Early summer flowers will be the topic of this blog post.
It is quite hard this time of year to stay out of the garden when it is changing every day with new blooms and new colors and new excitement.
Perennials survive and actually thrive with only running in late winter/early spring and some “dead – heading” in the spring/summer/fall.
So writing suffers, and then the writing just wants to talk about the new flowers. This month features 4 special flowers in my garden and a fascinating dragonfly. Pictured here is the vibrant
Asiatic Lily:

The Asiatic lily is a prized perennial with a variety of vibrant colors. This should be planted inthe Fallin well-draining soil (mine are on a gradual hill) and a sunny to party sunny location.These lilies have been in this location for `10 years and all I have done to care for them is to cutthem back after blooming!

The next dazzling picture is yellow yarrow. This is great in garden borders. It is pest-resistantanddroughtresistantand attractsbutterflies. It has strong stems and is great forcutting anddrying. It is said that some native Americans used ground yarrow infused in water to treatsunburns.

The star in the next picture is a flame skimmer dragonfly.  The bright orange/red dragon color is hard to miss flying around or sitting on the top of a flower bloom.  This dragonfly changed our pond.  Our Koi recently died so my husband decided to shift from the expensive algae control to cheap chlorine to treat the pond.  He then learned that this dragonfly feeds on things like fly larvae and later as an adult on mosquitoes.   So adding chlorine would kill the flame skimmer larvae and some of their food supply, which could also add to our mosquito and fly population.      So chlorine has been abandoned and we’re again applying a fish-friendly algae control.   By the way this macro picture was taken with an iPhone 13 Pro!

Earlier I showed an Asiatic lily. This isaCalla lily. These striking flowers, now available in manycolors,are great in the garden,in containers on a patio or in a sunny window.They are alsowonderful as a cut flower.Planting is easy. Plant these approximately 4” deep in soil amendedwith compost, andvoila,this beauty will be yours!

This last beauty is the helenium.  It may resemble some of the coneflowers and black-eyed Susans.  It blooms summer to Fall.  Heleniums attract butterflies and are long-lasting as cut flowers.