We have some new plants out in the nursery now, including Melampodium leucanthum (Blackfoot Daisy) and Mirabilis multiflora, our native Four O’Clock. Both grow just down the road from Perennial Favorites.
The hummingbirds are nesting, and that means they’re hungry! This is the best hummingbird feeder we’ve ever had–it’s easy to clean, holds a lot, the hummers love it! It’s even called Best-1 hummingbird feeder.
The vine that is twining near the feeder is a honeysuckle vine, and the hummers love that, too. It blooms all summer. Here it is growing with columbine.
I was trying to take a picture of the Harison Yellow rose blooming in the background, but the ladybug was too much fun to ignore. If you don’t have enough beneficial insects in your garden, plant flowers that are in the Umbelliferae family (like dill and parsley) to attract them. The flower the ladybug is sitting on is valerian, and it’s a bit of a weed in my garden. The flowers smell sweet and the root smells awful! Luckily you never smell the root unless you dig it up
There are so many birds nesting here that I sometimes trip over them–literally! These are eggs in a spotted towhee’s nest. They always build their nests on the ground and for some reason it thought this spot in the garden was a good place. I won’t weed there for a while! I took the picture from quite far away so that I didn’t draw too much attention to it.
We don’t usually see dragonflies until later in the season, but maybe all the rain encouraged them.
