Shades of Red for the Summer Garden

Our garden progresses from gentle colors in Spring to hot colors for summer. Being a person who prefers tertiary colors, I look for plants that have multiple shades in the same color range. Here are a few plant suggestions that work in our sunny areas of the garden. All support pollinators with the exception of the day lilies.

Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea 6 14 2019. These were purchased on a whim for the garden next door. They had more than one swallowtail butterfly on them at the garden center.

Proof of Pollinators - Aug. 2017 photo

Salmon Queen Zinnia, This is my first year with these zinnias. They were planted from seed. I saw multiple photos of these plants online. Each with different color variations. Now, I know why. It's not just one color, but a range of colors. The web site should have named it Salmon Queen Zinnia series, unless they sent me the wrong seeds.

June 27, 2019

Another color variation, with a pollinator.

In late summer, we'll be treated with gold finches too. They come for the seed.

I'm very pleased with the colors since there is a lot of peachy pink . I have planted them in multiple locations. Hopefully, they will re-seed.

Our newest day lily, Painter Poet. This is the first year they have bloomed. In their first year, I had placed these in an area with too much shade. They are very happy in the sun bed next door. Day lilies don't support pollinators like bees and butterflies, but they still have insect life. I've seen plenty of lady bugs on ours. I suppose they are hunting aphids.

Painter Poet Daylily later in the day with Black Knight butterfly bush and a Silver spotted skipper butterfly.

I'll have to move these day lilies this Fall. The current orientation has them going sideways. I have a spot that will be perfect which is just a few inches forward. Then they should face out better. I'm still learning where the sun hits this garden at different times of day.

Song Siren Yarrow This plant has great color variation, pinks to red.

This photo is from 2017. The above photo was taken after I trimmed most of the plant. Unfortunately, I don't have any pollinator photos.

I've had an epiphany as I write this post. I'm having a color progression problem in another garden bed. Think red bee balm and pink echinacea. Every plant that I have in that bed is a uniform color. There are no shade variations. This makes it more difficult to have an analogous color flow.

Have a happy Fourth of July! We are expecting some thunderstorms on the fourth. I guess that will go with the fire crackers. :) The frogs are already celebrating. They are unusually talkative today. I saw two mating in the pond this morning. Well, it is a new moon cycle and mid-summer is here.