Smile!

In spring 2013 I went to the native plant sale at Shaw Nature Reserve, the wild sibling of the Missouri Botanical Garden. (I've posted about this place before) I bought several plants, some that never got planted, some that are enjoyed by deer, and a few that have been integrated into the garden.

One of them that at first was in the "eaten by deer" category but has seemingly moved into the integrated group is Berlandiera texana or "Texas green eyes" (syn. Berlandiera betonicifolia). Imagine my delight the other morning when I saw one of the blooms literally smiling up at me!

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Although this is not the Berlandiera species that I most want in my garden (that's Berlandiera lyrata, "Chocolate flower"), it's quite nice!

No scent to the blooms that I can detect, but they're cheerful, and this plant apparently blooms all summer long, from June to September or later!

I'm not sure why the deer stopped eating this one -- perhaps they're spoiled for choice now, or they're just having a harder time finding this now that all of the plants are bigger.

Let's take one last look at the smile...

Wonderful!

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