Coincidence? I don’t think so!
As I look around my gardens, it seems to me that many of my flowers know that it’s July and they wish they could be fireworks. They do their best to reflect the colors and explosive motion of the fireworks we enjoy celebrating on our nation’s birthday.
Many allium peak in July. My front bed is full of blue allium azureum that look like bright blue explosions. There are also some purple allium carinatum ssp. puchellum that look like the ones that cascade to earth in a free fall. Allium flavum also have pendulous bell-shaped flowers, but yellow. I buy and plant these bulbs in the fall.
They’re really great because the rabbits don’t eat them and the pollinators (bees and butterflies) love them. They will come back year after year and can be dried to be used for floral arrangements.
The first year I planted the allium flavum (more expensive than the blue ones, so there were just a few) I was furious to see that although they had been lovely the day before, one of my rabbits had decided to taste them. Bit one, spit it out, optimistically tried the next one, same result (yucky!) and spit that one out as well and continued thusly through the entire planting. It hasn’t happened again, but you can imagine my anguish! I believe this is proof that rabbits share the menus at each of our gardens and stop by when their favorites are available and share bad reviews, just like we do for the restaurants we frequent.
Hostas wish they were fireworks. In July, many send up a flower stalk with dangling purple or white flowers. Reminds me of fireworks, how about you? And, of course, there are all the daisy-like bloom-coneflowers, mums, clematis, lilies etc. But the balloon flower (platycodon) really wants in on the action. It first has a balloon shape and then bursts open to a star-shaped bloom.
All of these remind me of bombs bursting in air.
Have a safe Fourth of July and add some “fireworks flowers” to your garden.
