After the rain

The bi -color iris has never been a favorite of mine, so I was surprised the other day when Kyle pointed out to me, and said it was one of his favorites. This year, it is easy to see why, with all of the rain, they are heavy with blooms - and they look really beautiful.

With the four inches of rain we received this week, everything is glowing and beautiful...

Except, of course, those things that are rotting :o(


We were in a different Lowe's today, so I thought I'd check out their clearance counter.  With such a hug new garden, I have lots of space to fill :o) They had quite a number of plants for sale.

I picked  up six Arizona Sun Blanket Flowers (Gaillardia Arizona sun). At a dollar a piece, I thought why not. They are certainly past their beauty this year, but the card claims they are a mounding perennial.  I always thought they were a re-seeding annual, but hey, never hurts to try!  They actually already look better, just getting them out of their pots and into the ground.

And they also had some very,very sad looking Early Sunrise Coreopsis (Coreopsis grandiflora 'Early Sunrise'). And I mean these things were sad looking. Lots of dead brown stalks.  It looks like maybe that sat in water and drowned a bit.  Originally selling for $8, they were on the clearance rack for $1. I don't have a lot of hope for these guys.  But they had some pretty solid roots, so here is hoping!

And while wandering through the garden, I found this unusual spider. Unfortunately, Dave was out of town with his big lens, but I was able to capture enough to identify it has a Goldenrod spider.  Pretty cool!