Tag: Yellow Coneflower
Blooms of Mid-July, Part 1
By the middle of July it feels like we have reached the gateway to high summer in Chicago. Let’s see what’s blooming in the garden, starting with the main part of the front garden: the Driveway Border, Sidewalk Border, and the Island Bed. The remainder we’ll cover in a second post.
Is Yellow Just Too Common?
Why is it that Sissinghurst has a White Garden but not a Yellow Garden? Perhaps yellow is just a bit too insistently cheerful, like those morning people who sing and bustle about while you try to burrow into your newspaper. Also, I read somewhere that yellow is the most common color for wildflowers, and its …
The More Things Change (in The Garden), The More Fun I’m Having
Many of us have entered the season during which we gardening mostly in our heads. We are thinking about what plants to add, move, or replace. We are poring over old garden books and catalogs (the 2016 catalogs have yet to arrive, but the 2015 issues sit in a convenient pile by my side of …
The Garden in Mid-September
Happy Bloom Day! On the 15th of every month Carol from May Dreams Gardens hosts Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, enabling gardeners to share and compare what’s in flower in their little patch of earth. In our garden the most bountiful blooms at the moment are provided by Brown-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba). This Rudbeckia makes me …
Wildflower Whining
The wildflowers aren’t whining, I am. For starters, why can’t the Yellow Coneflowers (Ratibida pinnata) stand up STRAIGHT! I could put up with some nonchalant leaning, but these guys want to just flop over like, I don’t know, like something that is very floppy. For the past six weeks I have been in a quiet …
Curb Appeal
The front garden is the one thing that really brings out my exhibitionist tendencies. I want it to grab the attention of people walking or driving by. Late summer is one of the times when the front garden has its greatest visual impact. Some of the blooms of mid-summer become even showier and more prolific. …
Wild Times at Garden in a City
The north side Chicago chapter of Wild Ones, an organization of native plant enthusiasts, came to our garden today. They were on their triennial garden tour. As I wrote in my last post, I was working hard to prepare for this visit, partly by spiffing up the garden and partly by obsessing over all its …
Now Comes High Summer
In our garden high summer comes in a very literal way, with the first blooms of some very tall plants. My favorite among these are the Cup Plants (Silphium perfoliatum), which grows eight to ten feet tall. Their height gives Cup Plant a certain majesty combined with a gangly, awkward beauty. They are the Abraham …
Blooms in August
Once again it is time for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day (GBBD), hosted by May Dreams Gardens. GBBD provides a mid-month opportunity to count up our flowering plants like a latter day pirate counting his treasures. So put on your eyepatch, and let’s go. The Driveway Border is the most colorful of all the front garden …
Blooming Stars of High Summer
With high summer comes a new cast of players in the front garden’s Driveway Border. There are many stars in the border, and it is gratifying to see them strut their stuff. At the far end, anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) comes to center stage. I’ve already written about the virtues of this plant, but let …
gardeninacity 