In late June, my garden has exploded with some of the most spectacular floral sights.
In the cover photo above, this is my million dollar flower. It's called a Cape Daisy, from South Africa. It grew very fast and easy once temperatures became hot. I am especially fond of this flower for the tiger striped pattern.
The center is inky black, and the pollen on the stamens contrast it deeply as it turns white. It sprouts one flower per plant, so planting lots of seeds is smart.
Mock Orange
This native tree flower, the Mock Orange, has popped recently. A very cheerful, happy flower with the cream colored stamens and pistol in the center. Reputed to have a similar appearance and scent to an orange flower, but I cannot detect any scent.
Nasturtiums
The nasturtiums are going crazy. They love the hot sun and wet, rich garden soil.
I appreciate these plants because they distract the slugs and other insects that devour tender crops I grow nearby. The leaves are incredibly helpful at shading the soil, which keeps the soil wet longer on hot days. These plants come in a variety of warm toned flower colors, and various shades of variegated or solid leaf tones.
Dianthus
The dianthus is a carnation type flower. Some consider it a cheap flower because it lacks scent, but I enjoy the bold white and red contrasted bouquets. To me they seem very royal with the proud stems and bladed leaves.
Santa Barbara Daisies
Penny sized flowers that dance over a padded mound of greens is how I would describe these pink and white flowers. The golden center likely glows at the bees like a flashing jackpot sign.
Ideally, would like to grow these inside the lawn grass to fill in bare spots and to repair the soil, but the flowers stand a bit too high, some as tall as 8 inches. If I can find a daisy similar to these to grow inside the lawn, I'll be really happy if they spread.
Lady Lavender
This is one of my bonsai trees. It's in great health this year, with each branch pushing out a long flower stem.
Pineapple Sage
I was not even expecting any flowers from this plant, so I was super surprised to find these sexy purple flowers bubbling off the stems this year.
This plant propagates so easily from cuttings, I have managed to make dozens from a single original plant. This is another plant I grow to help shade the soil and to deter pests. The scented leaves are slightly soft and fuzzy, yet juicy and peppery spicy when eaten.
Iris
Mom purchased dozens of these Iris bulbs, so I planted them along the fences, where I knew they would look best in the background because they stand very tall when fully mature. They look really good under the dappled shade.
Tiger Lilly
Tiger Lily has always been my favorite flower.
This year I had about ten plants spring up with flowers, many with multiple buds. They are more orange than last year, but I still think that in past years my original set of bulbs (I those died out) were unbeatable in full color.
Still, I love the shape and rougey red contrast on these seductive flowers.
Wild Chicory
Simply magical. This plant mesmerizes me.
It grows up looking like the most god-awful monster sized dandelion plant in the world. The entire plant might look like it's been thrashed and beaten by the sun, yet it puts out flowers that I could lie and say were groomed by a florist's refrigerator to preserve the color vibrancy and moisturized petals.
Amazingly enough, the plant and flowers do moisturize and cool the air nearby. This is due to the deep taproot that feeds water up and out into the leaves and flowers.
Shasta Daisy
A few years ago I thought this flower plant died, baked to hell in my flower pot during the scorching heat of summer. It didn't grow back the next year.
This year it grew back. The lady who sold it to me told me it was a fool proof plant that is hard to kill, and it reseeds itself easily. I think it was the seeds that were dormant in the soil that might have rekindled the magic.
Planted behind my garden bed, I think the muddy soil back there might have been the secret sauce to restore this plant to new life.
Shasta Daisies are identifiable by the big round white flowers, and the dark green leaves have spiney textured edges that are not sharp. Some people dislike the earthy scent, so it is best grown as a flower to enjoy from afar.
Coreopsis
The golden glow of these flowers enjoy competing with the yellow sunshine.
It was recommended to me in a garden book to grow these at the base of a tree, and I think that is a smart idea. The roots do well in poor soils where it competes with thick tree roots. It creates an idea setting where the plant will not become waterlogged, and the tree overhead will protect it from sunburn on hot days.
Borage
Borage is the sniper of pests in my garden.
With these fierce indigo blue flowers, they are the closest thing to a carnivorous plant that I grow. Instead, this plant attracts nectar loving insects and birds which act as predators to pests.
Soft to the touch, yet to slugs and snails the furry lancelets are prickly and sharp deterrents. You can also smell the greens, which is a scent that confuses the ants who like to transport aphids onto neighbor plants. Grow it near any kind of brassicas to allow natural predators to keep the aphid population down.
