Echinacea and Bee Balm

Two well-known perennials are blooming this week. Both are big butterfly favourites and grow as wildflowers elsewhere in the world.

Pictured: A purple Mondarda didyma (Bergamot, Bee Balm). This plant does spread by rhizomes, popping up several new plants around the base, but it is not yet the worst of the garden thugs. If you have this plant, you need to either regularly hack up the growth around the base or give the new plants away to friends.

Pictured: Pink Echinacea, some melon-colored short lilies, and a background of pink Malva Moschata (Mallow).

My Echinacea is the old fashioned type whichI grew from seed. Of course, now they have the hybrids with orange and yellow flowers, double-flowered and double-decker flowers, and ones that can operate heavy machinery...

Hot Hot Hot in the Flower Garden

It seems the western provinces (and some of Europe!) are currently in the midst of a heat wave. The temperatures are drying out the lawn, so we're out moving sprinklers a fair bit. I don't worry about most of the perennials, as they are well established and quite drought-resistant.

Pictured: I took this picture of a colorful mosquito-eating insect in the flower garden. It was about 1.5" long and smaller than the usual 3" blue and white dragonflies so I'm not sure if it's a damselfly or small dragonfly!?
Pictured: LA Hybrid Lily "Inzell", a nice clear white lily.

Pictured: These Adenophora hybrida "Amethyst" are flopped over more than unsual because I just had the sprinkler on them for a few hours. They may look pretty from a distance, but they are invasive to the point of unruly. They will be removed after flowering.

Pictured: This hardy Rose "Morden Blush" is all but invisible behind the mass of Adenophora. I might move it to the front of the raised bed this fall. I thought it was killed by an early snow this spring. Fortunately, it sent some new growth from the roots (I'm glad I never dug it up!) and is now a nice little bush again.

Pictured: The pincherries are ripe and doing well this year. These small-ish trees grow wild around the yard. A nice jelly can be made from the fruit, but I don't have the patience to pick them! I've also been grazing on Saskatoon berries directly from the bush, of which we have wild and domesticated species growing in the yard.

Lavender Triumph

LA Hybrid Lilies: Probably "Fangio", a dark reddish-pink Asiatic hybrid (crossed with Aurelians/Trumpets).
Close-up of one of the tall Delphinium elatum "Summer Skies".



I am very excited about the survival of the lavender (Lavendula angustifolia "Munstead") which grows in the perennial border next to the driveway (loaded with snow in winter) and in the rockgarden on a slope (no special protection). This is apparently a dwarf strain and the hardiest of English lavenders. Its foliage and flowers smell lovely and I wish I had huge patch of it. Veseys calls it zone 4, others call it zone 5. Essentially, this is a ground-breaking triumph...or maybe it's just global warming.