August Beauty, Photos By Amy

When Amy walks through the garden with the camera you can always count on having many fantastic pictures to choose from. It is not easy.  The Mammoth Pink chrysanthemums are beginning their stunning display.

I could not decide if I prefer the bold close-up, or this picture where the beauty of the mums is demurely concealed  by neighboring plants.  Of course we are always pleased to have one of Ed's walls in the background.  The remaining lily stalks, fine perennial flax foliage and speckled Gloriosa Daisies add a lot of interest to this picture.

There are few bee balm flowers left.  The hummingbird, butterflies and hummingbird moths usually seen on these flowers seem to have been replaced with ants.

The brilliant red of this cardinal flower would capture any photographer.  I can tell right away where this flower is growing.  It stands in front of the only wall I ever built here.  It lacks the perfect horizontal lines of Ed's work and has diagonal lines that make it mine. Just the same, it still stands together with his  in the garden square after all these years.

The red color and fuzzy texture of these sumac berries make me want to reach out and touch them.  This winter they will get the bird's attention.

Summer Sweet, Clethra, is a favorite plant of Amy and Ed.  It's sweet aroma is a reminder of hiking trips taken together.  We have both white and pink growing here.  The flowers open from the bottom to the top and all of the stages are here to see.  I have to wonder what is eating the leaves.

I love sunflowers.  They are so cheery near or far.  I do believe that is a real honey bee working the spiral of tiny flowers.  This sunflower has just begun to bloom. Its flowers will spiral in  until the last ones open in the center.  We get to enjoy its sunny face  all that time.

I saved my favorite for last.  A beautiful purple, prickly thistle and the garden wearing an asparagus fern veil is a study in texture and color.  It takes an artist's eye to turn my unweeded asparagus bed into such beauty.  Thanks Amy, I'm so glad to be able to see it that way!