Summer Sun

If you have been living outside the United States, you may not have heard that we have been experience one heck of a heat wave. On top of that, my new job title and duties have been keeping me busy this summer. I was out in the flower bed early in the month with my camera when these flowers started to bloom, before the excessive heat took over. They are my happy sunny flowers that get about chest high.

The heat and lack of rain has taken their toll on these beauties. My Black-Eyed Susans don't like where they are living, and seem excessively intolerant of a dry spell. They are close to pine trees, and I'm wondering if they are one flower that doesn't like the pine needles becoming the predominant, free, and natural mulch through the flower bed. I've noticed the last two summers, that my drive to and from work has no purple coneflowers growing along the highway. I need to head either north or south to see them.