Orange Flowers July 20, 2014

My beloved zinnias:  nothing says summer like a zinnia.

Above, this is milkweed.  I'm always ready for the Monarch butterflies, but they have been really scarce the last three years or so.  I have lots of Queen butterflies visiting my garden, and they are in the milkweed butterfly family as well.

Above and below, this is Flame Acanthus.  Hummingbirds love it, and it is the larval food for the Crimson Patch and Texas Crescent butterflies.  This is a deciduous perennial.  And it spreads like crazy.  It will root wherever it touches the ground, and it sets seed.  I find it growing in lots of flowerbeds, how it got there is anybody's guess - bird poop, wind, etc.  I cut mine back with hedge clippers just like a shrub.  It doesn't mind at all.