Some plants deserve special mention, so I am creating a new category where I can sing their praises. I love most plants, but am especially drawn to the oddballs, as you will discover if you choose to follow me down this path.

The sunny berm out near the fence line is looking fresh, even while summer fades into fall, thanks to plants like this. The Acanthus to its right still sports upright spikes of deep purple flowers allowed to dry in place, and the leaves are turning beautiful russet tones, as you can see. On the left, stachys continue to send up fresh flower spikes beloved by bees.

Above is a shot of the same plant while still in bud. Without the flowers to distract our attention, we can see the zig zag form of the stems that attracted me to Belamcanda flava in the first place, along with the almost woven look of the leaf arrangement (easier to see in the top photo). Tip to toe, it measures 24 inches. It multiplies nicely, much like iris. Mine came from Dancing Oaks Nursery.