10/08/2023 rain brightened it up

The bright pink tubular flowers of obedient plant arranged in a spike, with the top flowers still just barely budding.
Another plant of fall obedient plant started blooming! Coworkers gave me several of their plants and I put them in several spots around the yard. This one by the winter birdbath by the house was a bit optimistic but it seems to have made it!
A top view of the obedient plant flower spike showing the bright pink flowers contrasting with the long thin bright green leaves, all arranged oppositely.
I thought it looked neat from above with four rows of flowers in the spike.

10/04/2023 big rain! Big max!

eight foot long plus sunflower branches arch over wet concrete, weighted down by bunches of wet yellow flowers.
We got a very sudden storm, with over two inches of rain.
A bouquet of small sunflowers foregrounds a gray table with a noodle veggie soup and a plate with three rows of handmade sushi.
We accidentally broke off a sunflower stem while putting the trash and recycling bins back behind them. The trimmed off flowers looked lovely with the dinner! Thanks Paula for trimming them to save them!
A tidy bouquet of small yellow sunflowers is framed by two decorative gourds, vaguely pumpkin shaped but with greenish stripes and a bumpy surface.
Paula added the fun pumpkins from last week’s farm share after the Chef rearranged the flowers a bit.

09/27/2023 rain refresh

The Salvia azurea from Missouri Wildflower Nursery had a second flush of blooms after the recent rain. The plant from TX did too. My young OK seed source plant is starting to bud but it’s still in a pot so not as big. Hopefully with three individuals now we’ll see some self-seeding!

09/06/2023 garden after half inch rain!

Three partially opened bright yellow flowers with spiky green foliage and sepals stand in front of tall sprays of delicate white and pink gaura flowers. The gaura and the tall stalks of sunflower with arched green leaves peek above the edge of the roof, visible from this low angle. A sweetgum tree is blurry behind the house with a pale blue sky above.
Last night we had a lovely series of small thunderstorms and got a half an inch of rain in the gauge. This morning I think the flowers looked a little cleaner!! These are Grindelia ciliata in front of gaura and Maximilian sunflowers.
A partially opened yellow camphorweed flower is framed by the spheres of more green buds, including one big blurry one in the foreground. The background is dappled green and pale blue-gray sky.
The smaller yellow flowers are Heterotheca subaxillaris, which I recently learned has the common name of camphorweed. I keep forgetting to smell it.

07/30/2023 very tall

Ironweed, gaura, four point primrose, gumweed, and more have grown very tall this year.
Briar likes her short grassy spot at the edge of the very tall “prairie”.
My supervisor likes her grassy spot.
A rattlebox flower blooming again!
Gaura longifolia doing well right now.
The gaura are very tall!
A very late Texas Dandelion blooming this morning!

07/11/2023 bizarrely wet summer

We got another 2.8 inches of rain overnight according to the Oklahoma Mesonet. I went outside to look at the puddles and remaining sprinkles and saw the partridge pea in the caliche planter had produced a new beautiful yellow flower and the whole plant was covered in little raindrops.

05/29/2023 quarter inch rain

One of our four new prairie larkspurs has bloomed!!
I took several angles as I was excited. Three of four plants tried to bloom but their flower stalks got knocked over or snipped off by something toothy.
The showy milkweed in the side yard (north of the rainbow garden) is coming up!
Our three kinds of milkweed are growing!! The lower left one is a green milkweed. The two biggest plants are whorled milkweed (A. verticillata) from Abby. The one remaining viridiflora is not in the picture.

05/28/2023 haircut

Since it was going to rain this afternoon (and did! I think we got around a quarter inch at most), I gave the culinary sage and lemon balm both haircuts to encourage bushier growth.