August: Bloom Day!

I am just now realizing, I have an awful lot of yellow flowers. Oh well!

North edge garden


Rudbeckia triloba, brown-eyed Susans


Rudbeckia subtomentosa, sweet black-eyed Susans, and Agastache scrophulariaefolia, giant purple hyssop


Garage garden


The 11-foot volunteer sunflower continues to amaze us, and hosts SO many bees, flower flies, and butterflies, the rest of the neighborhood must feel left out.


Eurybia macrophylla, big-leaf aster. Remember the good old days when asters were just Asters?


Well, this is a terrible picture, but it's my prairie dock, Silphium terebinthinaceum, with flowering stalks reaching high above my head.


Foley and Lucy, my favorite two flowers of all!


Thanks as always to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day!

August: Waning interest

Am I the only one who starts to lose interest in the garden by the end of the summer? It's too bad because the plants desperately need work. Many need to be relocated, others need to be cut down (hello, powdery mildew! What did you do to my asters?), and oh my goodness the weeds. There are still several plants that look great, including Rudbeckia triloba, brown-eyed Susan; Rudbeckia subtomentosa, sweet black-eyed Susan; volunteer Ageratina altissima, white snakeroot; and Helianthus mollis, downy sunflowers (plus a cool bee that has been terrorizing my bumblebees by smacking into them; it finally settled down in today's cool temps so I could get a picture).

brown-eyed Susan; downy sunflower avec bee

But now is when I need to turn my attention to the indoor plants and get them ready for winter. And what do I discover on my precious, lovely Stromanthe sanguinea 'Tricolor'? Mealybugs. ARGH. I relocated the plant and have treated with rubbing alcohol. Fingers crossed... I'd really hate to lose this one. The evil hell-spawn of a Walmart philodendron that is the likely source got a one-way ticket to the dumpster, do not pass Go, do not infest anyone else on your way out the door. Yet another reason not to shop at Walmart, as if I needed any more.