Last fall I took some notes on what worked and what didn’t in the garden.  My focus is native plants and cultivars.  (My wife handles the vegetable garden.)   My first two reviews follow below.  (Musical accompaniment here.)

Two things that have done well and I’d plant more of:  Gaillardia ‘Arizona Sun’ and Coreopsis auriculata ‘Nana’.   Gaillardia (NB:  not to be confused with giardia) is also known as blanket flower.   I didn’t snap any pictures of ours so here’s one gleaned from the web:

We’ve had ours for probably three seasons now.  It has a long bloom season – at least two months – and the blooms are long lasting – didn’t write it down but I’d say at least a couple weeks before individual blooms fade.   I originally planted them in a partly sunny area but then transplanted them to full sun two (?) years ago.  They’re happier in full sun than part sun.   I know, they’re not New England natives but they are native to the U.S. and the bees seem to like them.  That’s good enough for me.

Coreopsis auriculata (a.k.a. “lobed tickseed” because the seeds are small like deer ticks) is native to the southeastern US.  I planted four or five of the ‘Nana’ cultivar very late in the season in 2013.  They get full sun and did well last year.   Ours didn’t look as nice as those in the photo below – another grab from the internet – but they were quite nice and had a reasonably long season.

Two or three more reviews to follow.