Link: http://asimplerlife.yolasite.com/the-garden.php Sorry, but I don't see the "whole host of wild flowers and bugs ... a few of which we´ve posted on our blog" which you'd like identified. Can you provide a link to the particular page which shows them? [Just post it in the box labelled "Optional Link URL:" and it will be a workable link. Naming the link is optional.]

purple, in other photos from EU countries, I saw prices which didn't use the Euro symbol. I linked to that particular photo to show that the same model of yellow price tag is used in Italy. Some of the tags in the other photos had a comma where we use the decimal point (the comma is European usage); I'm not sure if there's a comma in the photo above. At least one photo showed the last two numbers underlined (as Americans underline the cents). I think there were others with the entire price underlined. Many years ago, my parents lived in Belgium. Prices of everything were much higher than in the U.S. Food, gas, everything in stores. (I think the same was true the last time I was in Britain.) So I'm not surprised by the price of the mum. And maybe it's a high-end store where all the prices are high just to make you think they're ultra exclusive mums.... As for the gradient coloring, ombre (shaded; variegated) yarn has been sold for many decades. I know how low-tech crafters make it, though I have no idea what the big yarn-producers do. So the gradient-dyed fiber is the easy part. Then, maybe, chunks of dyed fiber are clamped together and glued to a piece of something-or-other. Then the piece is attached to the top of the "trunk". (I'm sure there are other ways to do it.)

I think the second one is a sedum of some sort maybe...very pretty though

I agree with Tulsarose. I have seen velvetleaf [buttonweed] well over the canopy of corn and nearly eye-level to me while seated on the combine! By then, the plant is well-branched, with many 1" to 1-1/4" brown, shattering segmented pods [seedheads]. Too late to herbicide. Good tillage and a pre-emergence application the following spring is good control, but there's always the occasional late bloomer and it's a TOUGH weed. Too many button weeds will literally jam a corn head or slug a feeder house, too. OUCH! You never said just how large those leaves are, either. Nothing to show scale. Button weed leaves are most generaly 4" to 6" across and are more round. A young Paulownia sapling can have leaves anywhere from 10"-16" across. Leaves of saplings are always bigger than they are for more mature trees. Paulownia is NOT related to Catalpa. It's a Scrophularia and yes, they are invasive.