Today's Second Winner.

Buddleia davidii "Ellen's Blue.", a photo by Leenechan on Flickr.

It's Butterfly Bush "Ellen's Blue!"

As you can see, it's not really blue. I think it's a lovely color, though. This particular buddleia has a more compact habit than the others. Unlike "Petite Plum," which only pretends to be petite!

"White Profusion," "Miss Ruby" and "Peach Cobbler" still haven't bloomed. I think that "Miss Ruby" will be next.

Never Enough Labor.

Tonight, I took advantage of the cooler weather and started digging out a legitimate flower bed for our new butterfly bush "Black Knight" at the bottom of our backyard hill. We've hardly done any landscaping back there other than planting our cherry tree "Shogetsu" and the raspberries. So there's a lot of work to do...but I see a lot of potential.

I understand that many gardeners do the majority of their gardening in their backyard. We've always planted everything in the front and sides because 1). The front's the south-facing garden and gets the most sun and 2). It's quite a hike to the bottom of the hill. This year, however, I'm starting to realize that's a waste. We have 3/4 an acre of land and half of it is at the bottom of that hill. It's time to start ripping up some lawn and making some new flowerbeds!

"Black Knight" has been sulking for the past few days, as all newly planted butterfly bushes do. We have to hose it down twice a day to keep it from wilting, just like we had to do with "Petite Plum" last year.

Speaking of butterfly bushes, I wish I could take a picture that captured the unique and gorgeous slate blue color of "Ellen's Blue." It always looks straight purple in photos. In real life it's really something else! Of the "blue" butterfly bushes I saw when I was out, "Ellen's Blue" was the prettiest color. "Adonis Blue" and "Blue Chip" were very similar. "Petite Indigo" aka "Nanho Blue" didn't impress me at all, though.

Of all the butterfly bushes we own, "Ellen's Blue" and "Pink Delight" are my favorites. I would probably recommend "Pink Delight" the most because even though "Ellen's Blue" seems to be common in my area I don't know how easy it is to find elsewhere.

Right now I'm so sore from yard work I can barely move my arms. Did I mention that the first flower on "Lauren's Grape" fell apart after only a few hours? It's a good thing I took those photos! It's a good thing I have two plants with multiple buds! I'm counting on "Imperial Pink" blooming before "Lauren's Grape" gives me another flower, though...