Native Plants for Bloom Day

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners from all over the world share a few bloom photos on our blogs. My garden is in the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border.

Here is my Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica L), a native perennial plant, along with its white version growing right next to it. Both blooming away in my garden and last for weeks.

Though I have not designed my garden to be exclusively native plants, I find that I actually have more of them and am more successful with many of them than those who are striving for an all-native landscape. 

My personal philosophy in the natives vs nonnatives debate is that variety is an essential element in all aspects of our lives -- diet, friends, pastimes, etc., so I'm not certainly going to limit my plant choices to just one narrow growing region, but experiment and explore with what works best and what succeeds, stays -- the rest, adios!

Aside from these Lobelia, native plants blooming now in my garden include Asters, Goldenrod, Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Obedient Plant, Sedum, Sunflowers, Blanket Flower, Mountain Mint, and Salvia.

What is blooming in YOUR garden today?