early to mid-July

 

Some early-to-mid July photos.
I don't seem to have any from the second half of June.  I spent those weeks on jury duty  and  didn't have much time for the garden - had to try to squeeze in the rest of my life in the evenings.

This lobelia appeared on its own.  I think it is Lobelia inflata, also known as Indian Tobacco.  The flowers are tiny. 

This is the fairly inconspicuous flower of Thimbleweed.  I bought it because it is supposed to produce a fluff that is used in hummingbird nests.  I guess the fluff will emerge from the oval body that appears after the flower drops -  you can see that just behind the flower.  Unless the fluff remains inside it until  next spring, I don't see how hummers will use it, though - they are already done nesting for this year.  Or maybe it disperses and they gather it in the spring.

Here you can see the fading flower starting to develop its thimble.

White Obedient Plant - a clump-forming variety.  Doesn't spread all over like the pink.

This is the best Pickerel Weed bloom I've ever had.  I had one plant originally but now it's divided into several pots and each one is blooming.

The amazing bold blue flower of Stoke's Aster.

The Virgin's Bower has really taken hold.

In fact, it's extremely vigorous.  It wants to eat all the shrubs and trees within reach.  I have to cut it back.  In June, it seemed to grow a foot a day.

Coreopsis glowing in evening sun.

A House Wren sitting in the Red Oak, about to feed a fledgling chattering deeper in the tree.

Red-breasted Nuthatch juvenile. This is the first time I've seen the young, although I assume that the pair that is here year-round has bred before.  The peanut feeder brings them right in.