petticoat junction

For the past week, I've watched my fall-sown poppies crack open.  Would they be pink?  Purple?  White?  The buds slowly split, soon looking just like a Victorian lady's dress, with bustle and fancy ruffled petticoat.  The poppies are...red.

Red is a color that I don't use much in the garden.  I prefer soft pinks, cream, lavender, yellow.  But these are making a bold statement that I like more than I expected to!

I don't pick them for bouquets...just leave them in the garden to enjoy.  

The white flowers are nicotiana - flowering tobacco.  They have delightful lettuce-y leaves.

We've reached the part of the season of purely morning work.  With midday temperatures in the mid-90s, I have no interest in being outside.  At this point, the plants are on their own.  I do a little weeding, a little watering, but mainly, I leave them alone.  It's been damp and humid enough for some pretty nice mushroom colonies!

Hot and humid are the norm for an Indiana summer, and I'm just glad that we made it to mid-June before the heat really set in.  The extra-long cool spring provided a wonderful foundation for my "cool annuals," which are just starting to wind down.  The first of the "hots" - snapdragons! - are just beginning.   

I like being out in the early morning.

Dew dapples the new blooms.

I like seeing the new blooms, from flowers which were just theoretical the night before.  Paper seed packet pictures and a long, slow youth as identical green nubbins in the soil.  Then they burst open and are finally real!

As they bloom, they must be picked, or they'll go to seed.  I've been slow about ordering flower food - those little powder packets that come with store-bought bouquets - so mine only seem to last for 3-4 days.  Therefore I toss, toss, toss, and cut, cut, cut.  A couple of times per week...

I definitely have a soft spot for the aforementioned snapdragons.  They're a flower that I remember from my childhood, and they're long-blooming and vigorous.  And the colors!

There are early-, mid-, and late-blooming snapdragon varieties, and I've planted them all.  I can't wait to see what comes up!

The newly-plowed back garden is finally showing some growth.  At last!  I won't get any blooms for another month, but still exciting.  I've planted close to 140 sunflowers and many of them are here.

My new lens is still (and indefinitely) back-ordered.  This means that I can't take my usual insect/nature photos, which is tough.   Even though my subject material is now pretty limited, at least it's a pretty nice source material.

Have a great week!