Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - July 2009

This dry spell we had is making a lot of my flowers start to look ragged. The dribbles of rain keeps things hanging on. The butterfly weed doesn't seem to mind. This ragged Pearl Crescent is happy to find the butterfly weed. Another native, Joe Pye Weed, is getting a bee hug. I could just hug them too because they never complain about the weather.

A few Cranesbills are blooming.

I even have some bushes blooming. This is the delicate blooms of the Beauty Berry Bush. These tiny blooms each represent a purple berry that will be on the bush this fall. Yes, I am thinking about fall already.

Liatrus and the Susans are beginning to mingle.

A few daylilies and Jackamanii Clematis are still blooming.

A plant that has surprised me this summer is the Comfrey. It is still blooming. I moved this Comfrey from a position where it was hidden by asters for most of summer. It has taken to its new home and showed its appreciation by blooming all summer so far.

The annual I am most pleased with at this time is this Abutilon. It is performing so well being planted with some ferns and sitting in the shade. There are so many wonderful colors of this annual. I must remember this for next year. There are many more things blooming in the garden. I thought this was enough photos for this post. The tall garden phlox, roses, veronica, hostas, mint, perovskia, etcs and the bushes spirea, kerria, buddlia and wigelia are all keeping the bugs, bees and resident gardener happy.
I hope you are happy with your garden. Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. For more blooms go to Carol's May Dreams Garden.

Out of the Garden - Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge

I was at Muscatatuck national Wildlife Refuge this weekend. It was a new (to me) place to explore. This little jewel of a NWR is tucked into an area near Seymour, IN. It has marsh areas, trails to hike, places to launch boats for fishing and lots of potential for bird sightings. The Visitor's Center has a very welcoming planting of native plants. The Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies were making themselves welcome for sure. This gave me the urge to go home and plant more natives.

We saw lots of birds in the marshes including this Green Heron.

The next day we went to our usual birding destination and we found that the lotus was abloom. I just love this wildflower. It is beautiful in any stage of its life. In the photo below you can see each stage from bud to the seed pods.

There are still lots of field birds apparent even though they are beginning to flock up. Breeding season is about to come to an end. It just doesn't seem possible. This female Dicksissle has a grasshopper in her mouth. No doubt going to take it to a nestling. We had lots of fledglings being fed this weekend.

I hope everyone has plenty of fun memories of their weekend and have eased into their work week. I want to thank my DB for taking all of these close up photos for me.