We've had so many requests for my Plant-This series to be available on the site that I finally gave in and made a start on publishing some of the past articles. Hopefully, more will be added seasonally.

Here is a link to the Plant-This series on the
Plant Profile page

A group of early summer plantings have been added to the page above. (including the candle stick Cassia alata that Anne of packrat site asked me about)

This is the time to plant the nursery starts of it - for yellow candlestick blooms in autumn.

I have added a few more summer and autumn favorite plants from past articles to the Plant Profiles page.

Maggie, I really enjoyed your plant profiles - even though few are hardy for my planting zone.

We do have the Michaelmas Dasies, they grow wild along the roads. They must like the salt from the winter roads because we see them all along the shoulders, but not much further from the road. About now the road crews come and mow all the wonderful blooms down They also sprout up in unexpected spots in my flower beds. I always leave them to enjoy the fall blooms, and to have more reseed for the next year.

I also have a sage that looks very much like yours, except my bracts are much smaller. Maybe because of a shorter growing season. Besides the bracts I like the pattern that the leaves grow in. And they are very deer resistant. My deer have gotten quite pesty in the gardens this summer. So I'm on the lookout for deer resistant plants to add to my gardens this next season.

A very nice job on the plant profiles!

So sad to hear the road crews mow so indiscriminately in West Virginia. Texas has state program to prevent that. Our highway depts designate no-mow areas with permanent signs, to protect the roadside wild flowers. Former First Lady Ladybird Johnson instigated huge wildflower conservation program about 20 years ago and it has really made a difference in our local highwayscapes. But I’ve never seen the michaelmas daisy growing wild around here, although it was a favorite with homesteaders and in more recent rural gardens. Another perennial that lines roadsides along the east coast states, but not here, is the orange species H. fulva day lily,, even tho it is also a popular country garden plant here.

Aren’t salvias the best ! I must have over a dozen different kinds in the garden right now, so more will eventually become plant-this topics. Its nice to hear you enjoy the series MK, even tho many of them are too tender for your zone – thanks for telling me xoxoxo

I’m thinking your pet deer herd is probably tame to the point of sleeping on the porch by now ;-)

Well the deer aren't sleeping on the porch, but they do bed down in the flower beds or in the grass outside the veggie garden.


Kisses in the new shurb bed earlier this summer.

West Virginia has cultivated wildflower beds along the major highways. Now why don't they discover the natural wildflowers are a much less expensive beautification project. Typical government.

Just look at her basking in the C & R Deer Country Club air! She's taking it easy while waiting for the next meal to be served