WHITE (and) HOT

WHITE:

For the few years before I got my own yard, I was realizing I really liked shasta daisies... I just think they look nice in most gardens - there's something "clean and pure" about them, and they lend sort of a "country garden" appearance I think.


Even if a garden with brightly colored flowers (all you can see of those here are the echinacea that are about to bloom), white shasta daisies look nice. The white sort of pops out from among all the green foliage and whatever other colored blooms you might have in your garden.


These are the only daisies I actually bought - and I got them pretty cheap at a garden club sale I went to with Mary last year. I think these were called Alaskan daisies maybe?


Most of the rest of the daisies I've grown from seed - that really keeps the price down!! Sure, it also meant a lot more time before any pay off - some I started last year, some the year before. There weren't too many daisies in the garden to speak of last year, but this year's a whole different story. I think my favorites are these "Crazy Daisy" shasta daisies...


It seems the bugs like 'em too - they're just right for "gettin' busy"!!!


We had a bit of a heat wave kick up this week, plus some strong winds with storms, so these guys are a bit wilty and bending a bit in this picture.


Here's more daisies I started from seed - these would be singles compared to the "Crazy Daisy" double or triple blooms I guess?


These guys here are actually "wild" daisies behind our lot, leading down to the pond. I even have some in one of the beds that I dug up from the neighboring undeveloped lot last year. First the clump was in the then-strawberry patch, and when I tore that up this spring, I moved them into this new bed. They seem to be doing really well. I'm noticing their stems aren't as thick and sturdy as daisies that are bred for gardens, but they still do pretty well on their own...



HOT:

And now moving on from all the plain white flowers, there's also quite a bit of bright, colorful flowers in bloom right now. I'm becoming really fond of Veronica, or Speedwell, which you see here in both pink and purple. This seems to be one tough plant!


This pinkish-purple verbena is coming up from behind a bunch of other plants in one of the beds. (ditto for the sweet alyssum you see out of focus, but we're not talking about white flowers anymore!) I didn't plant either of these here, but there WAS a deck planter hanging over this area last year, so I'm thinking they voluntarily reseeded themselves. Score!!!


These next two are lilies - Asiatic lilies I THINK. I've been looking forward to them blooming all spring, thinking they were going to be the more elaborate white-and-hot-pink Stargazers. Ooooh well, they're still adding some really nice color to the beds.



This is lupine...and I have a really hard time getting this to grow to maturity from seed, which is odd for something that I've heard is considered a weed in parts of Canada. Of the seeds I started this year, I only had two survive, and they're looking like they're on death's door as it is. This one is the only survivor from last years (or the previous years?!) plantings. It's really pretty stuff, and it's supposed to self-sow easily...so let's hope this stuff fills in over the next few years!


Not a WHOLE lot to see here at this point, but I was really happy to find my lavendars survived the winter! They were looking really bad this spring, covered in dead leaves etc, so I sort of picked at them and cleaned them out, and I found new growth... Yay!


A more common black-eyed susan...


...and "Prairie Sun" black-eyed Susan...


...they seem to do really well in this never-watered, full-sun flower bed in the front yard. That was the intention of this bed - stuff that could take heat and neglect...


And back in the backyard we have coreopsis/tickseed in yellow, and butterfly weed/milkweed in orange... These seem very complementary in color and shape, and hopefully will lure in the butterflies...


This little guy is a California poppy. I wanted a biiiig patch of them, and had two varities I started from seed. Only they had some rough times in the basement, and then the entire flat got neglected some out on the deck while I was busy putting in veggies... I finally planted a bunch of them in the "hot colors" bed, but most didn't make it. I was happy to see this one blooming this week. Maybe a couple more will pop up from the mulch, but I'm not holding my breath...


And finally we wrap up with a couple shots of nasturtium. These two are both in the cucumber bed...some sources imply they'll help throw off the cucumber beetles and other pests.


The day after I took this picture, I busted some cuke beetles bumping uglies making sweet passionate love right there out in the open - I guess the nasturtiums just made the setting a little more romantic?


So what's growing in your garden?!