Flowers – Sea Lavender

Also known as marsh rosemary and lavender thrift, sea lavender is a perennial coastal plant that can often be found growing in both salt marshes and along coastal sand dunes. Despite its name, it is not actually related to the lavender plant. The plant creates leathery, spoon-shaped leaves, red-tinted stems, and delicate purple blooms that appear in summer. Found these flowers in Santa Monica, California.

Sea Lavender

Flowers – Lily of the Nile

Lily of the Nile, with Latin name Agapanthus (African Lily), is a marvelous perennial that blooms from spring to summer, producing magnificent floral-scapes. The flowers are funnel-shaped and typically blue, purple, or white in color; the clusters are borne on long stalks. Found these in Santa Monica, California.

Lily of the Nile Budding
Lily of the Nile
White Lily of the Nile

Flowers – Mountain Hydrangea

Mountain Hydrangea lives up to its name. It shares the showy blooms and beautiful pink or purple color of big-leaf hydrangeas, but because it grows wild on the chilly mountain tops instead of the mild seaside, it naturally developed substantially better cold tolerance. The sturdy lacecap blooms will be bright pink or deep purple-blue, depending on your soil pH, and the handsome dark green foliage resists wilting. Found these in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.

Mountain Hydrangea

Flowers – Bougainvillea Flowers Not What They Seem

The blooms of Bougainvillea aren’t actually blooms at all. The showy paper-like structures are a modified leaf called a bract. These bracts hide the actual flowers inside, which are small and trumpet-shaped in whites and yellows. The showy bracts are typically found on new growth, with the showiest display following their winter dormancy. Captured in Santa Monica, California.

Close up of a Red Bougainvillea Flower
Pink Shade Bougainvillea

Flowers – Fortnight Lily

The Fortnight lily goes by many names, including African iris, butterfly iris, Wood iris, and scientifically Dietes iridioides. The name Fortnight lily is based on the blooming cycle of the flowers, where new blooms come up approximately every two weeks. Spotted in Santa Monica, California.

Fortnight Lily

Flowers – Bee on a Grevillea Flower

Grevillea Moonlight, a stunning shrub blooms all year in some climates. A fast grower, its large, moonlight-colored flowers and finely divided, gray foliage are a must for any southern-temperate garden. Frost and drought tolerant once established, it attracts bees and hummingbirds. Captured in Santa Monica, California.

Bee Attracted by Grevillea Flower

Visiting Sunflowers

Not only bees and butterflies, but also people visit sunflowers.

First planted by the City of Raleigh’s public utilities department in 2010 along the Neuse River Greenway Trail, a beautiful five-acre batch of sunflowers blooms each year between early- and mid-July. For 2019, they once again called Dorothea Dix Park home.

The sunflowers serve a purpose beyond just acting as a fun summer photo hot-spot—the City harvests the sunflowers to create thousands of gallons of bio diesel, which is then processed into fuel to run tractors, trailers and farm equipment. The flowers are also excellent pollinators—the field serves as a massive pollinator habitat for bees and other species.

 

Visiting Sunflowers

Field of Sunflowers

Sunflower Field