Author: Nan Ondra

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day – August 2023

Perennial Meadow at Hayefield [©Nancy J. Ondra/Hayefield.com]

August brings such an embarrassment of riches, how could I ever narrow down the highlights of this month? While scrolling through the many photos I’ve taken, I finally noticed one particular group of plants that are contributing most to the show right now. So, welcome to the all-natives edition of August Bloom Day at Hayefield!

Even this narrow focus didn’t trim down the list as much as I thought it would. To be honest, I’m using a rather broad definition of “native”: as long as a species’ native range includes some part of North America, it qualified. Some of these have appeared on their own in my meadow areas; most, I have grown from seed. Oh, and I think there is one “nativar” (a named, vegetatively propagaed selection of a native species).

Even with all of these beauties, it took an immense amount of self control to not sneak in some of the other gorgeous non-natives strutting their stuff this month, so I indulged myself with one special addition at the very end of this post. I hope you enjoy the tour!

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – July 2023

Perennial border at Hayefield in July 2023 [©Nancy J. Ondra/Hayefield.com]

First, a bouquet to all of you who didn’t want to tell me about my big mistake last month. I’ve been participating in Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day since 2007, and each time I wrote a new post, I worried about putting the wrong date on it. I had a good run but finally messed up by labeling last month’s post as July instead of June. Oh well; the world didn’t end, and now it’s July for real, and there’s lots going on in the garden, thanks to a good amount of rain and heat that is making me wilt but most of the plants quite happy. This month, I’m going to present the highlights in three categories: non-native flowers, native flowers, and new-to-me-in-2023 plants.

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – June 2023


Until a few days ago, I was seriously considering skipping this post. There’s so much about this last month I would like to forget: nearly 6 weeks with no rain, frost as late as May 18, nights in the low 40s even last week, an explosion of aphids, and having to wear a mask to be out collecting seeds on days with hazardous air quality due to wildfire smoke. Oh yes, and managing to lock myself out of most of my website for several panicked hours this week, so I couldn’t even start a new post until last night. But that’s fixed now, and we finally got 2 inches of rain a few days ago, with a bit more today and the hope of more over the next week. Though the sky has been darker, the prospect for happier plants is a whole lot brighter, and I am fully prepared to celebrate whatever looks even halfway decent. Instead of presenting the plants by color this time, I’m going to group them by their personalities: the exuberant, the serene, and the quirky. Continue reading Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – June 2023