I’ll use the excuse of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (generously hosted as always by Carol at May Dreams Gardens) to show off a few more of the attractive plants in and around our pollinator’s garden. It’s been really fun talking to visitors about all of the activity and noticing who goes in for a closer look and who takes a few apprehensive steps back. The bees and wasps don’t seem to mind either reaction, they’re so intent on taking it all (the nectar and pollen that is) in. Would you go in for a closer look at all the busyness or are you more comfortable with a little distance between you and any insect activity?

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There are lots of names for July’s full moon, which was full in the wee hours of this very morning, but Full Thunder Moon seems the most appropriate this year. (Full Buck Moon and Full Hay Moon are other choices…) We’ve been lucky enough to have had a couple of good storms within the last week and the gardens are loving the infusion of rain – almost 3″ last Friday and another 1/2″ish Wednesday night. This last storm broke the heat wave and I can’t ever remember more heavenly July days than these last two. It’s not too hot or too humid – it’s juuuuust right. I hope you’re getting to enjoy a Goldilocks-perfect mid-July too!

I’d say it’s easy to plant a garden full of attractive plants except that it isn’t so easy. There’s way too much to choose from and what qualifies as attractive changes, for me at least, by the day. Some days it’s green flowers; other minutes it’s spectacularly enormous leaves; sometimes it’s blue foliage or anything orange. But it’s very easy to find plants that are attractive… in other ways … to other garden visitors, such as insects and birds, bees, wasps and butterflies. And planting those plants turns the garden from a pretty picture into an experience.

Every year we change the Display Garden around a bit. Some years we focus on flower colors (green, blue, anything that amazing apricot shot through with magenta…), sometimes we play more with texture (giant leaves… you catch my drift) and I have never known these gardens to not hum – audibly and visually – with activity. The gardens look alive because we plant such a variety that there are always plenty of plants for the insects and birds. But this year we tried to plant, in the big display garden bed in particular, ONLY what would be attractive to pollinators.The garden is buzzing! And lucky for us and for all the garden’s human visitors, we didn’t have to leave aesthetics out of the design equation.

The hands-down busiest (and hands-off busiest if you have any healthy respect for bees and wasps on a mission) is the sea holly (Eryngium planum). There must be an easy dozen different species on it at any given mid-day moment. And it’s highly attractive to me too, fulfilling the blue foliage (and flower) category so handsomely along with having an excellent architectural prickliness. When the sea holly goes by, the more subtly lovely (green) flowers on the mountain mint (Pycnanathemum muticum) will likely draw the most visitors.

But the butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), which is a stunning shade of brilliant orange that incidentally looks amazing with sea holly, not only attracts all sorts of bees, wasps and butterflies to its flowers, the plant itself is the only larval food source (along with every other member of the Asclepias/milkweed family) for the beloved Monarch butterfly. It’s always great fun to attract butterflies to the garden, and it’s even better to give them a reason to stay. At least 4 generations will go from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly over the course of the summer in a garden with an Asclepias restaurant. When Gail and I started researching plants for this garden we were thrilled to note that a lot of the best nectar sources are also popular host plants for all sorts of butterfly and moth caterpillars – like goldenrod (Solidago), Aster, false indigo (Baptisia), Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium) and even Zinnia.

Do you plant anything specifically for bees and butterflies? What are the most attractive plants in your garden?

I have gotten out of the habit of getting here extra early every morning to walk the property in search of interesting things. Lately, I have really only had eyes and time for the gardens. I realized after finally walking around again yesterday morning that just like staring at a computer screen for too long, my eyes were in desperate need of a stretch. For months now I’ve been looking at the gardens from an arm’s length, sometimes a rake’s length away. I have tried to remember to step back to take in a whole garden bed but it’s probably been a while since I’ve fully focused for more than a minute on the entire landscape in front of me.

I think there’s a natural shift to our gaze as we transition into a new season. I looked outward all summer – after looking down more during the spring and inward through the winter. Now I find myself looking up.I’ve also been out of the habit of using my eyes as a macro lens to enjoy the details. The minutiae of fall is every bit as fascinating as spring.

Although I’m more interested now in looking for the senescent signs of change and the promises of spring locked in seeds and buds, the gardens are still blooming away. (To see what’s in bloom around the world today, visit Garden Bloggers Bloom Day hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.) Several species of bees and even a few straggler monarch butterflies remain focused on our flowers, and because of their activity Gail and I have had to adjust our October schedule a little. We’ve taken annuals out of the North Garden and started to put it “to bed” but we just couldn’t bear to take everything out of the Rose Garden. Next week. And we’ll leave the Display Gardens (aside from a few stock plants and most of the cutting garden) as intact as possible until the bitter end.

Have you had to adjust your focus to get a good look at fall? Have you started putting your garden to bed?

Along with GBBD, today is also Blog Action Day and the focus this year is clean water. Although I am not officially participating, I offer this link once again for my local readers who might be as interested as I am in conserving water. Remember, one inch of rain on a 1000 square foot roof can fill hundreds of gallons!