Now The Spectacle Begins

If Only ...... The garden tour had been in another week or two they would have seen ...... Nah. We got rave reviews as it was. We are back to our regular gig as a roadside spectacle on the scenic byway for the usual passersby. Select visitors will get to see the spectacle up close.

The floral extravaganza of summer is just now really beginning. It builds from here.

In the next few weeks hundreds and hundreds of daylilies will bloom. I will get to see it all.

Our visitor yesterday from the native plant garden in Lake Junaluska helped me ID some unknowns. This is Pale Indian Plantain, Arnoglossum atriplicifolium. I have waffled on whether this plant is a keeper or not. The flowers are not all that showy, but the big foliage is unique and interesting. It has a major taproot and is hard to edit anyway. I guess it will always be here so I should learn to like it.

I knew it was a milkweed. That is all I knew. Now it has a name, Poke Milkweed, Asclepias exaltata. Its open umbels of drooping flowers are different, but the real specialty of this milkweed is that it grows in the shade.

A lot of new plants have followed me home this year. There is a lot more to see and check on when I walk through the garden. The Plume Poppy, Macleaya cordata has grown from a barely rooted cutting to a small blooming plant. It has a reputation as a thug. That's what I wanted. I wanted a thug with some height to take over the slope below the roadside  grass and flower bed. I also planted Smooth Sumac, Rhus glabra on this slope. Both of them have very strong foliage. I need that strong bold foliage in the Lush.

My new Stewartia pseudocamellia is blooming. It was my replacement for the failed cold hardy camellia experiment. It came from the nursery with buds and aphids. He tried not to sell it to me until I accepted the aphids and a discount. "Look you need to get this out of the nursery and I am taking it no matter what." I wasn't worried. No aphid will last long in my bug infested garden. This is going to be a beautiful tree.

If Only ....... the garden tour was in a couple more years they would have seen ...... The spectacle is only going to get more intense from here on out. Plants keep following me home and the editing keeps changing the nature of the chaos.