What's Blooming in My Garden - June 30

• Daylilies - Actually the wilder orange tiger type that I dug up at Mom and Dads. They are so beautiful! I can hardly wait for them to fill in solid.
• Zebrina - This is like a shorter hollyhock, with light pinkish purple flowers striped with red violet. Very tough and cute.
• Peony - Late, I know. I think it's because it's growing in dense shade...it actually started last week and I forgot about it. We have one clump out under the apple trees...it's been here forever and we actually dug it up last fall and gave it away to the granddaughter of the lady who lived here first. I guess we missed a little bit, because it came up and gave us a couple of flowers.
• Lambs Ears - I grow this plant for it's foliage, but the pinkish flowers are pretty while they last. Too bad the foliage gets a little raggedy after if blooms. It looks nicer if you cut off the blooms before they ever open, but our leaves were beat up by the hail, so I'm just going to let it bloom!
• Purple Coneflower - Echinacea at it's finest! These are one of the hallmarks of summer. I love their showy blooms and interesting seedheads. I don't care for the white ones, so mine are all purple. There are some lovely new fancy pants varieties that bloom in shades of red, pink, coral, and yellow. However they cost around $20 per plant...yeah. Enough said!
• Snap Dragon - These survived the winter and produced many little babies. I was very glad because they are one of the funnest flowers in our garden. Who can resist picking and playing with their beautiful dragon heads?
• Evening Primrose - Another fun plant. These look like the other primroses, but they are tall instead of spreading. And they open in the evening instead of the morning. Our kids (and I) like to watch them unfurl each night. These attract "hummingbird moths" which lay their eggs on the plants, resulting in lots of horn worms for the boys to hunt down. We usually leave them alone, just teasing them to hear them hiss.
• Mexican Hat - More fun for the kids...these really look like little sombrero's and the boys like them. I had some red and some yellow...so far only the red ones are opening. Last summer the ants killed many of my plants by building their homes around the bases and burying their crowns. Grrrrr. Ants.
• Annual Coneflower - Sort of like Mexican Hat, but yellow. They are basically miniature Black-eyed Susans that are annuals. And very good self-sowers! I have a hard time getting traditional Black-eyed Susans to grow here, but these beauties thrive and bloom all summer long!
• Coreopsis - More yellow flowers! I think these may end up being overrun...they have been bred to be very well behaved, whereas many of the other plants around them have not. Oh well. They filled in their spot nicely last year and they will either tough it out or go to the great garden beyond.
• Nicotiana - Yes, it's ornamental tobacco and it's one of my very favorite plants. Larry and I caused a bit of a controversy at Temple Square when we planted them there. Some people are really uptight about those things, nevermind the fact that these ornamental varieties wouldn't make a decent cigarette if you tried! Not that I've personally tried. The blossoms release their scent in the evening...sort of a mix of jasmine and something else that isn't quite as sickly sweet. I have white, pink, and purple ones. They self sow and add some height to the garden. A fantastic, old-fashioned flower.
  
• Red Orach - The flowers are not showy, but are a friendly warning sign that you ought to be yanking out any plants that you don't want to go to seed. I didn't heed the warning last year (because the seeds are really pretty), and promised myself a million times over (while diggin out about twelve billion seedlings...not fun) this spring that I'd chop them out before they went to seed. The leaves don't look as pretty after they set seed anyway.
  

• Shasta Daisy
  
• Wine cups
• Red Hot Poker
  
• Larkspur
  
• Oregano
  
• Lavendar
  
• Pike's Peak Purple Penstemon
  
• Fever Few
  
• Chicory
  
• Sedum
  
• Garden Peas
  
• Raspberries
  
• Calendula
  
• Bachelor Buttons
  
• Centaurea
  
• Yellow Primrose (Sundrops)
  
• Indian Blanket Flower
  
• Yarrow (red, yellow, and orange)
  
• Rocky Mountain Penstemon
  
• Dianthus
  
• Lady's Mantle
  
• Wild Roses
• Primrose
• Sage
  
• Salvia
  
• Yellow Iceplant
  
• Dame's Rocket
• Columbine
• 'Walker's Low' Catmint
• Soapwort
• Blue Flax
  
• Lamium