Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Queen Has Arrived

You can see by the beautiful frothy pink crown that the Queen of the Prairie wears that she is indeed one of the royals of the wildflowers. The Queen wears a befitting skirt of deeply divided leaves that are quite lovely to have in the garden all summer.
From this distictive skirt of leaves she lifts her crown from 2-8 feet tall. These crowns are about 4+feet high. You can see in the background that in her court stands the large fragrant David, tall garden phlox. He stands guard near her and makes sure that the air is fully fragrant making non gardeners wonder what is making that lovely smell.
For those of you that aren't familiar with Queen of the Prairie and can't wait to get a hunk of it for your garden its botanical name is Filipendula rubra. Surpisingly, to me, is that she is of the Rose family.
The rest of the Queens court consists of some viburnams, hardy hibiscus, cleome etc. In the forefront of this shot is a new comer to this area a euphorbia called Silver Swan. The swan is so appropriate to the Queens garden since in the past only royals were allowed to have swans in their gardens.
As you can see the Queen reigns over quite a wild area which is how we like it. I hope you have enjoyed your tour of the Queen's country. Have an enjoyable day.

20 comments:

  1. The Queen is quite a regal lady! I have been thinking about digging up an area in the backyard for a new garden area--a "wild" sort of garden. Thanks for giving me another idea for a planting here. She would be a perfect addition, but do you think she would like being so close to such commoners as the hollyhocks?

    ReplyDelete
  2. This would be great plant in my "tall" garden!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love her and she is indeed the Queen. The prairie plants speak to me...you can take the Midwesterner and plop her in the south but she is still a Midwestern girl at heart!

    Gail

    I have a sunny spot open, but not with moist, well drained soil. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh Lisa what fun, this queen is reigning in my garden too. Such beautiful plants, I bought them at Piet Oudolf's last year. My queens are not as big as yours yet, but they will be given a bit of time. Fun post!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a regal post.....and totally befitting to such an elegant bloom......she is a real show stopper Lisa and one I would be proud to have in my garden. Gorgeous colour.

    ReplyDelete
  6. How beautiful! That might be a good choice (tall) to plant behind my miscanthus Morning Light.
    Marnie

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your Queen is a lot taller then the one who ruled over a bed in our IL garden, Lisa - maybe she gets better soil and more water in Indiana? That would make her happier, since she likes a moist prairie.

    She looks good with 'David'.

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

    ReplyDelete
  8. The Queen is definitely a beautiful lady... but I adore that she has a little "silver swan" in her entourage! *grin*

    ReplyDelete
  9. Such an incredible shade of pink!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lisa, 2 more new to me plants! The queen is wonderful and I have here on my wish list now. So would look great it the back of my one bed. But, I wouldn't have to bow to her would I? :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. My sister grew this at her old house. I always liked it & liked to play with the flowers. Yours is regal & grand. I don't think she'd like my soil, otherwise I'd have her too. Just beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am glad to see that you all enjoyed the audience with the Queen.

    Rose, I would rather have the Queen in my garden than Hollyhocks. Just because the Queen doesn't get as dowdy looking as the Hollyhocks after they bloom. The Queen doesn't really care who she keeps company with because she will always rise above the commoners.

    Gail, I have never understood the "moist" requirement for the Queen. Once established she will perform well anywhere. I can always gauge the moisture levels in the soil by the height of her blossoms. The more moisture the taller the blooms.

    Annie, as I stated I think the moisture levels aren't so critical. Moisture determines the height of the blooms not the strength of the plant.

    Beckie you would only be bowing before the Queen when pulling weeds that might try to take advantage of those lovely skirts to hide behind.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The Queen is beautiful, even though pink isn't exactly my favorite color. (It's a guy thing.) :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi there Lisa, what a great plant :-)

    I can see why you call it the Queen of your garden! I can imagine how strong the scent must be when the flowers are so high. I do like the euphorbia Silver Swan story and plant :-D

    I also enjoyed your previous posting with the wasps but I always love to see your swallowtail butterflies. They really are quite beautiful. I would love to see them in my garden too. It doesn't seem like summer here at the moment – too cool and too much rain. I guess we will have to wait for our butterflies :-D

    Enjoy the rest of your week :-D

    ReplyDelete
  15. Very, very beautiful is the Queen. Did you know I can't grow 'David' phlox. I have to grow 'Mount Fuji'.~~Dee

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow, that is one gorgeous regal queen!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh my! She is a lovely royal for sure... standing so tall and quite confident in her regality! Very nice 'wild' area, Lisa.
    Meems Hoe&Shovel

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oh it is awesome, and smells fantastic! Mine just bloomed, the first year in my first year garden. Love it! Also got a queen of the meadow--it has yellow leaves, but is very tiny right now since she's new. Lovely plant. And as for the flooding--wow. What can one say? I wish they'd go back to thes eplaces on the news and report things now, but it's passed in the minds of the media--at elast for a year. So awful.

    ReplyDelete
  19. What a suitable English name for this wonderful plant (I have it near our little pond and like her majesty).

    ReplyDelete

New Blogger, Old Blogger

     All I can say it is difficult to deal with change. This new Blogger format is not as user friendly in my opinion. I guess I will get us...