Truly Drought Tolerant

Chris Mousseau

This morning, it’s raining…YAAY!!! We’ve been without for about six or seven weeks so I’m really happy that trees and shrubs, in particular, will be able to drink up before frost arrives and the ground freezes, usually sometime this month.

As you can imagine, without rain or supplemental watering most of the garden has been looking quite woebegone for the past few weeks. Except these amazing Blanket Flowers – Gaillardia aristata. Native to much of North America, my flowers originated from seeds I collected in Tommy Thompson Park, in Toronto, about 20 years ago. There, they were growing in hard packed gravel on a south slope beside the pike path. I scattered seeds in a similar environment here in The County, and, to keep this short lived perennial going, I both let seeds fall where they grow and also gather and scatter seeds where I might welcome additional summer long bursts of orange, yellow and red.

Bees love these flowers! The photos here were taken early yesterday morning, and the bumble bees were still there from the day before. Think of your university days, with a friend crashing on your couch after a wild night, waking up the next morning to stagger home.

bumble bee hanging upside down under Blanket Flower

12 Comments

  1. Great to read, that it’s raining ‘there!’ And you’ll have some extra water in your rain barrels. Spending the night on a flower must be, sometimes, chilly for the bees…. till the sun warms their muscles, in the morning. I love the last photo with the Bumble upside down.

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    1. The rain is glorious! Of course I’ll be emptying the rain barrels in a few weeks…winter prep…I’ve always wondered why these bees stay up and out at the end of the day instead of heading to a warm or cozy hole somewhere..

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    1. My asters, particularly the more shallow rooted white ones (heath aster, white wood aster) have pretty much shriveled away…very sad. Happily there are still New England asters for the bumblebees!

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  6. I love Gaillardia — all of the species. The ones you’ve shown here are our most common, and they have a long, long growing season. In fact, I’ve often enough seen them in January and February, if conditions are right. They’re terrifically resilient, not to mention smile-producing.

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