What's blooming

Well, I should have captured pictures of the glorious peonies. Now that the first real heat wave has hit, they're really going to be goners. All of a sudden, we're looking very mediterranean around here.

Here's butterfly milkweed, which I'm fascinated to find that Native Americans called pleurisy, because they chewed it to help with lung complaints. (Information courtesy of the Lady Bird Johnson Native Plant Information Network):

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Asclepias tuberosa L.

Butterfly milkweed, Butterfly weed, Butterfly-weed, Orange milkweed

Asclepiadaceae (Milkweed Family)

USDA Symbol: astu

USDA Native Status: Native to U.S.

This bushy, 1 1/2-2 ft. perennial is prized for its large, flat-topped clusters of bright-orange flowers. An abundance of stiff, lance-shaped foliage provides a dark-green backdrop for the showy flower heads.

This showy plant is frequently grown from seed in home gardens. Its brilliant flowers attract butterflies. Because its tough root was chewed by the Indians as a cure for pleurisy and other pulmonary ailments, Butterfly Weed was given its other common name, Pleurisy Root. Although it is sometimes called Orange Milkweed, this species has no milky sap.

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It's planted in with blue sage, stella de oro daylilies, coreopsis, and...hm...other things.








Looking from that garden toward the house, you can see the penstemon in full bloom, with a canna about to pop right behind them.

And on the side of the house, the ever-popular (among themselves) perennial geraniums are blooming, all pink and frilly.