Just found the name of the tall yellow helenium, "double trouble". I purchased it a few years ago from Gilbert Wild & Sons.

Wonderful plants, great pictures 'bella'.

Thanks, rouge! :-)

Love that red helenium! I've never seen one that color.

How "tall" is your tall double trouble helenium? I was given a division of double trouble helenium this spring, and it didn't grow very tall, maybe a foot. And the few flowers were tiny. I figured it was establishing this season. Are there "small" varieties of this?

LaLennoxa, my yellow helenium is quite tall. Probably around 4 feet. I believe that it was mislabelled and is probably the variety known as "butterpat". It's a wonderful plant that goes well with phlox and white daisies.

I admit, I have always considered alstroemerias a bit unnatural, but mainly because I had never stopped seeing them as essentially florist's flowers (along with chrysanths, glads, carnations, enormo-lilies etc.) and therefore no challenge to my vast horticultural snottiness...until (of course) I deigned to grow them myself (of course)...and yet again, eat a gigantic slice of humble pie.

What astonishing plants! Whilst I am still fairly undecided how best to grow them (they are having a thunderous battle with salvia Amistad - another immense plant with no scrap of subtlety)...there is no denying their presence...which has been almost continuous, all year round - a truly in your face scarlet. I been growing it with orange geums, deep red tigerlilies and poppies all summer). I have been having little fantasies that my tiny home garden has finally achieved a style entirely appropriate to its size and circumstances.

Also still going well (in same garden), anisodontea capensis, agapanthus, salvia involucrata and (another blow to snobbery), fuchsias. FUCHSIAS! And knock me down, I actually have a couple of chrysanthemums.

Echolane, so interesting how different plants behave differently in various garden condition! H. Mardi Gras is the only all season long Helinium that I have. It starts blooming in the first part of July and is still blooming now. This year, with a couple of inches of really hard rain and wind every week is the first year it has flopped, and it didn't do that until this week. All my other Heleniums have midAugust into September bloom periods but are almost done now. I am envious of several of the plants you can grow as perennials!

I still have a few bell-shaped clematis blooming, hardy mums, and Aconitum/monkshood in bloom.

NHBabs, I hadn't until last year focused on perennials with long bloom periods, but my obsession with the new colorful Echinaceas exposed me to perennials with lengthy bloom periods. Agastaches did too, as I acquired a number of them at about the same time. Then I realized my favorite Penstemon was also in this category. I had undersppreciated it even though I've grown it for years. Since these aha moments I've focused on finding perennials with lengthy bloom periods though I certainly make exceptions when I like something. Fortunately my garden zone is more accommodating than yours.

The Heleniums were a complete accident. I just assumed they would behave like the late blooming Mardi Gras. I was knocked over (shocked!) when I saw the Heleniums I had acquired last fall were all blooming this spring. .So I've acquired more. I am surprised that your Mardi Gras blooms so much earlier than mine! BTW, I acquired the Mariachi series Heleniums from Santa Rosa Gardens. I discovered them last year and I've been really impressed with their quality and customer support.

Dahlia 'True Wild Form's lengthy bloom season has been a complete but welcome surprise. I just don't know how I will accommodate its exuberant size year after year. I had expected it to be about 3' in height and sited it in between several tall Panicum 'Northwind'. But at 5' and spreading it overwhelms the grasses and I'm going to have to come up with another plan.

Another long bloomer is Ratibida pinnata, though it's bloom cycle isn't quite as lengthy as the others. I just love its unique flowers and softer yellow color but it's a space gobbler because it flops which is bad news....I will have to learn how to accommodate it.

bella, on my monitor that sedum in the picture with the white coneflower looks plum-colored. Is that the true color? If so, I'm interested!

Deannatoby, yes, it is a plum colored sedum. I think it's the variety called, "purple emperor." The white coneflower is labelled, "Virgin". This was a nice surprise combo. I love when that happens.

Echolane, great pics! I love the pentesemon, sour grapes. I wonder if it's hardy in my garden Zone 5. Do you mulch yours? And how about those heleniums?! I have to get more of them next year.

You have good taste if you like that Penstemon ;-). But good luck finding it! I have looked and looked without success for an online source. I finally found it at a nursery two hours driving distance from me and I bought them out, nine plants in 4" pots. They don't do mail order.

Sour Grapes has extraordinary attributes IMO - Flower color goes with absolutely everything, -Flowers continuously from mid-May through mid-December or close, even with lazy deadheading, -Handsome red purple stems, -Maintains a firmly upright habit, unlike many which sprawl and invade nearby plants, -Puts energy into flowering, not growing a ton of foliage, -Puts a lie to what I've read that Penstemons are short lived.

I have another Sour Grapes, ordered erroneously because I thought it was "my" Sour Grapes, which bloomed twice this summer and seems to put all its effort into growing foliage and that foliage grows like an octopus in all directions. It has smaller Blue Violet flowers. Another named Sour Grapes is nearly white with pink or lavender edges. . I think the main reason "my" Sour Grapes is difficult to find is by accident, I think it probably got shoved aside by the accident of having others with the same name.

i have no idea how hardy it is. And, no, I don't mulch it.

Beautiful! Love my perennial hibiscus, which is a relatively new one called Terri's Pink. It started as a chance seedling in a Texas nursery & is now sold commercially. Blooms both summer & fall here.

The butterfly is probably a Cloudless Sulphur as we have many of those.

Salvia leucantha was spectacular this year. Supposed to bloom in time for fall migration of hummingbirds & Monarch butterflies. I've just cut off the fading blooms. Grows about 5 ft tall with enough sun, native to Mexico and parts of Texas.

Great pics!!

My salvia is still going strong...the pollinators certainly have been getting drunk on this one all summer...

That's really pretty. What variety is that? I grew the "black and blue" salvia and love it. I wish I could overwinter it somehow.

I wish I could tell you the variety. It was a discount plant, end of season sale 2 years ago. That thing has turned out to be the number one pollinator magnet and butterfly draw. I may have the tag in my file of tags buried somewhere; I will see if I can find it.

Lakennoxa, do you live in the city or is that your office?

Downtown dweller, supposedly - whatever this means. Because that definition changes with whomever you talk to. My house is 130 years old, Victorian.