Original Wildflower Gardens

I planted flowers in this area 18 years ago.  It used to be more formal gardens, we tended gardens in between customers all summer long.  After we retired from the greenhouse business we were both burned out and just let the gardens go “wild.”  We don’t water or fertilize or do anything special, what survives …survives!

Flowers by the sauna, Gaillardia out front and Ratibida out back with various other flowers. The Gaillardia is going to seed and is on my list for collection!

Ratibida pinnata

The small windmill.  You can see the sauna and my garage in the background.  The Liatris, Rudbeckia and Physostegia (Obedient Plant) are in bloom on this end of the gardens….along with some really tall Thistle.

Liatris out in front with a sprinkling of Rudbeckia and Marge Grass in the background.

This is a new arrival this year, it showed up on the edge of the Marge Grass. It is a Helianthus  or Woodland Sunflower.  A bird must have dispersed the seed into the area.  It is a native to Minnesota plant.  Not to mention one of my favorite flower colors!

Chance usually walks out to the gardens with me. When he was younger he would run the perimeter of the gardens and lay in wait for the ball.  Nowadays he doesn’t run, he will play ball on a good day but lays down with the ball after it is thrown once or twice.

I took these photos on Tuesday toward evening, yesterday (Wednesday) it rained all day.

Obedient Plant

Physostegia virginiana, the obedient plant. There are two colors, white which is called 'Crown of Snow'. My white ones bloomed in the middle of August.

Pink which is called 'Rose Queen'. And yes they are obedient.. they have the peculiar trait of remaining in place while rearranging their tiny blooms. My pink ones are in full bloom right now.

I played around with the blooms so that you can see that they are indeed maneuverable. No hocus pocus, no photo shop..they really are obedient.

This is a zone three perennial, it spreads a tad, by seeds and runners. As you can see they thrive on my no special weeding or watering regimen, which borders on total neglect. They are beautiful survivors! I think my more relaxed carefree gardening efforts yielded some great photo opportunities over the summer, I rather enjoyed my not so perfect wild gardens:)