A Garden Never Stops Astonishing

 Joe Pye is a late bloomer but so popular that plants must be ordered as soon as they are available. Little Joe Pye is knee-high and budding in harmony with the big version. God made Joe Pye for butterflies and all pollinators.

We always take rose and exotic flowers to Christina's diabetic specialist. That staff made sure my wife got the latest blood tester, which attaches near the triceps. No more finger poking, bleeding, and slipping a slip into the meter - Libre.

The last medical visit featured Rugosa roses and hips, a staggering fragrance, stronger than Mr. Lincoln. Christina has warned me to stop calling it Stinkin' Lincoln. Bela Rugosa sounds like a promising name - the Carpathian Rose.

But the fun of the garden is the daily experience of astonishment. Rose blooms come in waves and lately, the Japanese beetles are there to destroy them. I threw the book at them, more like two books, which I bring together to end their promiscuity and shut down their production of grubs. They destroy rose blooms to make their love nests, as if I planted Easy Does It Roses for them. Their worst habit is having grublings that chew at rose roots, the foundation of the plant's health.

I was there when five or six Japanese beetles arrived and insisted on landing. I slapped them away until they left for another venue. I then checked out John Paul II, the fragrant white rose. Some were there awaiting a conversion experience, so I "booked" them for Purgatory.

The Bee Balm is gathering strength for blooming. I planted quite a few and they are exceptionally tall. When the older red ones stopped feeding the Bumble Bees, the blue ones took over. More are ready to bloom any day. Note one at a time, but many in a drift of fringey blooms.

Mrs. Gardener said, "I need some of those seeds, so I can have a garden like yours." I told her how fall planted efforts were winter food for bunnies, and seed planting came to naught. I promised, instead, spring plants from Growers Exchange or Direct Gardening. The first one is the best source for herbs and special plants, arriving nourished and watered, packed liked royalty in a Rolls Royce box. Direct Gardening sells remaindered plants so cheaply (and backs them up) that they are worth a risk. I got my Balloon Flowers, yellow Hosta, Cat Mint, and Rugosa Rose from them, a super return on a few dollars.

I have given a lot of seeds a try. Only a few have survived squirrel and rabbit predation to bloom - Borage and Buckwheat. Both are good pollinator plants, and they flower quickly.

I am more inclined to plant long-term survivors like Joe Pye, which only asks for water during dry spells. Apart from that, the flowers exude a lavender aroma, and the butterflies arrive with all their friends.

Those who see plenty of activity on Joe Pye or mints should stand closely and look for the tiny Flower Flies (aka Hover Flies) that look like tiny Bumble Bees. They do not sting. Another tiny and beneficial visitor is the Ichneumon Wasp. They find a breeze to be more like a gale, so they come out when the wind is still.

For the visually challenged like me, the Bumble Bees are roly-poly fun, because they come out in droves and slowly work over the flowers.

Easy to grow pollinators attract Hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, Hover Flies, Ichneumon Wasps, Tachinid Flies, and more. Because these plants attract with sweet-smelling nectar, they also appeal to us as well.

Here are pollinator insect plants I grow, from the most attractive and fragrant, to those that fill in for daily feedings:
Clethra Shrub - sugary cinnamon fragrance, whether in bloom or not.

• Joe Pye - lavender or vanilla, late blooming, very tall (7 feet) or very tiny - Little Joe, knee high.
• Chaste Tree Shrub - Splendid blue flowers loved by bees, a striking medicinal aroma. Easy to grow and prune and move, from should height to 9 feet or more. 
• Bee Balm mint, Cat Mint, Mountain Mint - MM is the mintiest and tallest. Cat Mint is beautiful and an early bloomer. Bee Balm has a frizzy hair-do and is five feet tall in this rainy season.
• Poke Weed - This is not the place to be snooty. Poke will grow anywhere and everywhere, blooming and producing the berries loved by birds. The birds plant them anywhere and everywhere, with fertilizer to speed their growth. Many beneficial insects enjoy the tiny flowers, and there are always some in bloom somewhere nearby.
• Sunflower - This power-packed plant has a heavy honey scent, lots of room for beneficial insects, hundreds of flowerets that need tending.
• Borage quickly makes edible flowers, and bees like them enough for the plant to be called Bee Bread.
• Buckwheat grows equally fast and also seeds itself (like Borage). 
• Butterfly Weed has bright orange flowers, pods like cousin Milkweed, and bright orange bugs that attack it. 

 My older Chaste Trees look more like this one. I thought I killed one by transplanting it in the dry season last year. I pruned it hard, threw a sack of peat compost (stinky pete) on it, and it started growing all over. The newly bought replacement for the one I thought I killed - is growing well near some Easy Does It roses.