An Un-tended Native Flower Garden

Posted on June 14, 2016 by ruthnativeflowers

I unfortunately have been unable to “take care” of my native flower garden this year. In fact, today (June 14) was the first day since weed-whacking the entire garden last fall, that I got up the courage to take a look at what has come back up this year. I was pleased to find so many old friends doing not too badly. Hopefully my untended garden will still be a haven for bees and butterflies.

The first thing I noticed was a row of Butterfly Weed.

B Weed mid June

Then I took a look at my Common Milkweed patch. It is definitely thriving, now coming into full bloom with bees all over it.

C milkweed 06:14

milkweed with bee

The Culver’s Root has re-appeared, very tall this year and just beginning to look like Culver’s Root.

Culvers root 06:14

The Purple Coneflowers are just coming into bloom.

P Coneflower 06:14

The Daisy Fleabane is pretty much in bloom now.

Daisy Fleabane mid-june

I THINK this is the New York Ironweed that I planted last year.

NY Ironweed mid-June

A tiny bit of very early goldenrod is already in flower.

early goldenrod mid-june

Notably absent or still quite small:

Green-headed Coneflower (not there at all this year). I miss this plant as it was a great attractor of bees.
Monarda fistulosa. It seems much smaller than I expected.

M. fistulosa mid-June 2016

Sweet Joe-Pye Weed. I may see small amounts of it coming up, but apparently not thriving. This is another one I miss because it attracted so many bees.

Early Summer, Virginia-Style

Posted on July 6, 2015 by ruthnativeflowers

I forgot I planted some Rattlesnake Master last year. I discovered it in the garden a few days ago.

Rattlesnake Master

The Culver’s Root is in full bloom and swarming with bees and wasps. You can’t tell it from this picture, but this is one of those blue wasps.

Culver’s Root with Wasp

The Sweet Joe Pye is in full bloom and swarming with bees.

Sweet Joe Pye Weed

The Monarda fistulosa is in full flower and the bees are all over it. You can see a couple of bees here. My attempts to make a video of this have not been too successful.

Monarda fistulosa Early July

Much of my goldenrod is already blooming. This may be an “early” goldenrod. However, I think it was quite a bit later last year. (As you may be able to tell I have “stray” milkweed plants all over the place.)