Fuchsia
English Thyme
This is what has been growing on my thyme tree cluster.
The leaves and flowers have the wonderful savory scent I love to put on fresh baked bread or biscuits. The flowers are a magnet for morning and evening bumble bees.
Salsify
Lucky! Sometimes you get a seed that literally blows in from a neighbor's yard. Seeds arrive in the form of a cotton parachute, much like a dandelion.
It does grow in the wild, but more likely somebody nearby purchased a lovely Salsify plant for their garden. When it goes to seed, it will likely plant itself into a neighboring space, like mine. 🤩
Thankfully, this tall plant grew up right next to the fence where it can be properly appreciated. It is so tall, proud, and spectacular, it should be planted alone, so it won't feel a bit jealous of the others stealing the spotlight.
#daisy #fuchsia #coreopsis #chicory #mock-orange #nasturtium #dianthus #lavender #thyme #sage #iris #lily #tigerlily #borage #salsify
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Lovely daisy 😍 You have a beautiful variety of flowers. We have focused on prennials to get our beds started. Lots of daisies and coneflowers. We are waiting for the ones we planted this year to bloom although we do have a few daisies. We also picked up some perennials on sale and we able to add some flox amd bee balm. We have some wild chicory. We tried to start daylilies but they were overwhelmed by the other plants and didn't make it. Exciting to see your flowers doing so well 🙂
These flowers are gorgeous.
That Cape Daisy is spectacular! My mock orange doesn't have any scent either. I bought it and planted it just for the scent. :(( Your nasturtiums and dianthus are far ahead of mine. My iris are long done. I just love tiger lilies but none ever survived here. The coreopsis is just about done here and the goldfinches are in heaven. I planted new chicory I started this year as the old plants had died out. It's a long way from flowering. That salsify flower is very cool!
Yeah, we planted the iris bulbs in May, so they popped up in mid to late June. It was a nice surprise to have those flowers come up right away, a month after everyone else's had withered away. Thanks for the comments @goldenoakfarm.
You have a nice variety of plants and that cape daisy is one of my absolute favs. Great photographing of the flowers.
These are great!
I posted the link to this post in LeoThreads!
Threads is a new Twitter like short form blogging space on the Leofinance.io Webpage/Hive Front page which is similar to Peakd or Ecency. But perfect for a community to post short form and enjoy.
Not familiar with leothreads.
Currently I use ecency.com primarily. Peakd I think is also very easy to use. Ecency feels easier to find new posts on the topics I frequent most. If I could find a platform without promoted posts, I would love that, because promoted posts are like ads unrelated to my search feed.
I haven't spent any time with Leofinance because I don't enjoy writing about finance topics. I know many authors in their community get away with posting mostly or even occasional topics related to finance. Have they opened things up somehow to allow for people to share non-financial topics, and simply blog openly?
I do understand I can post the same things from my Hive account using leofinance.io to reach the same non-financial communities, so maybe I should try that out and learn if there are any advantages over ecency.
In the earlier days when Hive was called Steem, I had a misunderstanding with some of the gold and silver community leaders who were sticklers about wanting everyone to be the same kind of authors. They would only let people invest with them by invitation only, even though they were posting daily about all the growing cash rewards they were raking in (on the inside!) for each new investor adding funds to the team. I was a bit offended when I asked questions privately in discord, and the mod was more skeptical that I might dishonestly attempt to abuse their community for my own financial gain. Isn't that exactly what they were doing? I just wanted to invest quietly while blogging freely about other interests. Never looked back.
Your million dollar daisy is really beautiful!
So much brightness in your garden! I bet it's calling in all of the beneficial insects from miles around.
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I love flowers!!!!!
These flower photos are beautiful. I invite you to post in the Flower-Pictures Community.
God bless you always my friend, you have a good heart.
Can a Lavander plant grow in a tropical country? @creativetruth
Does it really smell like a soap?😀
Yes, of course. Lavender is a popular perfume for baths, because it is calming and helps to put the mind at rest.
They do grow lavender in Mediterranean countries, like Spain and Italy, where it thrives in arid lands and grasslands. In the tropics it might not fair as well. Monsoons might flood the soil for too many weeks, which this plant will not tolerate. The plant benefits from a winter dormancy season at freezing temperatures to recharge its roots.
It's just amazing, I never seen the Lavender plant up close, we only get the scent here with products that are made with its oils like perfumes and some soaps and rubbing alcohol. Thank you @creativetruth