The Dogbane is just starting to bloom.

The botanical name is Amsonia tabernaemontana ‘Blue Star’, also called Blue Dogbane. It’s a nice perennial, one of the few “true blues”. The picture doesn’t really show how blue it really is. This perennial gives me no trouble and has been reliably blooming for several years now. I recommend it!

Other thoughts from today:

I forgot to include chocolate mint on my list of plants I knew I shouldn’t plant. I had some in a pot and I let it “get out” a few years ago and invade one of my planting beds. I pulled most of it out last year. Yes, I said most of it, there is still some growing this year, which I pulled out today. It smells so good, just like a chocolate mint, and the underside of the leaves are a purplish-maroon color. I’ll probably put some in a pot, just to keep it a while longer. (I know, I’ll be careful this time!)

My sister called and was surprised to find out that I trim before I mow. I guess she trims afterwards. The reason I trim first is because then when you mow, it chops up all the grass from the trimming. If you trim afterwards, you tend to leave grass trimming all over the nicely mowed lawn! She was heading out to a greenhouse to get started on buying some plants. However, I can tell she has been reading and learning, since her first question was ‘what is the 10 day weather forecast?’

I did some major pruning on my serviceberry tree. Serviceberry can be grown as a small single-trunk tree or as an overly large multi-trunked shrub. I bought mine as a tree, but then let a lot of suckers come up, so it was trying to be both. I made the decision to take it back to a single trunked tree. I think it looks better this way, plus it isn’t crowding out the gate that is next to it.

Check out My Garden Pictures for some pictures of purple flowers in my garden today.