Hi GPODers!

Today we’re looking at the lavish bounty Amanda Benick gathered from her garden so far this year. This beautiful bouquet is a feast for the senses with vibrant color and sweet scents.

Grew some “wildflowers” this year. Thought maybe these are bright enough to share. Corn poppies (Papaver rhoeas, annual), Chinese forget-me-not (Cynoglossum amabile, annual), candytuft (Iberis umbellata, annual). Lavender thrown in for scent. Also I grew this native meadowsweet or Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra, Zones 3–9) from seed. I used the wintersowing method last year and it is blooming this year.

A great year for poppies might be an understatement! That red looks like it’s going to pop right off my screen and land on my keyboard 😍

And it looks like it was a great year for all the flowers Amanda grew this year. Those forget-me-nots are looking extra blue and the sweet pinky purple candytuft can’t be hidden.

From every angle there is a gorgeous bloom to admire.

Plants really are the gift that keep on giving. From far away they are striking, but get up close and personal with a bloom and there is a whole world to explore. Common poppies I always found to be particularly interesting, their bright red petals opening up to reveal a dark center with lots of fluffy-looking stamens. As a child I always thought they looked other worldly.

While Amanda did an amazing job of capturing the colors of this bouquet outdoors, nothing has the ability to make flowers shine quiet like natural sun rays.

Finally, a shot of the Queen of the Prairie Amanda so successfully grew from seed. An absolute stunner, Amanda—thank you for sharing your fabulous flowers!

My mom just recently secured her annuals for the year, I’ll be sharing those in a few weeks. Do you add annuals to your garden every year? Let us know what you’re growing in the comments or send photos to [email protected]!

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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