The Pea Family Showed Up This Week

The Pea Family Showed Up This Week

perennials vegetable garden

I was standing out in the garden and noticed I was surrounded by blooms from the pea family of plants.

My initial thought was, "oh good, the Leguminosae family has arrived. Oh wait, not Leguminosae like I learned in college, now it's Fabaceae. Leguminosae, Fabaceae, does it really matter-a?

Maybe not.

What matters is their blooms have shown up in my garden.

The common peas, Pisum sativum,

In the right light...

In the right light...

perennials

In the right light...

I just like how this picture came out.

So I'm sharing it...

Foxglove - A sign of garden fairy activity in the garden

Foxglove - A sign of garden fairy activity in the garden

fairies perennials

Digitalis grandiflora

Dear Hortense,

Do you have foxglove growing in your garden?

I have large yellow-flowered foxglove, Digitalis grandiflora, growing in my garden.  It's right in the middle of Plopper's Field, my perennial border where I carefully plop new plants in any spot that looks open.

I do, of course, sometimes, if I think about it, consider what's growing around the bare spot

Gillyflowers in bloom

Gillyflowers in bloom

perennials

Gillyflowers, Dianthus 'Bath's Pink'

The gillyflowers are in bloom.

Gillyflowers, you ask? Aren't those Dianthus, you ask politely?

To you, maybe, but when I read that another common name for Dianthus is gillyflower, I decided that's the name for me.

I got my starts of this particular gillyflower, which is Dianthus 'Bath's Pink' from the Hoosier Gardener. I remember she dropped off a

The Legend of the Toad Lily

The Legend of the Toad Lily

fairies Humor perennials

Tricyrtis 'Imperial Banner'

Once upon a time, there were several garden fairies out enjoying a cool late summer's evening.   They were having a marvelous time, drinking dew drop tea and eating bits of acorn muffins, when one of them spied a little white lily shaped flower.

All the garden fairies thought the little white lily looked rather plain and decided right then to give it a new look so

As the Garden Grows: Cup Plant

As the Garden Grows: Cup Plant

perennials

Silphium perfoliatum

Cup plant, Silphium perfoliatum, bloomed one day after Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day so I didn't include it in my last post.

This particular native flower is often called Cup Plant because water collects at the base of the leaves where they attach to the stem, making it a handy source of water for goldfinches and other birds who eat the seeds of the spent blooms.

Cup Plant

Overheard in a garden

Overheard in a garden

garden Humor perennials

If you are very quiet in a garden and stand quite still, you can hear the flowers talking to one another.

Listen in to the conversation overheard in the August Dreams Garden border on a still, early morning.

"Good morning, flower friends.  Hey Solidago, what's going on over there?"

"Glad you asked, Rudbeckia.  Please call us Goldenrod. Did you see how Carol trimmed us back the other day?  We

Summer wanes and fall waxes

Summer wanes and fall waxes

perennials

August Dreams Border in bloom in early September

There's still many a grand display left in this garden, even as summer wanes and fall waxes.

Here Solidago shortti, 'Solar Cascade' blooms with Boltonia asteroides 'Snowbank' in the August Dreams garden border, just as planned.

It's like flower fireworks, right in my own garden.

I will enjoy it while I can.  After all, summer wanes and fall

Surprise Lilies and Surprise Announcements

Surprise Lilies and Surprise Announcements

fairies Humor perennials vegetable garden

Garden fairies here.

We are garden fairies and we have taken it upon ourselves to wipe out everything Carol just wrote about the surprise lilies, Lycoris squamigera, because it was all so boringggggg.

We garden fairies do not like boring posts whatsoever. In fact, we gave what Carol wrote six G's out of a scale of five G's because it was beyond anything we could imagine when it comes to

Plopper's Field

Plopper's Field

perennials

In Plopper's Field, the little fairy bower vine, Clematis x triternata 'Rubromarginata' weaves its way through the branches and stems of all the other plants. It's white and purple blooms seem to hang in mid-air.

I occasionally wade into the midst of this border to pull out the all too prevalent thistle weeds and the self-imposed spiderwort and perennial sweet pea thugs.  I look for a bare

Two flowers showed up in a garden

Two flowers showed up in a garden

Humor perennials

Rising up above the foliage of the late blooming perennials of the August Dreams Garden border, two flowers showed up in the garden.

The two blooms of Dense Blazing Star, Liatris spicata, looked as though they were advance scouts, checking out the garden to see if it would be safe to bloom there.

"What do you think, DB?"

"I'm not sure, but aren't those some other flowers over there across

Garden Design: A Border for One Season

Garden Design: A Border for One Season

garden design perennials

August Dreams Garden in mid-June

One of the best decisions I made three years ago when I worked with a garden designer to lay out the garden borders was to plant one border with plants that bloom only in late summer and early fall.

I call it August Dreams Garden and right now it is just green plants.  The only color comes from a garden sculpture in the middle of it.

The lack of blooms in

Blooming to distraction

Blooming to distraction

Humor perennials vines

Clematis 'Pagoda'.

I'm still smitten by this clematis.  It's grown quite a bit more this year and is full of purple blooms now.   I can hardly believe that at one time I thought clematis were just so-so and I didn't think I needed any in my garden.

What was I thinking? 

I do love these bell-shaped flo...

Hey are those foxglove over there?



Yes, those are yellow foxglove growing in

Secrets to Happiness with Peonies

Secrets to Happiness with Peonies

perennials Secrets

Peonies anyone?

You may have your fancy peonies, your new varieties, even your tree peonies.  I am sure they are very nice and give you joy when they flower.

But for me, I only need the peonies that I got from my Dad's stand of peonies.  They are like family.  Good family, who don't need a lot of attention and return faithfully year after year and when they are here, they are no trouble at

Wildflower Wednesday: Where's the Baptisia?

Wildflower Wednesday: Where's the Baptisia?

perennials wildflower wednesday

Let's play a new gardening game called "Where's the Baptisia".

Baptisia australis, which has the common name of Blue False Indigo, is a native flower in the eastern United States.  Well-planted in the garden, it can provide a stunning display of purple blooms in mid to late spring.

Here in my garden, Baptisia is not well planted.

Can you find it in the picture above?

Let's go in a little

Today's plant obsession - Aquilegia

Today's plant obsession - Aquilegia

perennials

Today's plant obsession is Aquilegia, common name Columbine, though some species are also called Granny's Bonnet.

We have enough Granny's Bonnet here at May Dreams Gardens to open up a hat shop, a milliner's delight of color.

This is mostly due to allowing Aquilegia to self-sow about the garden because at least in this garden, I believe it is a sin to weed out Aquilegia.

As a result, we have