The native garden in June

The native garden is blooming! After about six weeks of tending by a cadre of volunteers, the garden at Chautauqua bursts into June. Earlier this week the golden banner was striking:

Golden banner flower sprinkled throughout blooming native plant garden

Today the blue mist penstemon was out in force:

Blue mist penstemon patch in native garden hillside

As well as the lupine:

Lavender lupine stalks in native plant gardenI said the volunteers have been tending these plants. Actually, we did very little—deadheading the plants in April, then some weeding of invasive nonnatives like dandelions. But for ease of care, native flowers can’t be beat. The garden will be lush throughout June as long as showers keep coming.

The wild rose bush is nearly as tall as me, its pink-shaded blossoms just beginning to open:

Delicate pink wild rose blossom among green leavesEarliest-blooming flowers are entering their final stages. Pasqueflower and prairie smoke both sprout a crop of fuzzy tendrils—what my friend Carolyn likes to call Phyllis Diller hair. Here’s pasqueflower before and after:

Pasqueflower.JPG

Pasqueflower turns fuzzy when it goes to seed

And prairie smoke with its new do:

Prairie smoke also sends out fuzzy tendrils when it goes to seedAfter checking up on the garden, I tested my sore ankle—almost three weeks since the sprain—on the Mesa trail, just in time to enjoy a fringe of blue beyond the Flatirons:

Flatirons in JuneUp close, the prairie is bursting with wildflowers. Today the lavender one-sided penstemon reigns:

Penstemon and Flatirons5

Twenty minutes on the trail—woo-hoo! The ankle is nearly healed.

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6 Responses to The native garden in June

  1. Mimi says:June 7, 2010 at 3:24 pm

    We are planning a native garden right now–the fourth we’ve planted at as many homes! There’s nothing like it!!

    Glad your ankle is better!

  2. Linda Tate says:June 7, 2010 at 9:44 pm

    Priscilla–So glad you are able to get out and enjoy this time of year. Yea to the healing ankle! Linda

  3. Priscilla Stuckey, PhD says:June 8, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    Mimi, I know you’ve put in a lot of work this spring into your garden. Maybe you’ll be at this house long enough to enjoy the years of nearly no work that native plants provide! You’ve done a fine public service on four properties!

  4. Priscilla Stuckey, PhD says:June 8, 2010 at 4:05 pm

    Linda, thanks for the good wishes! Looking forward to going on walks with you again.

  5. Beth Partin says:June 21, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    The light on that rose is stunning.

    Right now I’m cleaning up the “native” section of my yard so that I can reseed with Buffalograss and Blue Grama and hopefully have a more “native” yard next year. I wish I could manage to get locally grown seed, but I don’t know where to go to do that.

    • Priscilla Stuckey, PhD says:June 21, 2010 at 12:50 pm

      Do you know Harlequin Gardens at the north end of town? They sell local plants if not local seed. If they knew people were interested in it, I bet they would carry it….That rose caught my eye–just the right moment.