I was out walking in the garden yesterday, and I encountered a very pleasant surprise.  My Autumn Joy sedum was covered in honeybees.  I've never seen so many honeybees in one spot with the exception of being near a hive.   Yeah for happy bees!

My roses from Chamblee Roses arrived today.  What great roses they are!  The second I peeled the tape off the box, the fragrance jumped out at me.  Pure heaven.  They have blooms.  The packaging was impeccable.  They appear very healthy.  I would highly recommend Chamblee!

I was looking out the window and could see this guy from 15 feet away.  A monarch cat.  After looking for less than a few seconds I saw three more.  Yeah for tropical milkweed.  Plus, even though I'm in zone 6b, I notice a bunch of small milkweed plants that are only about 2 inches tall.  Great fresh food for these guys.  Most of the plants have just started releasing seed and are blooming heavily.  My favorite milkweed!!! 

Right next to the milkweed was this zinnia with a friendly ladybug visitor.

The Mid-June Update

 Music and German Extra Hardy garlic.  I just removed the scapes earlier this week.  They are doing beautifully in the raised bed.

 Winona strawberry bed after being renovated.  Old foliage was removed.  The middle and rear plants were removed to leave room for air circulation.

 Snow Princess sweet alyssum that was started from seed.

 Jacob Kline Monarda

 Navaho blackberries are developing.

 Tiki Torch coneflower.  This is it's third year.  Not a very vigorous coneflower by any means.  Still not much bigger than when I ordered it.  Disappointing.

 Major Wheeler honeysuckle is blooming its heart out.  Hummingbirds have been visiting it!

 My "shell" garden.  Heirloom, vining petunias are along the left side.  Copra onions in front.  Scarlet Nantes carrots and Salad Bush cucumbers are to the right.  Two Tango celery plants are ready for harvest in the rear.

An interesting comparison.  Above are my Copra onions on June 2nd.

 Exactly 14 days later.  It is a great gardening year so far!

 Salad Bush cukes on their compact 3 foot vines are already ready for their first harvest.

 I bagged blossoms a few weeks ago.  I'm considering leaving on the bag to see what happens.  I will probably have to cut it away at some point since this is a Kellogg's Breakfast tomato.  They're not tiny.  :)

 A Sandul Moldovan, Kellogg's Breakfast, and two Sun Gold tomatoes in one of the 3' x 3' raised beds.  THRIVING!  Finally a great tomato year....so far.

 Fat N' Sassy bell peppers are doing wonderfully.

 They are already producing a bunch of peppers.

 One of my favorites.  Echinacea purpurea.  Unimproved, and perfect.

 My Meyer's Lemon is taking off.  Too bad the Lime (in the green container) has been a dud since day one.  Strange.

I have my first lemons developing and more blossoms!
Happy Gardening!

 My newest blueberry additions.  They were 1/2 off at Home Depot so I couldn't pass them up.  Here are Bluecrop and Jersey.

 My Golden Delicious had a bad case of rosy apple aphids.  Lady bugs to the rescue.  There is also another underneath a nearby leaf. I love these hungry beauties.

 My Dwarf Honeycrisp apple tree from Stark that I planted last Fall.  She's branching and leafing out nicely.

 Fat N' Sassy peppers are starting to bloom.  They are thriving in the crazy heat we've been having.

The "shell" garden.  Petunias, impatiens and nicotiana line the back edges.  Onions are the large patch in the front.  Freshly planted geraniums (a gift from my mother-in-law) are near the birdbath and front center.  One Cherokee Green and two Celebrity tomatoes are staked behind the birdbath.  Scarlet Nantes carrots and 3 Salad Bush cucumbers are to the right of the birdbath.  I may hate this heat and humidity, but the garden is thriving so far.

 I love this combination.  Double Knockout roses with Maynight salvia.

 My new favorite rose.  Abraham Darby!  The fragrance is delicious.  Plus it's strong enough to smell by just walking by.  The blooms are packed with petals once fully open (only partially open in this picture). 

