A Spider, and Other Pink and White Things

The kids first spotted something strange on this plant: a white spider with pink stripes.  I had never seen anything like it, but this Golden Crab Spider is not really uncommon.  It is named "Golden" because it likes to be around goldenrod, which grows in the ditches around here.  Articles about crab spiders indicated that they are ambush hunters, hiding out in flowers until other unsuspecting insects wander by.  This is interesting, because when we found it, the spider was directly below a butterfly.  I don't know how it would have managed to eat something that large.  When bothered, the spider clung to a stem and stuck its appendages out at an odd angle, looking a bit like some kind of flower.

Golden Crab Spider on a Bergenia leaf

My tulips are really creating color in the flower beds, with the bulk of the tulips (most are late varieties) blooming now.  I see a few stragglers that should be dug up and disposed of, as they are getting too old and small.  It is interesting that certain colors of the same type of tulip are longer-lived than others.  My dark pink "Florissa" tulips are the most successful I've ever had.  Several other tulips lived their tulip lives and were tossed out while Florissa continues to make respectable blooms for several years.

Double late tulip "Angelique" with a sea of forget-me-nots in the background.

Dicentra spectabilis "Alba", the white version of Bleeding Heart, a hardy shade perennial that blooms in early June.  The plant mostly dies back after blooming.

Raised bed with tulips

White "Wildhof" Triumph tulips in the center raised bed, among growing lilies.  There are direct-seeded cosmos growing in and around these tulips, which I hope to hide the dying tulip foliage.

Blossoms of a wild Viburnum trilobum, often called highbush cranberry.  It is one of the edible berries of the north.  The leaves are distinguished by their three points (as in the name TRI-lobum).

Linum perenne, the perennial flax.  I started these from seed last year and they are now flowering for the first time.  It is a pretty, delicate-looking hardy blue-flowering perennial.  Chives adorn the background in this flowerbed.

The blackflies are zooming around looking for blood these days.  Bug spray is an essential gardening tool now.  I planted my pepper and tomato plants out in containers yesterday, as it looks like the weather should be warm enough for them now.  I robin nesting under the deck harassed me through the whole process.  I can see the edges of the nest just a few inches under the deck boards, but can't quite see those pretty blue eggs.  Soon we'll hear the little chirps, I'm sure.

Late Summer Flower Color

I did some work in the garden today, only to run inside when the rain started to soak my clothes. While the plants enjoyed the rain, the ever-rising local lake probably didn't need the extra water. All the beaches and low-lying land around here is covered in water and the flooding is likely to last another few weeks!
"Lime Bicolour" petunia I grew from seed this year -- I recall that this was an over-priced annual seed, but it claimed to be an exciting new hybrid, so...

Scabiosa caucasica are blooming now - nice to have the color, though the foliage on these can look a little weedy and messy:

Highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum) compact variety shrub now has pretty red berries developing on it. It took about 5 years for this shrub to finally produce the berries:

Aconitum napellus (Monkshood) produces impressive strong stems of blue flowers for August. I really must divide this one next year to spread the color around:

I made my annual tulip order yesterday, only to have the kind people from Botanus email me and ask if I intended to duplicate one of the items I made on an order a few months ago. I pretended not to be going senile and replied that I do need plenty of a particular daffodil. Therefore, yes, there should be a duplicate. It should be a big bulb-planting fall once my boxes of bulbs arrive! I aim for planting as soon as they arrive, by the end of September.
Sweet peas in my hanging basket -- such a sweet scent!

Wildflower and Siberian Irises in the Smoke

The smoke from forest fires has been getting thicker all week, with even a few fires in and around town. The water bombers have been busy; we see them flying continuously over our house. We had our upstairs smoke alarm go off in the middle of the night, triggered only by the smoke that had wafted in through open windows. It was a brand new smoke alarm and quite a terrifying sound at night, but I suppose we are assured that it's effective. We'd better be careful making toast from now on. I'm hoping the weekend rain clears up the air so that our weather forecast doesn't call for conditions described as "smokey" anymore.
Aster alpinus "Goliath" blooming in a raised bed:

I noticed this wildflower growing in semi-shade among a grove of poplar trees. Its leaves resemble a tiny version of my Bergenia cordifolia, though the flower is unique. I have no idea what it is. Any ideas from the fine readers out there?
Unidentified wildflower:

The harsh winter cold wiped out several of the perennials, trees, and shrubs this year and certainly did some damage to the compact highbush cranberries (Viburnum trilobum) in the yard. This is remarkable, considering that their native counterparts live in a forest all around us, so they should be very hardy.
Two highbush cranberries, with the one on the right only showing a few live branches:

This siberian iris bloomed for the first time in the 4 years I've had it, possibly matching up to the identification tag "Caesar's brother". All the others I bought with it bloomed in a pretty pale blue and probably were wrongly labeled. This iris has been in this spot for three years and just bloomed for the first time this year. Irises, like peonies, require patience!
Siberian iris, "Caesar's brother":

The large raised bed nearly brings pain to my eyes this year, with all the bare spots from dead plants, but I am madly transplanting seedlings from deceased mature plants into the bare spots. At least the larger plants are making it look mostly green, now that July is almost here.