What’s in Bloom July ‘25
Take a scroll and see who’s in bloom now at Lazy Dirt Wildflower Farm!
Psst. Don’t forget you can order fresh flowers AND visit the farm Fridays or Saturdays too.
The consequences of my actions— flowers & bugs!
Every day Spring thru Autumn you’ll find me sowing seeds or planting in the fields.
Nearly 2 acres of gardens are in what you might call “perpetual progress” ! Many of the planting areas are characterized by well-draining average to sandy soils in either part to full sun.
Now I know determining how much sunlight a specific plant needs can be confusing. But it doesn’t have to be! See my easy to use sunlight guide HERE
Ahem back to the flowers…
One of the first native flowers to bloom in late Spring thru Autumn is… Heliopsis helianthoides or ‘Early Sunflower’
Blooms begin in mid-June adding their golden color to the gardens when many other native plants are not anywhere near flowering.
Here at the farm, I cut these golden flowers all Summer encouraging flower production into October.
Early Sunflowers are so cheery I even put them at our mailbox with purple & pink Zinnias. They are the first flowers you’ll see when you visit the farm!
Speaking of pretty disk flowers
Echinacea purpurea (Purple Coneflowers) is also in bloom. For some reason, the plants are producing SUPER tall flowers, some up to 4’ tall with 5-7 flower buds per stem! Perhaps all the snow with it’s nitrogen gave them a boost this year.
Whatever the reason they are GORGEOUS! So tall they put the pollinators right at face level~ a great way to watch Nature in action especially Hummingbirds and Bumblebees.
Birds in the flowers
Watching the Gold Finches eat the petals has been so much fun!
As they perch on the Coneflowers the stems bend and bounce from the bird’s movements
Yes indeed.. Everyone eats in this garden!
Beautiful White Flowers
also call the bees, wasps, moths and butterflies to the gardens.
Scattered throughout the farm are native and rebel flowers in shades of white.
Often I’ve observed these blooms are actually clusters of tiny flowers that seem to attract smaller bees and other insects. New blooms to the farm this year include native Elderberry and Smooth Hydrangea. Both I am eagerly propagating to create mixed hedges featuring these beautiful native plants.
After all who doesn’t want MORE Elderberry blooms????
Then there is the Monardas…
Friends~ this farm has more Monarda than you can shake a feather at!
Pretty flowers and sweet spicy fragrance. Hummingbirds, bees, and even Hummingbird MOTHS visit these blooms daily!
Plus their fragrance seems to deter deer and rabbits from nibbling in the flower beds too.
No wonder I’ve become OBSESSED with Monardas!
Plus after hundreds of Tall Bearded Iris are done showing off, the Monardas take center stage in the gardens!
A fine thing too because in early June most of the gardens are foliage-
Iris and Monardas are a great combination in the garden!
There’s so many more blooms to enjoy!
Every single garden is PACKED with flowering plants. More rebel and native flowers are getting ready to bloom!
Like the Rudbeckias and Coreopsis in this little garden:
Small Garden = BIG BLOOMS
This small 3’ x 4’ garden is a great example! Now I don’t like to ‘weed’ so I place my young plants pretty close together.
In this one small garden are:
2 Echinacea purpurea (Purple Coneflower)
1 Coreopsis tripteris (Tall Coreopsis)
5 Fragaria virginiana (Wild Strawberry)
1 Monarda fistulosa (Wild Bergamot)
1 Pycnanthemum tenuifolium (Slender Mountain Mint)
2 Rudbeckia triloba (Brown Eyed Susan)
Yeah, I know that’s a lot of plants in a small space…
But do you see any weeds? Heck no!
I packed all these plants in here knowing MORE insects would LOVE the shelter it provides.
Plus plant competition shades any weed seedlings. It also encourages plants to support one other plus longer stems for me YEAH!
After all… a garden isn’t soup.
You can always take a plant out of the garden!
and when you are inspired you can always ADD more plants too!
Of course, some of us (ahem) may go a little overboard!
Just look at me and the Rudbeckias.
This lovely 15’ '“hedge” of Brown-Eyed Susan at my pal Becky’s house a few years ago was stunning.
Becky’s idea inspired me to sow and grow over 200 of these plants just for the farm alone! (the total was 650! Most of whom are living fabulous lives beyond the farm!)
Rudbeckia Love..
Happily planted out last Autumn these Rudbeckia now have strong roots and …
They are just beginning to bud!!
All will start flowering on 7-8’ tall plants… won’t that be something to see!
It’s going to be so beautiful!
I hope you’ll stop by the farm to see all these flowers in bloom. They’ll be feeding pollinators, birds and dancing in the sunshine.
Rudbeckia companion plants include native grasses like Little Bluestem and Prairie Dropseed. Flowering native plants such as Purple Coneflower, Common Yarrow, Swamp MIlkweed and of course Monardas are great for wildlife in your garden.
At the farm, I’ll also be using these blooms for Earth-friendly arrangements through October!
Creating Summer flower arrangements with Rudbeckia flowers is so much fun. Here’s a few flower pairings I’ll be using Zinnia, Monarda, Fleabane, Flowering Raspberry, Dahlias, Lavender, and so many many more flowers!
Until next time…
If you’d like to bring home some flowers contact me HERE
Hope you can visit to stroll through the flowers & watch pollinators real soon!
~Melanie
