8758 echium creates blue haze...silhouttes of cedar and verbascum

Very magical!

thanks Kate. Since moving here I have so much area to play with but being retired I don't have the budget I had before. As a result I'm learning the local wild flora. Some are so beautiful I can't believe they're wild flowers... I have helleborine orchids, ropebark shrubs, Asclepias for the butterflies and a hillside that's golden with rudbeckia. Joe Pye lines the streams and mint and watercress grow in the streambed. It's such an education... I've made a bit of a turn in my gardening practices...

All I can say is..wow! It sounds so idyllic Lori, plus I guess a new learning experience? Sounds like it’s good for the heart and soul! I’ll be googling all the local plants and flowers you have, they all sound so beautiful.

Fantastic shot and great planting. Very dramatic with that big dark branch and the echium in the foreground and then that light streaming in from the left, like a fairy tale illustration. Unfortunately all my tall echiums are flat on the ground and broken of at the roots but the bees are still swarming around them so I'm not in a hurry to take them out, however out they will have to come. I'll replace them with a smaller variety

Echiums do tend to flatten out after blooming, M. I'm trying to mingle the rudbeckia amonst it. may try a few sunflowers next season.
Thank you, Kate! Very much a learning curve! For any idyllic areas there are the fields where the golden rod is taking over...but on the upside, it's a screen for the ferns where the does leave their fawns through the days. So, do I cut or not? maybe later next month when the fawns will have grown a bit and are no longer vulnerable.

yes I'm sure it would be a great picture but I'm reluctant to disturb them. I have only seen the nest after the fact...usually it's in tall grass or weeds where the doe brings her fawn or fawns...she may have triplets or twins. She leaves the fawn to protect it from predators while she goes to forage. She may return to the "nest" a couple of times during the day to feed the fawns...then off she goes until dusk when she may come and bed down with the fawns or take them to a safe place in the bush. I have pics of a young buck trying to eat from the bird feeder..and grazing the low branches of the cedar trees in winter. I think it's the topic of a blog on my other page... Lorilyn57.
It's also why I'm reluctant to take down the tall weeds in mid summer...I would ensure that the plants won't reseed but i could also frighten the deer away when I'm actually trying to give them sanctuary. Rabbits also leave their clutch in long grass too..and sometimes right in the middle of a mowed lawn. so I tippy toe around the wildlife.