Upper Midwest Gardening: Summer is about to begin.. show those blooms!, 4 by nutsaboutnature

nutsaboutnature wrote:
The frequent, heavy rains are turning the leaves on some plants yellow (thankfully some of them have bloomed some already). Others are loving the rain and I haven't had to do any watering so far this season.

A few things that are blooming now:

1) Hemerocallis 'Always Afternoon' (Daylily)
After 3 years the color is getting better, but at first it was a tan-taupe, nothing like the bright, light Raspberry in Bluestone's catalog that caused me to buy it at half price. I considered digging it out at first. It does get a lot of blooms.

2 & 3) Monarda 'Grand Marshall' (Bee Balm)
Love this plant! The blooms are actually a slightly deeper Maroon color than it looks in pic. Supposed to be a miniature at about 15" tall, but it grows to over 30" with blooms up to 3"!

4) Same Monarda blown up to show a new "Friendly" I discovered a few days ago. Posted in the Insect ID forum and Flapdoodle, who has helped me many times, said it's a Flower/Hover Fly in the family Syrphidae (adults are polinators and larvae eat aphids)

Echinachea (a Rose-colored variety, but forgot the name. I'll have to try to find the tag) Goldfinches absolutely love the seeds and spend lots of time on them, especially in later Summer.