More Things I Missed this Summer Part II

I could do a whole chapter on daisies which have multiplied into numerous types and varieties, and several different colors. Here is Gold Rush, the double yellow variety. Hollywood Lights is also very yellow but has a single flower. The fluffy double varieties have a tendency to fall over when they get wet so need to be staked. Like the white varieties deer don’t eat the yellow varieties either.

Ligularia. There are several species of Ligularia in cultivation but two basic types if one looks at the flowers; either a round daisy-type flower or a tall spike. The one pictured here is Ligularia przewalskii (pronounced shev-alski-i). Notice the deeply denticulated and striking foliage below the flowers. All ligularias prefer constantly moist soil and some shade.

Corydalis lutea. The yellow species seems to do best here although there are several blues supposedly hardy enough for Missoula. I’ve tried two but neither has made it through the winter. One didn’t make it through the summer.

Bleeding Hearts have been a staple of American and European shade gardens for over a century. For me, their most admirable quality is that once they are done blooming they go dormant, the foliage dies back and something else can grow in and fill their space with another bloom. Not really a summer bloomer, like the Jack-in-the-Pulpit I didn't really have another place to put it.

And here is the spring blooming Hosta I wrote about in July. Just for Connie.