I haven't done a good job this year of tracking my flowers. I used to post a picture when something in my yard bloomed because I like keeping track of that and seeing how it varies from year to year.
Here's what my backyard looks like this week.
I have Stella de Oro daylilies galore. Splitting them last year was a good idea. They are blooming a lot better this year than they did last.
The bee balm just started blooming this week. The orange butterfly weed started blooming last week; the yellow butterfly weed just opened up today. The butterfly bushes don't have buds yet, but they are bigger and fuller than usual thanks to all the rain we've had.
A friend gave me a butterfly house and some seeds for Christmas this year. This part of my yard is sunny most of the day, and I've started planting a butterfly garden here. I want this patch to become a certified monarch way station.
http://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/
I have a couple of varieties of milkweed here. The nursery I use here said their supplier had butterfly weed 'crop failure', and they won't be getting any orange butterfly weed in until August. I planted swamp milkweed, which should bloom pink. I also have Joe Pye weed ( Little Joe), a few daylilies, zinnias, horsemint, Mexican flame vine, lantana in the pot on the bench (not blooming yet), and the shortest bee balm I've ever seen.
You can see the remains of my irises to the left. They didn't look so good this year because I split them 2 years ago and didn't replant very many. I gave a lot of them to my friend Amy, who had great luck with them.
She is looking for a home for some of hers. She said I gave her 50 irises, and now she has 80!
