New additions, sans pictures

Purchased at Home Despot at the same time as my birthday juniors, but with much less fanfare:
Polemonium 'Touch of Class' - Jacob's ladder (my second attempt at keeping one of these alive in the front garden)
Phlox paniculata 'Pink Flame' - an electric pink phlox in the north edge garden. I've had bad luck with phlox for years (rampant powdery mildew) but this year I had one successful plant and drunk with victory I bought this new one. It is of course doomed but don't tell it.
Platycodon grandiflorus 'Sentimental Blue' - balloon flower. I've always wanted one of these. Plus, it has the word "codon" in it so it reminds me of school.

Also, forgot to mention that I received a hops plant (Humulus lupulus) during a tour of the Dorothy Atkins garden at UIC (link). This garden on the west campus contains plantings of over 100 medicinal plant species, several of which are subjects of active study in the pharmacy and pharmacognosy programs. Hops, they told me, will survive the winter, and since it's a vine it needs something to grow on.

Friday flowers, foliage, Foleyage

Ninebark 'Summer Wine', Physocarpus opulifolius


Little bluestem grass, Schizachyrium scoparium - one of my native prairie plants


Cranberry bush viburnum, Viburnum opulus


Autumn Joy sedum, Sedum spectabile


Foley "helps" with rebuilding the retaining wall around the garage garden

Friday flowers

Pink asters, species long forgotten


Sky blue aster, Aster oolentangiensis, except it's not looking very blue in this photo


Showy goldenrod, Solidago speciosa - totally flopped over like everything else in the wayback garden

Birthday juniors!

I bought a gaggle of juniors for my birthday this month. I had let the houseplant collection decline and it was in rather pathetic shape, needing pruning and repotting and outright replacing in many cases. Thanks to Logee's and Home Despot, the indoor garden is ready to rebound to its former glory...


Various babies, getting to know each other


Ficus pumila, which dries out if it goes without water for two days; Hoya carnosa variegata 'Stripes'; and a spider plant

September

Have been browsing other garden blogs lately - do you know that some people actually update more than twice in a year?! Crazy. Feel inspired and will try to do better.

The coneflowers and black-eyed Susans are on the decline now but the asters are ramping up. Prairie dock is fabulously in flower but the stems have mostly toppled. This is a chronic problem in the wayback garden; the downy sunflower also flops over, as do the asters and goldenrods. I can't imagine it's too wet or loamy back there; the garage wall makes it hot and oppressive, and the soil is rocky. I always vow to cut things back earlier in the summer and maybe next year I'll really do it, but the prairie dock can't be cut back and will just have to deal.

You don't care about that. Pictures!

Prairie dock


Turtlehead, planted just a few weeks ago


The rare and sleepy Foley flower