not all, just about half. I'm feeding the bees and butterflies

Why the fencing over the pond? Predators?

You have a profusion of pollinator friendly plants!

Just a quick walk around the yard. The serious heat is setting in for the summer - but so far the plants don't seem to mind.














The hibiscus plants are happy happy!







The blooms on the Lord Baltimore are HUGE!

porkpal said: Why the fencing over the pond? Predators?

You have a profusion of pollinator friendly plants!

Great Blue Heron turns pond into sushi bar. I lost 56 koi in 2 days before fencing. Put 300 big goldfish in and the fencing on, drove the bird nuts, he left.

I have to feed my bees somehow.... flowers are prettier than sugar water

After totally ignoring my gardens for almost 3 years, everything is doing better without me. (I'm trying not to be offended.) In front my Magnolia has been blooming like crazy although I think it's almost finished now. The tree covers my entire front yard which forced me to buy my house.
Coming in at a close second as far as favorites, is my Oakleaf Hydrangea. Hoping it will survive this year's heat.

(always has so far)

On the east side, my ferns seem happy.



Also on the east is a redbud tree that won't die, hellebores that usually die back in summer, and my first bloom on a Heuchera (windy, bad picture).







And then to my amazement I saw something taller than everything else in my back flower garden. Thus I had to check it out. Lo and behold it's my bronze fennel. I planted it years ago for the Swallowtail butterflies and can't even imagine what the actual bulb itself must look like.


My Turks Caps are happy. My biggest one is probably 15 years old. A few years ago I planted 3 more for self protection as the house nextdoor was about to be demolished and replaced with I didn't know what. Anyway, all 4 of the Turks Caps are starting to bloom.

The original (still getting bigger and with lots of blooms, tho not in the picture)


and the younguns. all are blooming.








There's more for show and tell but I'm too scared to go outside to take more pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

Here's a closer look at the flowers on the Bronze Fennel.


And I'm still in shock over my Gregg's Blue Mistflower. It's never had much of a spread and it's certainly never measured more than an inch or two high. Yet here it is today, June 21, and it's 3' high, bees all over it. Good golly!



A neighbor uprooted his butterfly bush because "it didn't go with what else he had." Because I'd read it can be invasive, I reluctantly took it and then let it sit in a bucket for at least 3 weeks. Finally planted it, dead flowers and all. So today when I decided to water the poor thing, it didn't look so poorly after all. Had a lot of new blooms. But the rains came before I could take a picture. Maybe tomorrow.

I've had trouble keeping butterfly bush alive, but none keeping it from spreading. Now I don't water very much, no sprinkler system, so your mileage may vary. coreopsis and a tiny butterfly

Here's much of what's blooming in the backyard right now. (Not shown: Society Garlic & Turk's Cap.)

Welcome GaryTX.
Beautiful pictures!

Crossandra. I overwintered this plant successfully this time. It really doesn't like temps below 50F, I think. Can't capture the color right in photos, though. Lots brighter than it photos. It will do this until it's time to come inside for the winter barring a disaster of some kind. When I move to Costa Rica I'm going to have a huge in ground planting .

needrain said: Crossandra. I overwintered this plant successfully this time. It really doesn't like temps below 50F, I think. Can't capture the color right in photos, though. Lots brighter than it photos. It will do this until it's time to come inside for the winter barring a disaster of some kind. When I move to Costa Rica I'm going to have a huge in ground planting .

This is my first year trying this in a container. When I bought it this spring I planted it in a larger plastic pot and then sunk it into the large ceramic container. That is too large to move but I thought I could remove the smaller plastic container and bring inside. Do you have any particular advice about timing, overwintering indoors etc? Thanks!

teacup754 said: This is my first year trying this in a container. When I bought it this spring I planted it in a larger plastic pot and then sunk it into the large ceramic container. That is too large to move but I thought I could remove the smaller plastic container and bring inside. Do you have any particular advice about timing, overwintering indoors etc? Thanks!

I just brought it in when the temps started falling below 50F pretty often. I kept it on an unheated glass porch in the beginning. That and the garage are where most of plants are in the winter. But neither place works for a couple of plants. It just gets too cold even though it doesn't freeze. There's not much in the way of a good place inside except I have one bathroom with a west facing window. I set the Crossandra up directly in front of that window and it did fine all winter. My sister visited and her cat chewed up a couple of limbs. I moved it back out too early and it threw a couple of tantrums after the cold spells this spring. Not near freezing, just really cool temps. Lost leaves, a lot turned yellowish and sickly. It recovered as soon as it started getting warmer day and night. It's been blooming well for about six weeks now. I used to have to do the same thing for Codiaeum variegatum 'Petra' until it simply got too big. It also couldn't take the cool temps on the porch or in the garage. Most plants can handle cool temps as long as they are kept on the dry side and it doesn't actually freeze, but those haven't managed for me.

Thanks for the advice. I have a sunny ledge I can put it on for the winter so I'll give it a try.

Lotus, coreopsis, dahlia, echinacea and bee balm, not in order

A pretty assortment.

thank you

Very lovely bloomers. They ought to keep your bees happy.

Gypsi - very nice pictures. I'm glad you added the comment ". . . not in order" because I was starting to get confused, thinking "no it isn't" as far as plants I actually know.🤔

My very first real Asclepius Tuberosa bloom

Not a lot. The usual suspects like Echeveria 'Lola', a gasteria, and Haworthia mirabilis which always try to bloom in the winter for me. A surprise was this bromeliad, though. I've had it for years and this is the first time. It hasn't enjoyed my conditions or my care and never done very well, but now I have an idea of what to expect if I can keep it happy. It's going to be the 3rd 'Queen's Tears' type bloom among the bromes growing here. The smallest of those is usually the first brome to bloom and it's beginning to send up bloom spikes now. This one is a larger leafed plant with a correspondingly larger bloom. It's going to be close to the same as the 3rd one which blooms as the small one is finishing up and continues into the heat of summer. There may be two different bromes in the container here, but I'm not sure. I combined a couple into one container that had never done well. The plants appeared the same with the same distinct lime green colored vegetation, so I was guessing they probably were the same. Guess I'll know if something different shows up sometime or other. Sure is a vivid, exotic looking bit of bloom - or technically still in bud stage here.