The Gethsemane Prayer Garden includes a collection of fifty some flower varieties, mostly perennials. There is one annual, the cosmos, yet the self-seeding effect makes it seem like a perennial. The profusion of blossoms from the cosmos peaks in August, although many first opened in late June or sometime in July. If you sit quietly, you may see a brightly colored yellow goldfinch hop from branch to branch of the cosmos, eating a few seeds and scattering the rest.

The purple-blue anise hyssop flowers reach out to the garden visitor in August to smell its refreshing fragrance. Ours is not the variety described in the Bible, but similar.

Coneflowers continue their simple yet multitudinous blossoming in many areas throughout the garden in August. They are joined with a large collection of Russian sage, again a bluish-purple with sprays and sprays of color. Squeeze a few leaves with your fingers to enjoy a pleasant whiff of this herb, similar to what we cook with.

This garden is heavily dependent on a large force of volunteers – some years we have more than others. When we have enough people, we try to trim the spirea so that they can get a second or even a third period of flowering. We have a dozen or so in the garden, mostly pink in various hues, and they are beautiful to behold.