Monarda

I love monarda. Monarda is a perennial native to north America also known as beebalm and oswego tea. Bees love it, hummingbirds love it and I love it. I have seen various bees sleeping on a monarda flower. There was a mcmansion I worked at years ago that had insanely huge monarda growing 5 feet tall in clumps almost 6 feet in diameter. I had to prune and tie it back while seemingly thousands of bees buzzed around me. I had no fear, bees at this plant are always very happy.

This 1st flower is in the tomato box and is the most red of all the ones that have bloomed so far.

This pink one is the 1st to bloom.

Raspberry is my favorite color. Actually, it seems to be the most popular color in general. This color is usually called 'raspberry wine'. I bought my monarda this spring in a 4 inch pot that had perhaps 8 individual plants in it which I think may have come from seed.

I had a hard time choosing just 4 pictures. I really do love this perennial

This plant likes lots of sun, water, and rich soil. It is also susceptible to powdery mildew. I'll see if I can avoid that. Probably not, but for now they are growing pretty well.

Artichoke Blooms

These photos are not admittedly not current. They are from late summer. I think that they are 2 different blooms photographed the same day. The 1st flower is just starting to open, the 2nd is in full flower.

I did eat a couple artichokes but I wanted to see them flower and they are really big and pretty. Butterflies love them. I watched monarchs dip their proboscis into one repeatedly, quite deeply, kinda sexy actually. We all know about the birds and the bees right?

Speaking of bees, I managed to get this picture of a bumblebee in a similar state of ecstasy. Really, these pollinators just look overjoyed when they find some sweet flowers.

You don't see artichokes growing around Pittsburgh very much. They don't usually winter here so I will most likely have to dig them up in a little bit before it gets too cold. I have 4 plants in my front yard right now and only 2 have actually bloomed. I got them from Mountain Valley Growers. They were most likely offsets from a mother plant because artichokes usually do not bloom their 1st year. The other 2 plants came from home depot where they were mislabeled asparagus. I m assuming that those were from seed. If I save them they should bloom next year.

I think they are well worth it and I'd love to see more of these around. Aren't they beautiful?

The plant itself gets huge and takes up 4 feet of space. I overplanted these guys like everything else but I don't think they suffered for it. I think next year I'll give them more room. I'll probably mail one or 2 of these plants to my sister down south who actually has the space and the warmth to grow these properly.