Dear Carol, Mary Ann and all of our dear friends, We've hit those days of summer which separate true gardeners from those who only visit the greenhouse mid-April, buy forty flats of annuals and then leave them out in the sun to die. Although I profess to being a gardener, right now, I want to bury my head in the red sand. The garden may look pretty in pictures, but at the moment, I hate it. Oklahoma had a lot of rain in spring and early summer. The heavens kept pouring down the wet stuff which sounds good and makes for a green state, but my garden isn't set up for all this moisture. I've fought red spider mites, mildew, blackspot and hoards of grasshoppers already, and there's a month to go before temperatures even think of cooling down. Because of all the rain, my xeric plants freaked out, and...

I'm not all about natives. You know that. I grow named cultivars of roses, phlox, daylilies, crapemyrtles and pretty much anything else which will grow and bloom in Oklahoma. Monarch caterpillar on butterfly weed. I do weeds really well too. After neglecting my garden while I hoofed it off to Buffalo and St. Louis, the weeds were trying for world domination again. While grappling and pulling some this afternoon, I noticed many of the native flowers in my garden perform a kind of double duty. Whether you believe in God, evolution, or a mixture of the two, a lot of native plants seem to be created to help out multiple creatures. Take butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, a/k/a pleurisy root. It is part of the Milkweed (Asclepiadaceae) family, and Monarch caterpillars can't seem to get enough of it. Further, when it is blooming, nearly every butterfly is attracted to its bright...

Doug Green, a friend of mine from Garden Writers Association, asked several of us to do a guest post on his blog about designing a garden. I took up the mantle and wrote about one of my favorite subjects, bright flowers. I'm giving y'all a link to his site to see my contribution and others. We all have such different ideas, and I think that's what makes this interesting. Hope you're staying cool during our hot weather. I'm indoors thinking about what to buy at our local nursery once August Bucks start, and everything is half price. It's nice to dream.

I always think it's interesting that the beautiful genus of Coreopsis is commonly referred to as tickseed. Frankly, it unnerves me although I know it is only because the seeds are so small thus resembling seed ticks. Coreopsis tinctoria is an annual and grows in ditches throughout Oklahoma and much of the U.S. especially the south. It also grows as a volunteer in my garden, and I like the sunny discs with their red centers. I also enjoy their delicate foliage. This little plant is a pretty addition to the front of the border or in a meadow setting. Coreopsis tinctoria goes by many common names like calliopsis, golden coreopsis, annual coreopsis, and plains coreopsis. It is part of the Asteraceae/Compositae (aster or daisy family), and, according to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Database has ". . . daisy-like flower heads with yellow rays surrounding a reddish-purple...