Tuesday, June 29, 2010

June flowers

 
Above, near the lily pools at the BBG, Veronicastrum stands about six feet tall, with bee.


Back to the rose garden, here are the loathed sweet potato vines, a month after we planted them. They are an effective and bright ground cover. It was the kind of hot that day where, when you bend over to plant, all the sweat gathers on the tip of your chin and drips in a steady stream onto your hands as you dig. Fun. Although I was slathered in sunblock, where my shirt and pants parted company on my back, from the bending over, a bright red stripe was painted at the end of the day. I hadn't thought of that.


This is where roses used to be planted, before the Rose Rosette Disease struck. Now it is a field of annuals.


Don't know what this is, but it's just like a firework.


 
Leopard-spotted coreopsis, I think.

 
Calendula with friend.


The norther perimeter bed of the rose garden is a riot. The white Allium nigrum are yellowing as they set seed, while the purple drumsticks are in full swing. Echinacea are opening up, their burgundy buds mimicking the castor plants (Ricinus communis) in the background, growing tall...The silvery blue clary sage (Salvia sclarea) flowers are huge, about five feet, so different from late April, when they were large, flat, prostrate leaves.


The late-blooming drumstick alliums, Allium sphaerocephalon, are a bee magnet. I have never seen so many bees. No honey bees, though...

Bee ballet.

 
Bee orgy.

 
And then this little pollinator, who appears to bee impersonating someone.

8 comments:

  1. Such beautiful and inspiring photographs!!!!
    Thank you for your work on this blog, I look forward to it every day.

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  2. I'm still absorbing the butterfly photos and now you bring us these.

    This is not how my garden looks.

    This might be how heaven looks though...

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  3. Bee -UTfull.

    Is that unknown flower firework a perennial? Looks like Thrift or Ameria .

    Ha! My wife got the same tattoo on her back from bike riding -SPF50 everywhere but there.

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  4. Ha! Your little firework flower appears to be Gomphrena 'Fireworks'. It's a relatively new Gomphrena that should dazzle you again and again throughout the summer into fall. Finally a plant with an appropriate cultivar name :)

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  5. I haven't seen one honey bee this summer. Very, very disconcerting. Beautiful pics, though!

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  6. Stunning - wish I could see it all myself. But without the heat.
    Those alliums...... if you see seeds in a packet, PLEASE remember me

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  7. Thank you, Chesley - that's really very nice to know!

    Jane - your garden ain't bad...

    frank - thank you! It's an annual: See Paul's comment.

    Thanks, Paul! Wow, very well named.

    kbd - I've seen some: many, one time, on muscari, in the spring. That was quite interesting.

    Hen - the purple ones or the ones setting seed (they were enormous and white)? xxx

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  8. The Horticulture Department at BBG is trying to install honeybee hives in a remote section of the garden for liability reasons. It would be a test for future, more visible hives. Hopefully with enough internal and external support, this will happen!

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