Wildflowers!!

I'm finally almost caught up on posts after my terribly long late summer absence.

I said I'd start with beautifulness before going to the sort of fails (well, some are not even 'sort of'! Poor edibles struggling all around :-/ ) and now I'm book-ending with more beautifulness!!

I've been complaining about the craziness of my wildflower border for years; every year there's something! (And by "something", I mean some major crazy take-over or lack of performance by flowers or, or, or, or...)

But this year I am actually very pleased! It's been beautiful from spring up through now with very few "blah" times. 

I finally, over three different days weeks (or maybe months!) apart finished staining my arbor. 

(Weather would NOT cooperate! when we had multiple dry days in a row, I didn't have time! when I had a free weekend, it would rain!) 

It looks soooo gorgeous! Imagine next year when the clematis have scaled higher and bloomed fuller! 

Yay!

And then there's these pretty pink things that get to be over 3' tall and I had to help prop help (ultimately they just ended collapsing onto the hydrangeas, which were very hospitable).

Looking out over my neighbor's yard where they removed
EVERY SINGLE TREE (except 2 scrawny ones; of course one,
a hollytree, is the bane of my weeding existence 😑). I was NOT
thrilled by this turn of events; I love trees!

Very oddly, my gardenia put out two blooms in the beginning of July. Just two.

End of the daylilies, beginning of the black-eyed susans

 

Beautiful colors everywhere!!

The black-eyed susans my neighbor gave me from her yard (and that husband just knew were going to die after I planted them in the most horrid heat and they looked so wilty!) did wonderfully and still have some little flowers holding on even now!

Let's talk about these foxglove...they have gone nonstop all summer producing more and more stalks!


I am so hoping they seeded successfully and I will get them again. Huge success for something I did not expect to bloom this year!

And then there are the seeds.

What seeds?

The enormous bag of wildflower seeds given to my Mother many years ago.

Remember:

The other option is to put the bag in your garage.    Your non-climate-controlled garage...in northern IL (90 in the summer, below freezing in the winter...you get it).  Where the door is opened and closed multiple times a day letting in various levels of light.    For at least 5 years.    Then mail the seeds to your daughter who will keep them inside her doesn't-get-below-60-degrees house for another 2 years.

Then, because she's curious, daughter will sprinkle a bunch into a little pot and put it in the garden.

And they will sprout.

Incredible, incredible seeds!

That's what I'm learning about gardening and plants specifically: yes there's a lot that you're "supposed" to do right and sure, things may not work if you don't...but by and large there are so many things that totally DO just work all by themselves! Even when you did nothing...or even more so: when you did everything wrong!!

So I transplanted them to a lacking corner of the wildflower beds and voila! Beautiful!


We shall see if they reproduce next year as well.

So crazy!

They're enjoying their final days of bloomage next to my newest addition...

I bought a hibiscus! I didn't think it would bloom since I put it in so late, but it did put out a few!



The summer and fall combine!

Well done, little garden! Well done!