This tall Phlox is called 'Starfire.' It really glows, it's so bright.
I just love it, but one of its drawbacks is that it has lost a lot of its lower leaves. They just crisped up and fell off, leaving the lower third of its stem bare. It's unfortunate because its leaves have very nice reddish edges. I also have just the one in this bed, the front foundation bed. That bed is suffering right now from a 'One of this, One of that" look. I've already rearranged things in this bed once this year. This is the bed that I wrote about in a previous post, where I removed the sunrose that was overgrown. What I did there will be the subject of a future post. It still needs work. Maybe this weekend I'll sort it out.
Back to the Phlox. I need to buy some more this fall, I love the flowers, but I think it will look better in a grouping. And I need to figure out what I can use to hide the ugly, bare lower stems.
Behind the Phlox is a grouping of Pennisetum 'Karley Rose.' It has lovely, long pink panicles that are also hard to photograph. The camera always wants to focus on what's behind it. But I managed to get two good pics of it. Here it is in the front foundation bed.
I also have a few clumps of it growing in the back, beside the stream.
My Monarda 'Colrain Red' is also almost too bright to look at. It's really more magenta than straight red, though. I haven't seen any hummers at it yet either. I keep waiting and hoping they'll find it. Maybe when the clumps are bigger.
That bed also has Cosmos 'Dazzler' flowering. They are not as tall as I thought they would get, maybe because of the strange spring and early summer weather we had. I'll let them self-sow and see what I get next year. In my experience, gold finches love the seeds of Cosmos, and they always scatter a few around.
Finally, the Lobelia cardinalis, which the raccoons chewed on, is flowering, after being relocated away from the stream, into an area that stays moist.
Well, hop on over to Tootsie Time and check out all the other Flower Flaunters! I have found some really cool blogs to add to my Follow list there.
