so pretty

Nice!

Look at all that great color! I remember your post from only a few weeks ago saying you were struggling with flowers. You've done great!

Are those some kind of cone flowers second pic down? Whatever they are I like them.

Pretty! What are the flowers in the second picture called?

Pretty Blooms!

That second picture you guys asked about are some sort of coneflower. I rescued them from a median strip. In fact all these flowers started in median strips about to be mowed. The plants are about a foot tall and the flowers are only about one inch tall. Sharon could probably tell us their name. I haven't been able to find it.

Carol, you're right I was so frustrated about my bed. But not about the wildflowers. Those have consistantly done very well. My frustration was and is about cultivated flowers. Tried several and had mixed successes.

I decided to stick with the three that have done well for me in all the yards and through three states and whose seeds I have been collecting for over 20 years: cosmos, zinnias and marigolds. They are all planted among the wildflowers and doung well.

Found it!!! Ratibida columnifera or upright prairie coneflower. Supposedly it can be found in almost all the states but I never saw it outside Florida. I found it in this website: https://uswildflowers.com/wfquery.php?State=FL

Glenn, is your picture recent of the pink lily? The (would be!) grass in the picture looks dry. My pink lilies ("rain lily") won't bloom until the summer rains. I know you have a magic touch with plants. Just wondering.

Irma,yes the rain Lilly is blooming after last weeks rain. Only the one. Yes my grass isn't looking that great but I don't have a sprinkler system. I water by hand. And the grass is low on my water list.

I have never understood watering grass. Both. My sisters water their grass, installed sprinkler, have the sprinklers worked on, have lightening hit the sprinkler control box, pay for new control box and someone to install it. Sure they have very green lawns but the cost of those lawns is huge tho one sister lives on a fresh water canal and pulls the actual water from the canal. Then after you grow your grass you chop it down. I like flowers, fruits and herbs but i have never understood the delight of grass. I'd love to fill the yard with more plant and get rid the of the grass.

Pea I don't like doing the grass thing either. That be said I did own a landscape and lawn service at one time and that's when I learned to hate cutting grass. I don't water it. I don't feed it. That would only make it grow faster. I only mow it and that's only because the city makes me. If it was up to me I would only mow 2 maybe 3 times a year. I don't mow my hunting property And the grass out there goes though it natural cycle and is fine. But there's no one to complain and no code enforcement too.

Some people around here will paint there lawn green when it dies. Don't understand that either I think there crazy but they think I crazy for putting in fruit tree and mulching with leave and not bags and bags of colored wood chips.

Glenn, "bags of colored wood chips" - that made me laugh out loud!

Bea, I'm so glad you found some things that work for you. It's forever evolving for me... what's now working - ie. the past two years with these incredibly warm winters - may be back off the list after next winter. But like you, I'm using what I know works more and more rather than experimenting with new plants.

Rain lilies are coming up here after last week's good downpour. White blooms in the rain lily border:

More pink buds still coming up - blooms will turn white when they open:

Carol

Rain lilies coming up in the front bed, too. For some reason, the critter busy eating the agapanthus hasn't touched the rain lilies.

Carol, I just can't afford the bagged mulch but leave are free and are working just as well plus no dies or chemicals and no other trees died so I could mulch. I've gotten creative with getting my organics with out spending money. Got a lot of work to do this yard is almost pure sand. So bags and bags of colored wood chips just won't work for me.

I used to get free pine needles when my neighbor raked his. My dad would go and grab the trash cans of them when the neighbor put them to the curb, dump them for me to spread and take back the cans. Sadly hurricane charley kill the pines so no more pine needles. I loved to use the needles around the hose area cause the were supurb at keeping the weeds from growing.

Pea I love pine needles it's how I did my last yard but no good pines here.

Carol your beds are so pretty!

Glenn i was trying to message you but you dont have that enabled. Can you please do that.

Bea I think I fixed that

Carol, your flower beds are looking beautiful, good job!

Silvia