From Terry Smith:

I stopped by WES this morning to check on the plants. The front yard is doing what you’d expect of the first year in a perennial garden. Most plants are establishing themselves, but not looking as good as they will in a year or two. A few are probably not going to make it. And a few superstars already are bushy and full of bloom.

I want to focus, however, on the plants behind WES. These are, for the most part, well established perennials in their prime. The early bloomers are in full flower. These include the garden phlox and the early goldenrods. You have to look closely, but we also have butterfly weed in bloom. The orange coneflowers and woodland sunflowers are about to burst into bloom. Likewise the wild bergamot, new york aster, and swamp milkweed. The yellow giant hyssop tower over everything. They are yet to reach the flowering stage. We also have six varieties of goldenrods, each having its own peak bloom, so they will spread out over the rest of the growing season.

We also have an “annex” across the sidewalk to the east. The golden Maryland asters are now robustly in control of their space. Hardly a weed dare show its face in this region, which is marked by a border of stones. They bloom in the autumn. The slope, which has not previously received much attention, has a number of contributions from Ethan: The purpletop vervain is just coming into bloom, blunt mountain mint has the white upper leaves that give it an interesting appearance, and some late boneset is building strength to provide some of the last blooms of the autumn.

The annex also includes the part of the slope under the overhang. This area has some goldenrods that were planted last year, and some plaintain-leaved pussytoes planted this year to reduce soil erosion. They require extra watering because the overhand almost completely prevents rainfall from reaching them.

We now also have a small garden of “volunteers” next to the faucet around back. The most interesting of these is a cardinal flower that is growing next to the area where the hose is stored. It probably is taking advantage of the water that gets spilled in this area, because cardinal flowers are normally found in marshy areas. Also in this area are white-panicle aster and a new york aster that is in bloom. 

Below are some pictures I took of these areas this morning.

Yours,

Terry