Nothing in particular

This morning was hot. Way too hot and humid to do anything in the garden except walk around looking at everything. Even that wasn't too much fun, as the sweat was soon getting in my eyes making it difficult to use the camera.

I persisted, but this post will be a series of unconnected images... not quite random, but no real purpose to it. You must have days in the garden like that, right? It can't be all work and structured time -- you need to be able to flit from one plant or bed to another on a whim, watching whatever catches your eye. That's how I feel today.

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The rudbeckia fulgida 'Goldstrum'  (or is it 'Goldsturm'?) above is a really common perennial around here, but it's so nice and reliable I can't blame everybody for planting it. Keep it away from the rabbits and deer though.

Castor bean leaves. These plants are starting to get big.

So is this banana. Each new leaf that emerges is larger than the one before it, and there's a new leaf every few days. Excellent. I love large leaves!

This wonderful little flower is one of the first produced by my Vigna caracalla, or snail vine. It's growing up my stairway railing, and will soon start producing tons of these flowers. Too bad they're not fragrant.

For fragrance the butterfly bush flowers (Buddleia davidii) can't be beat. So delicious-smelling!

This tiny bamboo is out of control, and I need to dig it up soon. Pleioblastus distichus -- it's less than a foot tall.

Very interesting fan-like leaf pattern.

Speaking of leaves, this is a native plant (or "weed", depending on your outlook) called white snakeroot:

Eupatorium rugosum is the botanical name, and I've also got the 'Chocolate' version growing in my yard too:

I planted this 'Chocolate' version a few years ago and it's been reseeding ever since.

It's got really nice purple/brown foliage, hence the 'Chocolate' cultivar name. Since these came from seed they are probably not even as dark as the original plants were -- many plants with interesting characteristics do not produce offspring with the same characteristics.

Usually this means you get "normal" plants from seed instead of plants with special traits (like dark foliage), but sometimes you get a really unique plant -- something really different. Something like this:

This guy looks like the 'Chocolate' snakeroot with normal leaves at the bottom, but then gets all frilly toward the top. I'm not sure if it's a trait of the plant itself, or if something has caused this to happen (disease, insects, chemicals). I'm definitely going to keep an eye on this one, as it's really pretty interesting.

It's also possible that this is a completely different species of plant, and I only think it's a snakeroot.

I'll have to do some research and scrutinize the plant more, but I'm going to wait for a morning that's cooler than 85º F and drier than 90% humidity at 7 AM if that's okay with you. (So a follow-up post in September I guess...)