Prairie Royalty

The queen begins her reign today. Queen of the Prairie has clouds of tiny pink flowers that look fluffy, like cotton candy flowers. Mine have started to open their blossoms, and will continue to put on these royal crowns over the next week or so, I imagine. This native plant generally makes its home in wet prairies, which is not a match for the conditions in my yard. However, I planted it near the exit of my drain spout, and it has done quite well in these feast or famine conditions, taking over a nice large area in the past few years. It's a fun addition to the landscape, pale pink being a relatively rare color in prairie plants... in fact, with its largish leaves and flowers, many people don't believe it's a native at all!

In the garden, sugar snap peas are, sadly, tapering off. We're still getting some, but not like last week when we had handfuls a day, which I loved. Broccoli is coming in fast and furious (although I am disappointed in the small size of the flower heads in my garden, but... oh, well) and corn is flowering. It should be noted, of course, that ours was started from seed indoors and transplanted; that's why it is so far ahead of where farmers' corn is right now... knee high by the fourth of July (one of those phenology sayings everyone knows) -- and I'm not sure they all made that benchmark this year, what with rain delaying planting.