My garden is a spring garden. It comes on strong with bulbs then early perennials, but pretty much runs its course by June. I’ve been trying to change that in recent years, and have been adding more daylilies and daisies. Right now, they’re in their full glory. It’s yellow and orange out there! Best of all, they love it sunny and dry, which is the weather we’ve been having this year. I have several very large sunflowers which are still in bud and keep growing. They’re volunteers, either from last year’s sunflowers or contributions from the bird feeder. Each has multiple buds and one is taller than Mr. Math and still growing. I can’t wait for them to open.

Here’s a selection of pix from this past weekend in the garden. First the daylilies:

Two pix of the pink one, because I love its chartreuse throat.

My favorite, the big red one. The deepest part of its throat is also chartreuse, but it doesn’t show well in this picture.

This is an asiatic lily, not a daylily. I don’t have many of these left, because we have those Japanese beetles that devour the bulbs, but this one is lovely. It has a beautiful sweet perfume, too.

I had a lot of calendula, which is a self-seeding annual. Here’s a big patch of it which was starting to go to seed. I pulled it all out right after taking this picture and scattered seeds in the bed. That gives the other smaller things beneath it (in this case, a lot of stonecrop and some lavendar) a chance to catch some rays too.

The rudbeckia (black eyed susans) are already blooming, which is usually something we see later in August. It must be the heat. These self-seed as well, although they’re perennials. I seem to have them everywhere.

This is elecampane, a perennial which was grown in the Middle Ages. The roots and stems are supposed to be good for settling the stomach and were often candied in honey to make sweets for after the meal. The plant is enormous, probably 8 feet tall, and dies back to the ground every winter.

The roses of sharon are also coming into bloom, and also are early. Here’s a pink one which likes to self-seed.

And here’s a white one, which is a little bit less enthusiastic in terms of self-seeding. I have a blue one as well, but it hadn’t opened any blooms yet on the weekend.

And finally, some echinacea, loving the sunshine. That monster sunflower is behind it – you can just see its leaves.

My beebalm didn’t do as well this year. (Some of it was overwhelmed by calendula.) The phlox is out, but the picture didn’t come out well, and the hydrangea is in bloom, which should mean that we’ll get a hail storm. The lavendar and stonecrop are doing well, too, and next time, I’ll probably have some sedum to show you. My aconite is HUGE this year – I always thought it liked shade and moist soil, but it’s in full sun this year, the soil is dry and it’s got to be eight feet tall. Looks like I had its preferences wrong. I’ll share some pix when the buds open.

How does your garden grow this year?