After my recent post on my totally overgrown weed patch, I thought I should say that, hidden among the 75cm (30″) weed jungle, I do have a few flowers.
This one was a miniature rose which was a gift as a potted plant a few years ago and has done much better than the bigger roses which are easily found by pests. Hiding in the weeds has advantages as this one now has ten flowers.

This Gaillardia is almost as bright and easily raised from seed and it self-seeds so one package lasts for years, even though the individual plants only last a few years.

Someone gave me a small piece of stonecrop, a succulent, many years ago. It has now spread all over, wherever it is too dry and sandy for much else as it is easily overshadowed in which case it dies. But it is very prolific in flowers in late June/early July:

This verbascum is a relative of the wild mullein and flowers a little earlier. I think the individual flowers could be inspiration for a crazy-looking hat.

The milkweed is wild but I let it grow in most of the places it comes up, so the Monarch butterflies have somewhere to lay their eggs. I think I saw some this week but they didn’t land for long enough for me to tell them from the Viceroys. But the flowers are an interesting shape and texture if you look closely. I’ll look out for some domesticated milkweeds that come in more vibrant colours.

Speaking of butterflies, here is a smaller one with the same colour scheme, different pattern, the Pearl Crescent. Its caterpillars like daisies but I’m sure they’ll stick to the wild ones and not munch on my Gaillardia and Painted Daisies.

Finally, here are some birds displaying poor table manners.

The red-winged blackbird always gets its way, even though other birds are bigger. The middle bird is the female – they are nesting in the bulrushes next door. The mourning dove usually raises one wing to tell other birds to leave while it is feeding – it is second in the pecking order at our feeder, but the tactic doesn’t impress the blackbirds so it had to leave until they were done.