A convocation of coneflowers

Part of the convocation

Years ago, I planted a perennial garden in a narrow strip next to our driveway and haven't done much to it besides remove the worst of the weeds.  Year by year the plants grow, multiply and die and the garden changes.  Some spread and thrive, some do poorly, and some have disappeared.  A few years ago a wave of grayish caterpillars ate the Yellow Loostrife down to the stems.  They returned again this year.  At first the Echinacea (Purple Coneflowers) were barely hanging on as the Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susans, also a kind of Coneflower) threatened to push them out.  The past few springs have been cooler and wetter and the fortunes of these plants have reversed, with waves of purple expanding year by year.  Right now the Echinacea are at their peak and I appreciate the sight a whole convocation of them.  Looking closely, though, and each one is individual, evoking human responses in the viewer.

Unfurling

Be different

Reaching out

Friendly pollinator

Elegant to the end

View the whole album: Convocation of Coneflowers