'TIS THE SEASON: PURPLE HORSEMINT

Image from wildflowerhaven.com

Bluebonnets are nice, but what really quivers my liver is the Monet-like mass of purples and oranges that follows. My favorite wildflower of all is that purple horsemint (a.k.a. lemon horsemint/monarda/beebalm) you see above, which is putting on quite a show this year. I had it on my to-do list to stop into King Feed, to see if they had any of these plants already growing. I was hoping to buy a few to add to my "Sunrise Garden" downstairs. But then I stumbled upon a most delightful surprise.

Apparently, I already have horsemint in my wildly abandoned bed!

The blooms look like this when they open, which is why I didn't recognize them at first. But then they start stacking themselves up, layer upon layer, until they become those tall conical blooms you see in the field above.

There's another sweet surprise in the garden as well, though I'm almost afraid to mention it for fear of jinxing things. OK, here goes. Ever since I placed those two squiggly blue metal stakes in front of the deer's secret passageway, there has been no sign of them in the Cantina Garden, and things like the orange flowers in that pot, and my new rudbeckias below, are finally being allowed to bloom!

 Are they gorgeous, or what?