End of Summer Surprises and Weeds

Last week I confessed to being a bad blogger and set a goal of blogging more than one post last week.  Surprise!  That didn't happen so here I am, once again posting for Bloomin' Tuesday.  I'm also linking up to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day so check them both out

Walking around the gardens last week, I discovered a cool surprise.  Earlier in the summer, the Sweet William flowered for the first time in my garden and it was spectacular.  Since they are in a garden that does not get any close up walk-bys, I did not dead head and let them go to seed.  They have been that way ever since.  This is what I found last week:

Once the weather cooled off, this one Sweet William plant rebloomed.  I'm going to collect seeds from this one (since I still haven't dead headed); this is something I never do so wish me luck when I attempt to grow from seed next year.

I thought I ripped all of the Obedient Plant out of my garden this spring - surprise!  I missed some.  This was one of the first plants I put in when I created my gardens - silly, inexperienced gardner!  I thought all of those warnings on how disobedient it was didn't apply to me:

Asters from Bluestone Perennial that I planted this spring.  They're small, but they're blooming:

Phlox Nora Leigh is lying over sideways, but she's still blooming so I'm happy:

Gaillardia is one of my favorites because it is maintenance free and it blooms for so long:

Another one of my absolute favorites is Sedum 'Autumn Joy'.  With it's think leaves, and lighter green color, it really stands out in the garden all year.  The bees are all over them right now too:

The promise of flowers to come, there are hundreds of buds on Sweet Autumn Clematis that grows up the back pool fence.   Definitely a bittersweet fav, since it's blooming signals the sad end of my flowers.  I planted six more of these a few years ago along the remainder of back pool fence, but those have not done well at all.  This one is a monster.... go figure:

Here it is from a distance.  I was hoping the entire fence would end up covered like this, but the other clematis' just aren't cooperating with me:

I referenced 'Weeds' in the title and I bet you're expecting a whole bunch of complaints about how much I hate them.  Normally that would be true but right now I'm loving several weeds in my yard because 1) they have flowers and 2) they are in a part of my yard where we have done nothing so it makes the junky areas look pretty - and completely with no effort on our part:

I have absolutely no idea what these orange flowers are but they are so pretty and they are everywhere around the border of our yard that is normally just rocks, sticks and ugly non-flowering weeds:

We also get this pretty pink flower ever year, which looks to me like Joe Pye Weed but I'm really not sure.  The butterflies like it (so do I):

We also have these little aster looking flowers:

Those are all of my end-of-summer surprises.  After all of these discoveries, I had to pour myself a glass of wine and rest by the fire pit - another one of my favorite places. Thanks for stopping by!