It's not summer yet

Not while we still have larkspur, Drummond phlox, the first bloom of black-eyed Susan, thunbergia, and nasturtiums. The larkspur that remains is dark blue, along with some white and some pink. Being consumed by butterflies-to-be are the passion vine and the fennel plants. Our asclepias (butterfly weed, Mexican oleander, milkweed) has made pods for the first time ever, and the first of the pods are opening to release their winged seeds. The pods are narrow and skinny, in shape not unlike okra. Geraniums and some other plants have been moved to the shade of one of the oak mottes. The nasturiums will just have to shrivel in place, probably, because they're so intertwined that moving would be just as destructive, particularly where they've climbed. I've always thought it's funny that almost any common flower has at least one "Mexican" name: Mexican petunia (ruellia), Mexican oleander (butterfly weed or milkweed), Mexican wedding wreath (cadena de amor), and many more that don't just now come to mind. I think that these names are vanishing from memory as the old people who used them are leaving us.