July flowers

I've always been frustrated with gardening books and brochures, that don't give the whole story about a garden plant.  How does it look after it blooms?  Does it have a good shape after it blooms?  Do grass weeds grow up easily through it?
I want to give an honest assessment of plants that I have loved, and have wanted to love, from my experience with them in my suburban Boston garden.  You probably won't have the same experience with plants that I have unless you live somewhere with a similar climate to Boston's (long, cold winters, "mud" season instead of Spring, and two pretty reliably long, humid months in the summer).  I also have sandy, well-drained soil.  My uncle lives outside of Cleveland, and he has very different experiences with his plants, largely because the soil there is full of clay.  
Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed) is one of my favorites.  When it blooms, it has the clearest orange I have ever seen.  The plant comes in other colors, so if you want orange flowers, make sure that is what you are getting.   Butterfly weed loves drought conditions.  Watering it will make it droop.  It blooms pretty reliably for 2-3 weeks in July.  After blooming, long seed pods take over.  It is hard to move once established, and easy to dig up by mistake in the Spring.  This plant shows up later than a lot of others, so mark it in the garden.  In the last year or two, the plant has actually spread.  I have to decide if I want to try to move the two new plants to make room for others in my garden.
Asclepias tuberosa looks great with other "hot" colored flowers, such as gaillardia.  I like to pair it with a blue flower, such as a delphinium or a veronica so that I have a nice color balance.

I highly recommend this plant.