Flower Show and Tell

The last two mornings it has been a delicious low 50 degree temperature.  It seems that the flowers are so much more brilliant and the colors more crisp when the temperature cooperates!! I enjoyed a brisk walk/jog workout this morning before taking the kids to football practice.  I also sucked down 3 cups of coffee while I wandered about the yard soaking up the beauty!! Just thought that I might share some of my views!!

The russian sage has been kind of sad all summer; blooming once earlier, but not as pretty as I recall after planting it last year.  It has caught it's second wind, however, and is gorgeous now!

The pink agastache (licorice mint) and yellow sundancer daisies are also having a burst of color--so the Russian garden is looking much more colorful, as you can see in the photo above.

The Caryopteris, or blue mist spirea is finally in full bloom over the last week or so.  It is a magnet for ALL kinds of winged life forms.  Tons of different types of butterflies and moths, and several types of little bees, and our favorites. . .

The great BIG bumblebees!!

The hidcote lavender is blooming a second time, and the bush has really grown in size.  I also got an Anouk and a Silver Anouk lavender plant in the spring.  They are not big, but they are surviving--I am trying to decide whether to dig them up and take them into the greenhouse this winter to make sure they live.  They all smell yummy!! Speaking of yummy, a Mister Lincoln red rose that I got at Walmart last spring is blooming, and it smells really good too, I was so tickled at the scent--it is right along the sidewalk--so we will love that as it grows--in addition, the honeysuckle are making a small flower comeback, and Cami and I stopped to sniff those too!

Volunteer morning glory, Grandpa Otts--my favorite--are blooming next to the new back steps to the deck, right beside the whoppin' big rock from my moms.

Some of the grasses are starting to get their tassles on them.  This is a maiden grass variety--I love it!!

I got lots of ideas from the nursery hoppin' excursion last weekend, but bought very little.  This was my exciting purchase of the day--half price sedum from Brady nursery.  I had no idea that there were so many varieties of hen and chicks--but they had at least 4 there--so I bought several and a shallow pot--to mimic a picture that I had seen in a garden magazine--it had hen and chicks spilling over the sides of it--I had too many plants for my pot--so I found another pot, and had 2 left over to go into my rock/sedum garden growing next to the pitcher pump water feature--which is currently DEAD!! I got a new pump last weekend--but it didn't work either--and I am not in the mood to troubleshoot--so it sits--growing mosquito larvae to reinforce the big meaty ones that cover our arms and legs the minute we step out the door in the evening! Last night was the first football game--tonight we are headed to a church camp out in Oklahoma. 

Wishing everyone a delightful, fallish weekend!!