By the end of the summer, many annuals are starting to look scruffy and worn out. The standard solution is to buy some chrysanthemums and/or pansies. Those are both great choices, but this year I wanted something different. At the local Home Hardware garden centre, I found some small pots of blue felicia and yellow strawflower, as well as flats of purple Veronica salvia. I bought 2 felicia, 2 strawflower, and a flat of salvia, and planted them up together.
This picture is pretty bleached out from the sun, but it gives an idea of the bushy form of the strawflowers and felicia. The salvia is taller with shiny leaves. I'll pick some of the strawflowers later as they make good dry flowers.
I decided to tuck a hosta into this rustic (weedy) patch to act as a bit of a living mulch. I kind of like the way the low plant draws you into the scene.
A native turtlehead. I tried starting some turtlehead seeds once, and while I got them to germinate, I wasn't able to keep them going to a decent size and they all died. Wild flowers are often tricky.
I've forgotten what this daylily is called, but I like the delicate pink and bright yellow center.
A very rough patch, but I like the bronze-coloured leaves of the Queen of the Prairie and its dotty seedheads. The wild orange jewelweed (near the front) blends in nicely, and the liguaria in the background has rusty yellow-orange flowers that fit the colour scheme. Soon a lot of white asters will be blooming in the patch. Not every garden has to be neat and tidy.
Some lovely flowers there. Some flowers in my garden are so late this year that I've not had that problem though.
ReplyDeleteMy mum had three large clumps of pink day lilies. I moved them some years ago and they nearly died. This year, they were fabulous! Guess it was all that rain.
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