Thoughts on flowers

I'm really sad to find that I didn't take that many pictures of flowers this year, or bring a lot of them into the house.  Not like last year when I was bringing in vases of them.  I wanted to get some things in my notes to remember next spring.

Dedicating a portion of the garden to flowers was a wonderful idea.  It looked so beautiful and brought in a ton of pollinators.  Next year, I would like more sunflowers; both the branching kind and those big mammoth ones that have flowers a foot across.   They did well on the north side of the garden.  

Cannas lined the east and west sides of the garden and there were some on the north side and also in the poultry section. I didn't buy any this year just planted what came out of storage.  Even so, I'll probably lift a hundred tubers this fall.  They did better on the west side of the garden and the poultry section where they weren't competing with the tomatoes for sun.  These would look fantastic in the chicken yard next year. I don't *think* they'll eat them.

I loved the blue morning glories.  They grew so quickly up the sides of the garden tepee.  

None of the nasturtiums got very tall.  Next year I'd like to use these as ground cover both in the kidney shaped flower bed and the one by the garden shed.

The shed area got no attention at all this year after my husband "helpfully" weed wacked it. 

The anise hyssop I grew from seed grew nicely.  Planted in the kidney shaped garden. It's a perennial so we can enjoy it next year too.  It would be worth growing more of these from seed and I should remember to plant them in those biodegradable pots because the seedlings were delicate.

These are the dahlias that were grown. I was trying to be frugal this spring at just plant what I had but should round out the colors next year. The two big ones are dinner-plate sized and the smaller ones about the size of an orange.

Possibly my favorite flower.

Also to remember for next year: any annuals I buy should be limited to white.  I love a riot of colors in the garden but didn't have anything white and that would help to calm it down a bit.  I remember baby's breath did well here one year.  Maybe white zinnias, white marigolds. white dahlias.  Will have to get out the seed catalogs and start dreaming.