Potpourri

Craspedia, aka Billy Buttons, Sun Balls

I'm at another spot where I have loads of pictures but not a theme.  So, here's another download:

There are plenty of insects out and about.  Not all are so destructive as the Japanese beetle.  In fact, here are some helpful little critters, still sleeping on an early, dewy morning, sharing a bed:

Honeybees and wasps

Bumble bee on Echinacea

This guy, on the other hand, is very unwelcome.  It's a shield bug (or stink bug) nymph (juvenile).  It's very tiny.  I found several of them munching on my raspberry fruits.  That is unacceptable.

The June beetles aren't particularly helpful, but they're not in swarms either, so I just take their picture when I see them and move on.

Green June beetle on Monarda (Bee balm)

There's an abundance of tiny green tree frogs this year.  At least I think they're tree frogs.  And some bigger guys hopping around the garden and in the grass.

The tomato plants have several large, but green, fruits that have been in a holding pattern for a long time, and are never going to ripen if the temperature doesn't go down.  Tomatoes, I've read, ripen between 50 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and it's barely getting below 70 at night.  

'Missouri Pink Love Apple'

I picked one each from both tomato varieties ('Missouri Pink Love Apple' and 'Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian') to bring indoors to see if they'll ripen any faster.  They're not going to get any bigger.

The melons, on the other hand, are managing quite well.

After bunny feeding, the beets are so sparse that I haven't even yet bothered to see what they're producing.  The tops look good.

Onions are coming along great.  I sowed these from seeds, and I think I'll do that every time from now on.  It's quicker than planting sets, and easier.  Perhaps cheaper.  I didn't think to compare.

I've harvested about a dozen cucumbers so far, and the plants seem to be doing just fine on that old wagon wheel.  

This year, I'm experimenting with a volunteer redbud to see if I can clip it into a shrub.

The Stargazers are absolutely fabulous right now.  They're four years old and have never looked better or produced more blooms.

I also have 'Casablanca' Oriental lily this year.  They're still small plants, but the flowers are surprisingly large - even bigger than the Stargazers.  And gorgeous.  Pure white.   I'll have to get some more.

Like the 'Casablanca' lilies, the double Stargazers (aka rose lily) I planted last fall at the same time are small plants.  The flowers are smaller than my Stargazers, but they're more in line with the size I expected from the new bulbs.

I'm anticipating them, and the 'Casablanca' matching the height of the Stargazers in a year or two.

A couple other flowers beginning to bloom:

 

'Green Twister' Echinacea

Lisianthus

Apart from the first flush of roses in May, the rose blossoms have been rather puny.  And the entire 'Winter Sun' bush that had such plentiful, gorgeous blooms last year is looking very poorly.  The canes are small and spindly, the leaves keep yellowing and dropping, and the buds are miniature.  I don't know what happened to it other than perhaps it's intolerant of wet soil.  I thought it might pull out of it when the rains stopped, but not so far.

I've resorted to putting organza bags over the rose buds so I'll have something that hasn't been eaten by Japanese beetles to put in a vase.  It makes for a silly rose bed.

'Queen Lime' series orange and red zinnias, 'Snowdrift' marigolds, daylilies,

Stargazers, Gomphrena (globe amaranth), yarrow, and roses

Stargazer lily, Yarrow, 'Queen Lime' red zinnia,  'Carmine' globe amaranth

'South Africa' rose and 'Strawberry Fields' globe amaranth (Gomphrena)