Flower Report

Last week, I decided to take a picture of the single, remaining daisy flower. I am pleased that I inserted the plant last year and that it returned this year because an earlier effort some years ago failed.

Then, with daylilies quickly diminishing, I decided to get a last last bloom photos of them too. They come and go so quickly that I missed the final flower of the one variety, so these may not be the absolute final blooms of our other two varieties, but they are darn close to that.

While we still have many echinacea flowers, I must tell you that they are dull and not vibrant at this point in their life cycle. They may be even less bright than how this photo renders them, but I am happy that they linger still.

The present highlight out front, however, is the yellow coneflowers whether you called them brown- eyed or black-eyed Susans of even rudbeckia. Like the daisies they were a good addition last year. Although they are coneflowers, they look as a fresh as daisies, so to speak. :)

Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) and brown-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia triloba) are both popular North American native wildflowers in the aster family. Black-eyed Susans feature larger, solitary 2–3 inch blooms with a dark, prominent cone, while brown-eyed Susans produce a bushier plant with smaller 1–2 inch flowers and lower 3-lobed leaves.

Of course, Sue's potted annuals continue to flourish and will continue to do so for quite some time, but I forgot to take a picture, and it's just 5 o'clock here, and it is still dark, so no pic.

Out back, our mighty Joe Pye reached fence height and beyond and bloomed a few weeks ago. It is remarkable to me how it grows from nothing to more than 6' every year. Suddenly around mid-August the bees get interested and have just this week returned to do their work, oblivious of nearby humans.

This is not a recent iPhone photo but one taken with my Canon several years ago. iPhones don't do well at photographing quick-flitting bees at any sort of distance.

In the house we are having a baby. The flamingo lily that I showed you recently is beginning to sprout another flower. The first flower has been all alone in the months since we were given the plant.

This is a variation of the photo that I showed you last week.

If I look closely now in this next photo, I see a tiny bit of red to the middle right of the stake.

Here's a closer look.

How exciting to be a father again.