hmnn-n-n, I'm thinking...

One of my hibiscus plants is enjoying the summer out on the back deck. The first flush of blooms after a trim consists of single blooms. Then, the subsequent blooms are these double/triple blooms which are extremely decadent. A few years ago, my Filipino housekeeper laughed at my nursing this plant along because back home for her, hibiscus is very common, to the extent that it is used as hedging. Imagine!

Some black-eyed susans, shasta daisies, ozark sundrops, artemisia and pinks fight for moisture at the edge of the dripline of a large maple. In the spring there are tulips here which have escaped the notice of squirrels...or perhaps there were so many tulips here originally that the depredations of the squirrels didn't make a big dent in the display. The squirrels then replanted them in their own haphazard fashion about the woods and hedgerows. I have tulips appearing singly in the strangest places around here! Because of the shade of the maple and the dryness, I plan to rework this bed and move some things elsewhere. But the little combination above has its own charms, I think: artemisia, bugle weed, a pink I don't know the name of and the foliage of the ozark sundrops in the background.