I received 3 helianthus "lemon queen" for mother's day. Unfortunately 2 of them didn't make it, but the 3rd one did... just barely. Seems, as the plant was just taking off, a ball from over the fence broke most of it off. It has since regrown but hasn't bloomed yet. I also just received 2 replacements from the company my daughter bought the originals from and will plant them as soon as it stops raining. (I may just have to build an ark if it doesn't stop soon!) I've also acquired some Boltonia from a neighbor and bought a black sambucus. Let's see... from seed I started some perennial sunflowers and heliopsis. Most of the new perennials did pretty good this first year but I imagine they'll do even better in the coming years! In the meantime, to fill in the gaps until the perennials fill out I planted tithonia, annual sunflowers, along with scarlet runner beans. Next spring I'm going to transplant a clematis too. All in all it was a successful year keeping the little darlings at bay. They've also made friends in the neighborhood and, now that they're a little older, mom lets them go to the friends' houses so most of the time they're gone. Peace at last. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions!

Sorry I don't know anything about bush honeysuckles, but below is just one site I found by Googling "bush honeysuckle." If you click on the links at the bottom, maybe the pictures will help you i.d. your neighbor's shrub. You mentioned your neighbors cut theirs back each year, though, and to me it seems a shame to fight the plant's natural growth like that. How big do you want it to get? I would recommend clethra alnifolia, which would stay smaller ('hummingbird' I think is the smallest)and could take your zone and soil conditions. Not sure if they attract hummingbirds, but 'ruby spice' is a nice pink color. Some varieties also turn a pretty shade of yellow in fall. Just a thought. 'Mare Here is a link that might be useful: invasive honeysuckles

So yeah, you can't just broadcast seed for some of the wildflowers and expect them to grow thru the turf. Especially when the clovers and bird's foot trefoil are supplying the lawn with lots of nitrogen, (and shade in the drought times) and keeping the turf lush! So I have transplanted quite a few tumble mustard, high knapweed, chicory, fleabane, smartweed, mouse-ear hawkweed, autumn hawkbit, etc. this fall. I transplanted some during the summer months with varying degrees of success - I hope these fall plantings work better. The problem with transplanting them during the hot sunny months: they don't take as well; I'm putting them in bare spots and disturbing the soil which leads to a lot of unwanted weeds; and of course they need to be watered which leads to a huge number of sprouting unwanted weeds! Next summer, I have a different plan. I will cover any bare spots with corn gluten meal which acts as a pre-emergent herbicide for several weeks and then decomposes to a fertilizer by the time the weather turns cooler and I'm ready to plant stuff without just getting undesirable weeds like plantain, knotweed, and crabgrass. My plan was initially to not have to water this lawn anyway and now I see that watering in times of drought really leads to unwanted weeds. The lawn is thin topsoil on top of pure sand so it has always died every few years when a bad enough drought hit. I have mulched endless leaves into the lawn for 3 years and with the great number of earthworms that brings, my soil is getting better. Also the shade and nitrogen provided by the clovers, vetch, and bird's foot helps the actual grass stay green. Some plants simply do NOT like to be transplanted - bird's foot is one of those. Fortunately, you can collect seed from the pods somewhere where it is growing and broadcast them over the lawn and it will eventually take hold. It is very small the first year (I haven't even been able to determine when it is sprouting), noticeable the second year if you know what to look for, and healthy and flowering by the third year. There is a saying: "the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, and the third year it leaps!" White and red clover and violets and of course dandelions will all grow easily if seed is spread over the turf, especially if it is mown very short first. The next thing I'm working on is which weeds help or kill other grasses and weeds. Obviously wide leaves like dandelion, plantain, and violets deny grass beneath them water and sun and can choke it out. But I'm more interested in chemicals that plants produce to fight or help competition. There is a lot of info available on companion planting for vegetables but for weeds - not much. So I'm just watching and watching. I had one patch of a lush green prostrate knotweed that killed everything beneath it. Another patch of lush pinkish knotweed that did the same. But regular knotweed is not as bad. Autumn hawkbit (like delicate dandelions) inhibits sprouting near it, even of its own seed! But it doesn't bother growing grass. Mouse-ear hawkweed does the same and so sends runners like strawberries to propagate itself into dense mats which will then smother grass. The first line of defense against unwanted weeds is to mow the grass very short, but this tactic is NOT available when the goal is to have lots of wanted weeds. Next summer I plan to try spraying leaves of dandelions, plantain, and violets with vinegar and a tsp. of dish soap on a hot, sunny day. This is said to kill the leaves but not the root. That's O.K. with me if it works. I just want to hold back these aggressive weeds from taking over.

Thank you both for the help. I checked this out on the New England Wildflower Society database and Veronica officinalis looks exactly right. Not a native, but common. Apparently can be invasive but not the worst of the worst. I'll keep an eye on it.