A few blooms from my garden today:

Front porch annuals: Coleus 'Honey Crisp', New Guinea imps 'Sonic Orange', Nemesia 'Opal Innocence':


Pot Marigold:


Stokes' Aster 'Honeysong Purple':


Helenium 'Mariachi Siesta' just starting to bloom--yay!


Rebloom on a very pretty verbena hybrid ('Enduro White Blush')
I really like:


Lobelia cardinalis:


Hibiscus 'Fireball'

They are just beautiful. Wish I had all those pretty colors around here.

Thanks JB! I'll bet you have lovely photos to share of your own plants!

There is one plant I have that I think is most enjoyable. It is the black pussy willow. I bought one bush many years ago from an old guy, can't remember his name, but he had these black pussy willows for sale and I had never seen them before.
They are amazing plants and very quick growers, plus they are easy to propagate. For a few years I sold them and did very well with them. Now I just enjoy what I kept and the old one I bought is as pretty as ever.
The stems are a burgundy color in the Winter and in the Spring the black catkins form and the beautiful green foliage remains full and green until the snow comes again. Then you see the burgundy stems against the white fields of snow. The little sparrows, finches, etc. make their home in them year round. What more could you want from one little old plant.

This is how the burgundy stems and early catkins look in February.


This is how the mature catkins look in April


Here is the bush in March


Here is how it looks the rest of the year after the leaves grow.


It makes a wonderful hedge, or just a pretty bush for any landscape. It is very easy to grow and loves full sun.

It's beautiful JB! DD and I have always wished we could have a pussy willow tree but I think our yard is too small. So I ended up getting a dwarf Salix caprea which has the catkins in the spring but it is so tiny it is more like a shrub!

Blooms from this morning:

Agastache 'Golden Jubilee' and Zinnia elegans


Basil (Ocimum kilimandscharicum × basilicum) 'African Blue'


Impatiens walleriana 'Fiesta Purple Stripe'


First blooms of Sedum spurium 'John Creech'

Lovely, Cat. That 'African Blue' basil is so interesting!

Thanks, Typ! I have loved the African Blue Basil! This is the 2nd year I have had it. It grows quite large, has a wonderful aromatic fragrance, attracts the pollinators, and blooms all season. It's an annual, but I liked it so much from last year that I got it again this year.

oooh, the colors on all of those are beautiful. I adore that sedum..How pretty and soft it looks. You have so many different colors in your garden, very attractive.

Thanks JB. I love sedum. I don't have quite enough full sun garden space to support all the sedum I have/want so I'm planning to 'lasagna' in some more space this year for next spring!

If it was up to me I would have it all over the farm. I just love all kinds of it. I only have the yellow on that old stump and along the lane.

I have a small amount of 'Angelina' that I just acquired this year at a swap (thanks, @SSGardener !) It is very pretty. I have it planted near some 'Blue Spruce' (also new), and I'm hoping it all fills out nicely next year. 'John Creech' is one of my older sedums so it's had more time to get established and fill out.

I think @TypWC is also a sedum fan!

Went to a pollinator garden with a local gardening friend this morning. Got lots of inspiration regarding plants to focus on for next year, and also got a few pics! :-)

Bees enjoying the mountain mints and salvia:


A Swallowtail enjoying the Tithonia rotundifolia:


Some sedum and sempervirens that I'd love to get ID'd:

Beautiful pictures. You should do that more often. That sedum is a dandy.

I posted that photo in the plant ID forum to see if I can find which kinds are in it. They had a lot of xeriscaping at the entryway.

I hope they can do that....it is very interesting.

Cat, might the taller one maybe be Senecio Sempervivus?

Not sure about the prostrate long-leafed one.. is it a Sempervivum also? That is really a cool looking plant!! Still searching around.... maybe a Bromeliad?

Could be, Speedie! I realized how little I know about this whole area of plants! They are really pretty though.

Maybe a Neoreglia of some sort..??? How tall/wide is it?

well the whole thing was fairly small. It was like a concrete plate on top of an urn at the entryway. Maybe 15-18" in diameter?, so all those plants fit in that area.