LOVE THIS! I HIGHLY recommend these to clean your hummingbird feeder ports.  I purchased 25 "Economy Disposable Black Mascara Wand Brushes".  I have used pipe cleaners in the past, but wow....  I used these for the first time this morning and I'M IN LOVE!  The feeders look like new.  I found them on eBay for only $3.50 which included shipping!

I've never seen anything like this before. If you click on the above picture, I believe it will enlarge it. My two Pink Delight butterfly bushes along my backyard were swarming with monarchs. Swarming! There must have been 40 or 50 on just these two bushes. I've never seen so many in one spot before.
Migration is a beautiful thing.

Over the season I complained about this horribly ugly aster. How I need to move it because it's so tall, turns completely brown, and never looks good. Well, once the drought and heat waves finally passed, and the rains kept coming, she put on a ton of new growth. Quite quickly. She's never looked so good. And the best part...I never thought I'd see this. A bit of sunshine on a rainy day.If it's not aphids, it's the milkweed bugs...
The tomatoes are starting to decline. Spots. Dying leaves. Cracking fruit from all the rain. Starting to look pretty sad. A sure sign that the season is coming to an end.
Just outside of the above picture, to the right, is my Stupice tomato. It has easily produced the most tomatoes this summer, and is by far the worst off. Time to get pulled.
The Pink Delight butterfly bush and Fireworks goldenrod are blooming like crazy in all this rain, but it has left them bent over.
The Oklahoma red zinnia are really laying low, but the Caroline raspberries are loving the huge amounts of rain we have been getting over the last few weeks.

Yeah. I just got back from my local Lowe's and they had Acapulco Orange and Acapulco Purple agastache on sale. $3.33 each. I purchased my Acapulco Salmon and Pink a few seasons ago at almost $8 or $9 for just one plant from High Country Gardens. I love it and always wished I had more. Now I do!
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Now where to put them....

My Darrow blueberry that I found at Lowes a few months ago for $3!!! It's been sitting in it's pot for months, so I planted it today. I'm not too worried about transplant shock since the rootball was still completely intact when I removed it from its container. I have 3 other varieties planted a few feet away for it to cross-pollinate with.Carmine Jewel bush cherry. Arrived in spring as a very small specimen. It was thinner than a pencil. Only about 7" tall and you could see the wrapping of the small plug that they placed in a 2" container. Not nearly worth what I paid for it. Lesson learned about ordering from that company again. Today I planted it in its permanent spot. Again, I'm not too concerned about transplant shock since the rootball stayed intact.Sunshine Blue caryopteris is now in bloom. The bees love it!
Autumn Joy sedum is starting to blush and the bees are really taking notice.
Fireworks goldenrod starting to bloom.
Mystery plant. Just popped up in the newly added section of garden. I'm not sure what it is, but it is getting prettier and prettier each day. Amaranthus?
My back bed. Walker's Low catmint, Autumn Joy sedum, and an aster that is nothing but ugly all season....until just a few days ago when it shot out healthy green foliage. I was going to toss it at the end of the season, but now I think I'll relocate it behind other plants.
Two Caroline raspberry plants are beginning to fill in my 3'x3' raised bed. Oklahoma red zinnia are blooming their hearts out in the bed behind them.
My three Fat N' Sassy bell pepper plants. They made a delicious stuffed pepper supper yesterday.
Oregon Sugar Pod peas. Even though you can eat the whole pod, my daughter insists on still shelling them. Guess I'll go back to just planting shelling peas from now on. I have to admit, I do enjoy popping open the pods and eating those tasty nuggets.
My new raspberry patch. First homegrown raspberries ever. Fall Gold and Carolines.
One of several containers of potatoes that never died. After weeks and weeks of drought, then flooding rains, these potatoes don't know what to do. They were planted back in April or May. They should have died back, but I think the potatoes resprouted after all the confusion. I figure I'll wait and see what happens.
The "shell" garden due to its shape. In the back are my tomatoes. Spirit pumpkin in the middle. Sweet basil that overwintered is front and center. Tango celery, that is passed it prime, to the left of that.
My homegrown jack-o-lantern still remains a possibility. The vine produced three nice pumpkins in early August then quickly declined. Luckily, after the drought was finally over, the vine put down new roots and took off for the second time.