Potpourri of Garden Flowers
Posted: June 17, 2024 Filed under: Gardening | Tags: Automatic Gardening, Backyard Critters, balsam impatiens, Box Turtles, butterfly weed, Confederate Rose, turtle, White Angel Ginger, wild ageratum 29 Comments
The Butterfly Weed was visited by a Monarch Butterfly. The plant hosts Monarch caterpillars, but I haven’t found any yet.
The Wild Ageratum that planted itself in one of my garden beds is doing well as usual.
The Balsam Impatiens have been coming up in the same bed for years. The original seeds were purchased at George Washington’s Mt. Vernon.
A big surprise for this time of the year was a single flower on the Confederate Rose. I photographed it throughout the day.
This White Angel Ginger has lived in the back garden in East Texas gumbo for years. It even reproduced.
The Automatic Garden has done a great job keeping the beds full each year.
And I had another turtle visit, although they are probably always around and I just don’t see them.
I just heard some information on a podcast that is new to me. Box turtles are sentinels of a healthy forest ecosystem. Knowing my little woods are healthy enough for turtles is nice. I keep all the leaf litter and small sticks to hold moisture and slowly decay to feed the trees and to encourage insects to live under the leaves.
Before I posted, I found this turtle in the driveway feet away from my husband pulling the car out of the garage. The turtle seemed to be a bit shaken up being so close to the moving vehicle. This turtle is my old pal with a dark hole on its side. I moved it to a safe place in my woods.
Automatic Gardening & Real Gluten Free Food 
Turtle and butterflies go together with great blooming flowers.
Whew, glad everybody survived the car encounter.
It was very close and my husband never saw the turtle.
Great summer potpourri. Tropical milkweed has become a political football here, so I gave up on it. The native milkweeds croaked. Sigh. I love those Balsam Impatiens but you need to send me some gumbo! Wonderful to hear turtles are a good indicator, I see them frequently.
I never got any native milkweed to grow in my yard. The butterflies don’t mind.
Same here. I am sometimes mystified by natives.
I paid good money for the one I had.
Aggravating, and then because it is native it should automatically be better. Not so much.
I love your turtle friends and I’m glad this little one escaped the giant rolling machine– whew!
Pretty cool that you have self-seeding annuals that date back to George Washington. 🙂
I saw the Balsam Impatiens at the Old North Church in Boston.
You saved a turtle! Yay for you! (and the turtle…) You do have a nice array of blooms; I guess all that rain you’ve had made some plants bloomin’ happy!
It has been nice to get rain after last year’s drought. At first I thought the turtle was leaves, then I took a closer look.
All of the flowers are pretty, but the Balsam Impatiens really caught my eye. I don’t think I’ve seen those before. What are the purple ‘thingies’ on the White Angel Ginger? Is that a usual part of the plant? It’s quite a contrast.
I’m glad you spotted the turtle before any damage (or worse) was done!
The little purple things are flowers on the ginger. Didn’t get a real clear shot, but if you enlarge it, check the one on the right. How has the rain been for you? So far we just got a sprinkler cycle worth of rain.
Rain? What rain? I’ve been able to work today with no problem, and the skies are blue. It is breezy, and I’ve seen a few showers on radar, but not a drop here.
The news really gets all excited. They lowered both lakes, so there should not be problems here. Last storm they did not lower Conroe and that caused some of the flooding.
Beautiful flowers and handsome visitors. I noticed my Butterfly Weed has buds today. I have never seen White Angel Ginger so thank you for sharing.
Ah, ‘White Angel’ ginger is a cultivar of turmeric! I had to look it up real quick, of course. I am growing turmeric for the first time this year, but because I did not do any research into the cultivar that I acquired, I do not know if the bloom will be white or pink. I hope it blooms white, but will not mind if it is pink.
I did not know that. I just go for the flowers.
Yes, they are pretty. Of seven or so related gingers here, only two are culinary sorts. The other five are merely ornamental. They are good at what they do, but that is all that they do.
It’s always good to hear from you.
Beautiful post, Judy. I love the Balsam Impatiens. Especially nice they return each year.
Have you tried them? I have seen them in seed catalogs.
No, but I will look for them. So beautiful.
The fun part is the seed pods pop when gently squeezed.
They are also called poppers.
Good for you for saving the turtle!
Lucky your turtle didn’t get hurt! Your garden has lots of interest and the woods must be full of creatures that never show themselves. I always like seeing your confederate rose. 😃
Maybe some of the creatures I don’t want to see. I found a large dead snake the other day, but I think it was dropped by a hawk.