The Garden Colours of August

 It's late August, somehow--after a slow, cool start to spring and summer, things have become rather hot and dry in the past couple of weeks. I hear people lamenting a lack of colour in their gardens, and I'm not sure why.

Recently, I went to Quebec City to attend the annual Garden Writers Association symposium. While it was far from the best conference I've ever attended--though I saw some friends and made a few new ones, I found the overall group very clique-ey, like high school--, there were some interesting moments, and I got to meet some terrific folks at the trade show, like Angela Treadwell-Palmer of Plants Nouveau. 

Wildflower Wednesday: Rejoicing in Milkweeds

It's been a long time since I did a post for Wildflower Wednesday, and it seemed like a good idea to pop up a post about one of my favourite, and most important, of wildflowers: milkweed. 

Milkweeds belong to the genus Asclepias, in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. It's related to dogbane (Apocynum),  bluestar (Amsonia), periwinkle or myrtle (Vinca) and hoya, the wax plant with its stunning flowers. Looking at the flowers of milkweed, I can certainly see the relationship to hoya-the flower clusters, with their individual florets, look like they're made of china--just perfect.