My garden is full of blooms now but in a few months all will be gone☹️So I'm enjoying them immensely.
Share your blooms! I want to enjoy yours, too.

Very pretty, Betsy! Your green thumb is definitely showing!

Thks Char, not sure how much is my green thumb 🤔but so happy they grow with a little watering.

My yard isn't showing much color yet because I started almost everything from seed. But here are a few things...

African daisies





Cat's Pajammas catmint



Jethro Tull coreopsis



Shrimp plant


Thornbird iris


Tacoma Stans



The pearl milkweed is coming up all over the place.



Ran out of trellises so had to build my own. They'll only last for one year - but the price was right.



Not much happening in this new bed yet...



What can I say.....I like buckets!



May have to thin out some of these baby zinnias! LOL.



I never run out of things to do.

The Asclepias asperula in the yard aren't doing great, but those in the pasture are having a banner year! I saw a single Monarch butterfly a couple of weeks ago, so maybe a couple of the Asclepias are harboring caterpillars. One of many changes in my lifetime here is that Monarchs are so seldom seen. They used to be a common butterfly and as a kid I was always searching to see if I could spot a chrysalis. I've been checking on the orange Asclepias tuberosa I planted last year, but if I should happen to find a caterpillar on them I'll relocate it to one of the A. asperula plants. A. tuberosa has buds, bud is weeks out from blooming like the A. asperula plants.


You can see them dotting the old field in the photo, sharing it with the native opuntias. They are the only thing doing well. Everything else should be green with vegetation interfering with seeing them as you can here. Due to the lack of rain, which continues to be scarce. Not shaping up to be a good summer for the native plants of any kind.

My pastures display more blooms than my "gardens". The grass looked just like Donald's until the recent rain; now it is starting to green up and actually grow. The wild flowers are really thriving now too.

@porkpal and @needrain - I share your pain. My front pasture, which is normally filled with Indian Blankets, is now a barren wasteland. The bluebonnets were a total no-show. Even the indestructible Mexican Hats have failed to appear. The drought is also affecting insects and wildlife. This year we haven't had as many oak leaf-roller worms or fire ants (not that I'm really complaining about that), and I've even put out a tub of water for the deer. I've lived on this property for 22 years and have seen droughts before - but that doesn't make it easier to bear. I miss the migrating butterflies. 😥

I'm so pleased the Asclepias tuberosa returned after the first winter out. I tried for so long to get some of this to grow so it really makes me happy to see it blooming now.



Its common name is 'Butterfly Weed'. I'm not sure if it's called that because it's a host plant for Monarch butterfly caterpillars or because it just attracts butterflies in general. A couple of butterfly photos.