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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

First week of August

Good Kitty! Those rats are giving me a lot of trouble, eating the cantaloupe vines, sweet potato vines, and I like to have never got my sunflowers past the stage where the rats were eating the plants.

 The goldfinches are gonna be happy...

This clasping heliotrope is quite the ground cover... I'm thinking about making a lawn out of it.

Ditto for this prostrate lantana.

While we're at it... this variegated commelina seems like it would work.

The rose of sharon bushes are blooming like mad.

Interesting colour on the tiger swallowtail...

The snake cotton (Froelichia gracilis) is blooming... Interesting plant...

Flowers on the joe-pye (Eutrochium fistulosum) this year... First year I've gotten this wetland plant to bloom... in the dry sand.
In my previous garden, I'd get butterflies wingtip to wingtip on this stuff...  

Found a new joepye (Eutrochium purpureum )... doesn't get 10 foot tall. I'm hoping for some crosses with the tall variety....
The flowerheads aren't as full... but the butterflies and bees don't mind.

Another natural, Southern joint weed (Polygonella americana).
I'm still studying on how to propagate this one.

Speaking of propagation... remember tephrosia?
(Picture originally posted in May)
 
Dried seedpods... if I can find any unopened ones...
Found some
Got a few seed... were mostly empty and wormy.
Babies!

Finally, another local wildflower... Crotalaria spectabilis
I couldn't get showy crotalaria to naturalize in my previous frost pocket garden...
The Virginia tech weed site considers this beauty... a weed... no accounting for taste.

 

3 Comments:

Blogger stiener said...

Facinating and beautiful. I have the Snake cotton , too and it is interesting. I`ve even allowed some of it to grow in the beds ,leggy as it is. Heliotrope is cool. Is that Beach sunflower? Helianthus Debilis? It`s the type I have in this sand. Also, your Rose of Sharon is looking good. Mine blooming great but a bit airy. Do you trim it back in winter?

August 12, 2013 at 6:51 AM  
Blogger Gardens-In-The-Sand said...

I've brought snake cotton into the garden this year for observantion.
Not dune sunflower. My dune sunflowers have smaller flowers, and don't get so tall. Those are annual lemon yellow.
I avoid trimming stuff back, I totally hate the look... If something needs cutting back, it probably needs to go.
My rose of Sharon grow bushy because the sand is dry, and I don't water them... Also that one is in full sun...

August 12, 2013 at 9:16 AM  
Blogger stiener said...

Ok , good advice , I`m sure. Lemon yellow, huh, I`ll look into that.

August 12, 2013 at 1:12 PM  

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