Wildflower Wednesday

We had record rainfall in the spring, and then very hot temperatures with high heat indexes, which made getting out into the garden more of a challenge this season.  The time sure has slipped by, too, and now that the days are getting shorter, I am feeling sad, and trying to get out as much as I can.  Barring that, I open the front door and look to see if there are any insect visitors on the flowers. 

Here is my post for Wildflower Wednesday, hosted by Gail, of Clay and Limestone.  I like the way she highlights flowers, giving information about them  I can't seem to find just one or two for a post, so I usually end up showing many of the native/wildflowers that are blooming.

The Illinois bundleflowers have just started blooming in the last couple of days.  I love the plants for the foliage and cool looking seedheads, which turn brown in the fall.

I think this is a bee of some kind that has found one of the blooms.

I love the native clematis pitcheri, and am thankful I have them in two spots.

The wild senna plants have been loaded with pollinators the last few days.

I trimmed back some plants, like this monarda fistula, so they would be bushier and less floppy.  This also caused a delay in blooming.  It's good to see they are now blooming.

This is Euphorbia, I think, corollata.  It is hard to photograph, but is one I wish I had more of this time of year.  I love the many little white blooms on them.

The hoary vervain given to me by a friend who has real prarie is almost finished blooming, but still looking good.

I got the prairie petunias started before I knew what they were.  There were some on the property where we built our church, and I liked them, so brought some home.  They self sow well, and I like the places they show up.

Usually, there are lots of insects feeding on plants, such as this short toothed mountain mint  There have been a few this year, but not as many as usual.

Black eyed susans and this ironweed have been blooming for a few days.  Some of the ironweeds are still in bud.

The gray headed coneflowers are not getting as many visitors as usual, but  I am glad there are some.

I've mentioned that I watch our granddaughter 4 days a week.  She turned a year the end of June.  I am thankful she loves looking at the flowers and insects.  She'll point, and say, "Pretty!"  We spent a few minutes yesterday looking at the multitudes of tiny black insects of some kind on the rattlesnake master blooms.  At least they are getting some activity, but then, not as much as usual, either.

Most of the liatris blooms are open, but the aspera and some others are still in bud.  I was glad to see a skipper today.

I was pleased to see what I think is a black swallowtail butterfly going to each clump of golden alexanders, hopefully, depositing eggs.  It was hard to get a photo, but I did manage to get a good shot of its shadow near the mountain mint that may have self sown, and be a cross between different ones here.

Gene, from a Facebook group, Gardening with Nature in Mind, told me these are gray-headed coneflowers when I posted them, thinking they were something different.  When I tried to remember what I thought they may be, I looked around on the internet, and finally figured it out, that yellow coneflowers, Ratibida pinnata are the same thing as gray headed coneflowers.  Here I already had enough to divide, but bought more, thinking they were something different.  I guess learning the scientific names is a good idea. These are in the bed across from where the others are.  I have also been adding other plants from across the sidewalk so that they look like a large planting area separated by the front sidewalk, so these will be fine here.

Since I mentioned Ruby, I thought I'd share a photo of her enjoying some dirt.

Some of the people in our Gardening with Nature in Mind are having some difficulty with one or a few neighbors due to their choice of gardening with prairie plants.  I hope people will become more in tune with nature one of these days and be thankful for neighbors who garden with native plants.  I hope none of you are experiencing problems like that.