You can hear it from most anywhere in the garden: the sound of honeybees going bonkers over the flowers of the Flueggea, perhaps the most obscure of the woody plants in my garden. I don’t recall where I got it. At the time it went under the name Securinega, and I don’t know what inspired me to buy it. Was it once considered a member of the Euphorbiacea? Am I boring you, dear reader? Now it is listed as being in the Phyllanthaceae, which means absolutely nothing to me except I read they are from the tropics. A large number of the twigs of my Flueggea die in the winter, but they can be easily be snapped off and it’s not an unpleasant task. New shoots readily arise from the older wood, and of course the flowers are produced on same year’s growth. Tony Reznicek told me I should be glad to have a male plant, as the females set seed which germinate in obnoxious numbers.
What a color on this garden monarda! And foliage that is mildew free.
The flower heads of garden Delphiniums get huge and heavy. How should they be managed so that they stay straight and don’t break off?
Schizophragma (‘hyrdangea vine’) really outshined the climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala ssp. petiolaris) in my garden this year. It is now all the way up into the crown of a wild black cherry. It is a stunning display that be enjoyed from a hundred feet away.
The cones on a douglas-fir as of July 4. Note the mouse tails extending from under the cone scales.
Nice fruit on a recently-planted hophornbeam (Ostrya) along St Francis street.
