gems in a late summer garden

By mid-July, the fireworks in the garden seem to be over.  The spring bulbs, irises, and peonies are but a distant memory, and the spent blossoms have been cut off.  You have to look more closely to see what is now bravely blooming, and these are all the more precious for being rare.  Above is a bottle brush plant, with soft pink fuzzy flowers.

 Daylilies come in all colours, and I like the bi-colours best.  They are actually not lilies at all, but from the hemerocalis family.  They suffer from no pests, and that makes them easy to care for.  All I do is cut off the spent stems after they stop blooming.

I wish I had more purple cone flower plants.  They are tough and bloom a really long time, and come in shades from dark pink to pale to white.  And as a cut flower, they last for weeks.

Foxgloves appear scattered throughout the garden.  I don't plant them on purpose, which makes them all the more precious when they appear.

This scaggy little plant is Edelweis.  Three years ago, we were in Vienna.  I excitedly bought a small can of Edelweis seeds for 15 Euros (about $25) which is an astronomical price.  I froze the seeds for 5 months, and then carefully planted them indoors.  A few germinated, and I cared for them tenderly until planting them outside.  Then they all disappeared.  This year, just this one plant came up, and I am delighted.  It is an alpine plant, so not really suited to the humidity and heat of a PEI summer, but it is hanging on.