A Summer Bouquet, Colorful Flowers, and a Storm

So much has been happening in the garden this week, I hardly know where to begin! A few days ago, I decided to pick and arrange some flowers for my nightstand. I arrange flowers in much the same way as I garden...with very little planning! I just pick whatever catches my eye in the garden (as long as there is enough to spare) and have fun putting them one by one in the vase. Of course the wonderful thing about arrangements is that you can start all over again if you don't like the result! The flowers in this bouquet include Sweet William, Snapdragons, Heliotrope, Nicotiana, Stocks, Borage, Petunias, Zinnias, and a rose from my new David Austin bush.

As in my somewhat messy garden, this arrangement must be viewed from different angles to see all the flowers!

I couldn't resist taking this picture of the Crocus rose, before putting it into the vase!

Some highlights in the garden...I love the black hollyhocks and have planted several more from seed I saved last year!

Petunias

A very bushy Catnip plant!

Black Currant Whirl hollyhocks

A closeup

"The Fairy" rose

Petunias planted in a hollow stump

Aztec Sweet nicotiana

Dwarf Queeny hollyhock

Appleblossom snapdragons

Oregano and some Corsican basil

White horehound

Ognodowy heliotrope

Trumpet lily buds

Another close-up of the petunias

And here are some of my favoritest flowers! These Peppermint Sticks balsam flowers are so unique. These were also grown from saved seed...

Can anyone tell me what this plant is? I didn't plant it, but it came up in the spring along with the comfrey plants, and I noticed that its leaves were very soft, unlike comfrey. I was curious to see what it would do and so I let it grow. It looks familiar, as if I've seen pictures before, but I'm not sure what it's called, although I feel like it's at the tip of my tongue right now!

Each evening I eagerly anticipate the opening of the Marbles Four O'clock, or Marvel of Peru flowers. Every flower is different, even on the same plant!

It was thundering last night when I was photographing these, but I wasn't paying much attention since it had been thundering most of the afternoon, but all the storms so far had gone around us. So, imagine my surprise when I turned around and beheld a wall cloud over the field across the road! Thankfully no damage, although I'm pretty sure I saw a funnel cloud, which almost touched the ground. The wind picked up for a few minutes, but then we just got some much needed rain.