcomer on the left is Nicotiana alata ‘Crimson Bedder’. I started these from seed this spring that I obtained from Baker Creek Heirloom.
The milkweed on the right is ‘Asclepias tuberosa. The small orange blossoms are a pollinator magnet but the real story is that this plant is a host for Monarch butterflies. The monarch (Danaus plexippus) has become famous because of its color and its migration story (from Northern Mexico up to Canada). It took it a while to become established but I have several clumps now.
The featured image is Magnolia grandiflora which has begun blooming this week.
I hope you are enjoying gardens and pollinators wherever you are.
Happy Gardening!
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The veterans, or newcomers, everything is lovely; even the daylilies seem ahead of mine here, which are still at the flower stake stage. I’m so glad you said that Denver daisies are a cultivar derived from rudbeckia , because I was thinking they looked very similar 😅
A lovely selection. The Japanese painted fern is very striking. I have a similar one.
Ahh, when I was growing up, we had a magnolia in the backyard. I loved it. Then my dad cut it down for some onkno)wn reason and subsequently we lost a corner of the backyard (living on a canyon is a tenuous thing. A tuberosa has not even emerged here. Usually A verticillata comes up first in my garden, and it is not up either.
This Magnolia has been in my yard thriving since I bought my house in 1981. The blooms are quite large and have a lemony fragrance. The tree is at the edge of the yard since the leaves take a generation to decompose.