The lovely cosmos, so easy to grow and such a

graceful plant.

Isn't this a sunny lovely flower? At the big box stores these

are sold every summer as sun lovers but mine came up from seed!

Now if only I could remember it's name!

When plants started popping up in the new flower bed I only knew

a few of them. This one I waited anxiously for it to flower as

I had no idea what it was going to be. I will admit that I loved

running my fingers through the buds, they were like velvet!

According to my wildflower book this is Clarkia a native of
California. Wonderful to be able to have it in my garden as it

is quite lovely, is flowering in a variety of shades and

is filling in the space nicely. Oh and it came up from

seed, what more can I ask of it?

PS did you notice the spider? I didn't when until I was editing the photo!

I think I've told you this before but we put in a new flower bed

this spring and it was mostly planted by sprinklings of seed packets.

Who knew how beautiful the results would be?

Candytuft is peeking up through the copious amounts of poppies that grew,
I'm always excited to see the smaller plants do this.

I had no idea before this that candytuft has a medicinal use

 and for those with stomach troubles it may prove to be useful.

Over the last few days I've been taking quite a few photos, stocking up

for the winter months. While I was reviewing them I discovered

there were more than a few that some type of bug

had made it's way into the shot.  Some more obvious than others!

While you might think I had to get low to the ground to get the

roses at this angle, I didn't. This rose grows quite happily in a corner

next to the fence in a mostly sunny locale.

This rose grows to 10 ft at least and no, it wasn't sold as a

climber or a rambler. This was a cheap in the plastic rose from

a big box store. It barely gets pruned but rewards us with a

fantastic amount of blooms.

Nasturtiums are not highly sought after and even the name leaves

something to be desired. The nasturtium has it's place in my garden every

summer no matter what. I love it's sunny brightness and love that

it self sows but only a little bit, it isn't an intruder coming up

all over the garden.

This one is growing in an herb garden amongst the chives.

One can eat the flowers, most commonly in salads while

the seeds can be pickled and used in place of capers.
I've heard the seeds once dried can be used in place of pepper

although I've not tried this myself.

Yesterday I showed you the white borage, today is the more

common blue borage. Whatever the color, its one of my

favorite flowers. Just beware the tiny hairs covering the plant,

although as I told you yesterday the inside of the plant is soothing!

Borage grows like a weed in my garden, really. I love borage as long

as I don't have to touch it. Those feathery looking things all over the

plant are rather pokey! Borage flowers are edible and when candied are

down right adorable on cupcakes. The stalks can be cut up, put in

water with sugar and lemon juice for a restorative drink.

The plant when crushed or broken has a cucumber smell to it that

actually makes my mouth water!

Borage has many medicinal uses and is considered quite safe.

Fevers, emollient and demulcent (forms a soothing film).

I find the pokey part of the plant can irritate my skin while

the inside of the plant soothes it. Go figure!

The California Poppy, a much loved wildflower.

If you stand and watch for just a moment you will see the bumble

bees rolling around in the pollen.

It seems as though I'm following a theme of showing you the same

flower in varying colors! This is another Poppy and I think this might

be the Shirley Poppy.  I threw seeds from a variety of wildflower

packets into a flowerbed, this is one of the lovelies that popped up.

I thought the Columbine from the other day was so pretty

 I would show you another one!

As far as I know this is a California Poppy and yes I know it isn't orange!
Honestly I don't know much about poppies and I'm only fairly sure

that this is a California Poppy. Doesn't matter much to me which

type of Poppy this is, I just know that I sprinkled seeds and now I have

the most adorable poppies. All flower growing should be this simple.

Growing Columbines is quite easy, you can buy plants or seeds both

of which will easily take off in your garden. There are many colors

and varieties to choose from. Such sunny flowers that can tolerate 

sun or shade. They are used by some butterflies and moths

as a food source. The columbine is mostly considered

a poisonous plant although Native Americans did use some

of them as a garnish. I wouldn't recommend consuming this plant though

but I would recommend you plant some in your yard!

Wild Yarrow grows in most likely every State in the Union and it's a good thing.

While some may consider it invasive I'm not one of them.

Yarrow grows without any help from humans and has been used over the years

by us. The yarrow has been used in divining the future but a better use

has been as an herbal medicine. Considering that the yarrow is

astringent, a tonic and a stimulant along with it's use to aid headaches,

  toothaches and to stop bleeding.

Always use caution when using plants as medicine; do your research first.

While I don't think this is the greatest photo I've ever taken, I do think

it's worth seeing anyways. It has been such a long time since I've seen

a honeybee I can only assume this is a honeybee! Mostly my yard is full

of bumblebees, orchard bees and some other bee looking but stinger-less

bugs (I think that's a type of fly). Honeybees have been in danger for

quite a few years now, I have no problem with clover growing throughout

my yard and gardens.

There are quite a few varities of Dogwood in our

area and this is one fo the more commonly planted

ones. Commonly planted or not, a great one to have.

I've posted pics of Cow Parsnip before

but I just can't resist showing you some more.

Such adorable little flowers.

There are some new Condos just down the street from us

and of course they have some very nicely planted

little flower beds in front. My daughter and I found

this colorful Berberis thunbergii growing.

What a great addition to a garden.

Dave's Garden has the info if you want to know

about this plant. What I do know is they

are very easy to grow in most climates.

A native plant, the Thimbleberry has the most

adorable flowers followed by berries.

The berries are more important to wildlife than to humans

although it has been important in the past.

The bark can be boiled to make soap and the leaves

when powdered are used on burns to prevent scarring.

When I bought this rose I thought it was the

Queen Elizabeth but now that I see it in flower I know it isn't.

The Queen is pink through and through.

This rose was in the same location for years

and barely flowered, I moved it this spring and it

seems happy. A lesson learned!

I'm very tired, we've been very busy lately.

These are flowers that bloom freely in our flower beds.

Native Blue Flax growing in Bend, Oregon.

This is an easy to grow wildflower and I just planted seeds in my own

flower bed.

Sweet peas from our garden.

I planted a lot of seed but ended up with about 4 plants.

I was able to munch on them quite a bit and harvested

one bowl full. Not bad for 4 plants!

Tasty little buggers too!

Spiderwort growing in our families yard in Bend, OR.

I don't know much about Spiderwort but what I do

know it can survive the heat and cold there.

Beautiful flower and great grower.

Isn't this an adorable flower!? This flower was a total surprise

to me as it's a volunteer potato plant! 

A Beargrass growing in it's native habitat somewhere near Bend, Oregon.

Yes another flower from the hike!
An adorable woodland violet.  When I was a teenager in AK

I came across some woodland violets and thought they were the

cutest thing. Of course is there any flower I don't love!

The native Bleeding Heart is just as lovely as

the cultivated variety. I feel lucky to have seen this

growing along our hike. I couldn't find much information

regarding it except that it likes moist woodland environment.

A fairly common daylily but do we care? NO!

                                           Daylilies reward you with such carefree abandon

that they need to be in every yard.

Yesterday I showed you the False Solomon's Seal in bloom.

Today I wanted you to see the foliage as it is quite magnificent!
Simply beautiful.