Rubeckia, Agastache, and Gaillardia

Gaillardia with flower fly

Rudbeckia subtomentosa 'Henry Eiler' is an unusual and robust selection of a midwestern black-eyed Susan -- the ray petals have a lovely rolled edge.

I've had fun learning more about western Agastache species -- there are some great candidates. I don't know what the species of this cultivar is, but it certainly is striking.

It's Agastache 'Summer Love' from Terra Nova Nursery.

Summer gardening

I spent a wonderful morning in the garden: deadheading some early-flowering asters, trimming old stems, cutting back the leggy Agastache (anise-hyssop) to encourage branching, and snipping back spent Salvia flowers.

It's fun to tweak borders and vegetable garden blocks; this morning I focused on the shed border, moving a couple of plants that needed more space, or a different site, and freeing the edges from the inevitable Bermuda grass invasion.

I redid several containers near the potting bench, too, whose perennials had outgrown their pot, and created new plantings with shade-tolerant Heuchera (coral root or alum root), including one of the lime-green leaved ones I'd bought on a whim).

I'm enjoying this apricot Agastache -- I've forgotten the species (hopefully, I saved the tag or mentioned it in a blog post) -- its light open flowering pattern is lovely against the shed wall.