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Bi-color Monkshood makes a lovely addition to the garden

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Bi-color Monkshood buds

Monkshood Aconitum

Our bi-color monkshood has started to bloom. It’s a lovely flower. A little unusual looking but lovely just the same. I should have tried to get a photo of the foliage as well as it’s quite nice.

I grow two types of Monkshood. The second type doesn’t bloom until the end of August thought – it’s the Azure monkshood and it’s absolutely lovely. Don’t worry there’ll be photos when it blooms.

Bi-color Monkshood Mature Flower

Monkshood Aconitum

I grow this monkshood in the far corner of my garden near some roses and our very very slow growing holly tree. It spruces up the area when it’s in bloom.

Do you grow any unusual or less common types of plants?

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It’s a hot one!

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Oh my gosh. I’m just in from being in the garden for about an hour. I went outside to take some photos of flowers that have already been blooming for a week or two. You know how it is, if you don’t get the photos while they are blooming they’re gone! I already missed a few flowers that don’t re-bloom due to my lack of being in the garden much this year.

It is soooooooo hot outside! It’s apparently only 30 Celsius, but as always it’s pretty humid here and when you factor in the humidity it’s 39 c! That’s 102.2 F! I also happen to have a fever, as usual, so I’m sure my body wasn’t handling the heat and humidity as well as it should have.

When I came in I was literally soaked as if I’d been out there in the rain. Yuck. You can bet I hopped into the shower pretty quickly. I still feel overheated though.

I’m so thankful that we have air-conditioning. I know that I’ve said we have a fairly green lifestyle, but when it gets this hot here in the summer I don’t think I can easily give up my air conditioning. Hopefully all the rest of the stuff we do makes up for it.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that some more photos will be on their way shortly.

Hey let me ask you a question.

Do you like it when I post facts about the plants I photograph such as their hardiness, bloom times, whether they are drought tolerant and or like shade or sunlight?

I figure it helps those that are just getting started gardening. Plus if you haven’t tried growing a particular plant at least you’d know by reading the information that I post about each plant I photograph if it would do well in your area.

Butterfly Milkweed

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I noticed that my hybrid Butterfly Milkweed – Asclepias tuberosa – had started to form buds. I had noticed the developing buds about a week and a half ago as I took a walk in my garden checking on all the plants as I went.

Luckily I had my camera at hand and I was able to take a few nice photos of the developing buds:

Milkweed tuberosa buds

Butterfly weed is a herbaceous perennial that grows up to two feet in height. It dies back each winter and then re-sprouts in late spring from underground tubers.

Milkweed is slow to come up each spring. If you grow any form of milkweed you should always take care to mark the spot that it grows in each fall or at the very least try to remember where it was as it’s slow to make an appearance and you wouldn’t want to dig in the area and damage the plants roots.

Flower clusters of brilliant orange or red appear in midsummer. Once the blooms are spent attractive green pods develop. When the pods mature they open to release silky parachutes that drift away on autumn winds. This is how the butterfly weed propagates as the seeds of the butterfly weed are on these silky floating strands.

Each cluster has many flowers, several of these flowers will have an inner whorl of petals that are called the corolla and an outer whorl of sepals that is called the calyx. Butterfly Milkweed is a little different from other species of milkweed in that the sap is not milky nor are the leaves opposite.

Butterfly weed is a naturally occurring plant that grows east of the Rockies in North America. It’s preference is for well drained sandy soils.

If you’d like to grow these lovely flowers plant them in full sun to very light shade. Butterfly weed is hardy to USDA zones 4 – 10.

If you’d like to encourage butterflies to visit your garden this flower is a must as the caterpillars of Monarch butterflies feed only on milkweed foliage. Adult butterflies of many species enjoy sipping the nectar from the butterfly weeds blossoms.

I grow a few types of milkweed in my garden and every time I gaze out my kitchen window I see butterflies visiting many of my plants.

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