Assorted blooms

There are some beautiful flowers starting to bloom in my garden right now, so let's take a look. First up, a sight that I'm amazed to see:

Daylilies. These are 'Black-eyed Stella', and I'm really surprised that I've been able to see these for several days in a row.

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Normally, this is what I get to see of the daylillies:

That pruning is compliments of the deer, who usually chow down on these plants. I think they just have too much to choose from right now (and I'm thankful for that).

The Eryngium is starting to bloom:

I really like the look of these, all spikey and greyish green with a touch of purple or blue. They haven't gotten too much of their blue color yet, as these will bloom for a couple of months.

What I don't like about these, and why I'm getting rid of most of them, is their fragrance. They smell pretty much like cat poop to me. Yep. Poop. Maybe I'll relocate these far from the house instead of getting rid of all of them. I wonder if there are other species of Eryngium that look similar but don't have that particular odor?

Poppy Mallow (callirhoe involucrata) is a Missouri native that's also called "wine cups":

It produces dozens of these great purple-red flowers. I love the way the new flowers spiral open.

What I've found about many native plants is the native animals love to eat them. Deer in this case, although rabbits love poppy mallow too:

This Rudbeckia hasn't quite opened it's blooms yet, but since it's right next to the poppy mallow I have a feeling it will be introduced to deer tongue pretty soon, so wanted to get a photo before it's too late:

I think it's 'Prairie Sun', which is a beautiful variety that stays green in the center -- doesn't get the "black eye".


The oakleaf hydrangea is starting to bloom (deer have left it alone this year!):

So are the Cleome (or "Spider Flower") that are in my annual/wildflower bed:

There are a lot of cleome plants in this bed this year, as it reseeds heavily. I've thinned them out already but left it a little crowded hoping that it would help them stay smaller, as they can get pretty tall and lanky by the end of the season.


Achillea, or "Yarrow" is in full bloom:

That variety is Achillea millifolium 'Paprika', and has a great red color that fades to tannish-red.

The 'Neon Flash' Spirea is also loaded with flowers:

I'll cut those all off when they're faded and it will push out some more blooms later this summer.

There's Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red':

The deer helpfully pruned this one for me, so it didn't get as big or produce as many flowers as last year.

They left me some blooms, so I can't complain too much.

Finally, some of the dozens of Agastache foeniculum plants I have this year all over the place are starting to bloom:

What's neat about these is the flowers get their purple color when just a tiny spot of fluff nestled in the leaves at the top of the stem. They'll then lengthen, staying purple and attracting bees and other pollinators all summer long!

That's a look at the flowers around right now. As more appear (should be soon!) I'll be ready with the camera and will hopefully beat the deer to most of them.