if you'r e not growing some sort of balloon flower in your garden, go ahead! they're perennials and it will add some cooling blue to the garden. :) The second pic is today's bloom on Siloam Sambo, this one is very dark and very nice, although an older variety lacking in bud count etc, but I still love it for the name and for the hybridizer. the third pic above was a fun surprise this morning, I have a row of seedlings from doubles and only this one had a scape this year. Sometimes my "program" takes a third year to bloom not just 2, ha! What a great corally color with an apricot fade to the center. You may have noticed although I like the patterned eyes on some daylilies, I really like the solid bright colors that shout out to the street begging to be noticed (as they say in The Color Purple...).

here are some garden shots. Since my house is painted grey with navy shutters, I like a lot orange colored flowers for the contrast.... second pic above is a gift from Mrs. Henry from her toss out pile, I think I've posted before. I like the way the eye switches to a bit of white before changing to purple. last pic is echincea Hope and you may notice the hardy artichoke leaves behind, again I got this to accent the grey house. the bright green/yellow leave at the bottom left are coreopsis "thunder and lightning" which I'd planned to be this stunning tall bright plant in the middle of the bed, but I'm still waiting for it to "take off". We'll see....