Just pretty

From the sewing room window... mini hollyhocks that are really too tall to be in front of the window but the kittens knocked over:

Nice spider web, huh?

Another non-stop begonia:

A begonia that I forget the name of, but blooming profusely:

And a hosta that will soon be blooming:

Miniature hollyhocks

Just because they're pretty....

New view

I had to cut back the dianthus outside my sewing room window because they'd gotten all seedy. (Hopefully they'll come back and bloom again yet this summer.) Doing that did let me have a better view of the miniature hollyhocks on either side of the window. They're a new perennial for me... I just planted them last year. The plants are about 4 feet tall, and the flowers are an inch or so across. Rather pretty, huh?

(Click to enlarge.)

New perennials

I bought some new perennials this year. This one is called clustered bellflower, and the tiny buds look like this.

They open up in... clusters, of course... and look like this. The tiny flowers are about a half inch across.

Below is a mini hollyhock. Its flowers are about an inch across.

I think both new perennials (and I got 3 plants of each) are going to be very pretty once they get established and start blooming profusely. I put them in front of the house where I'm getting tired of planting new annuals every year.

I also bought a weigela bush for the front yard. It's supposed to attract hummingbirds. It won't be attracting any this year, though. Unfortunately, it didn't survive for some reason. It will be replaced (free) in September.