GBBD: Mid-August Doldrums

It's time for another Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, but I must confess I haven't been in the garden much this past month.  I wish I could say it's because I have been off traveling the world or doing something equally as fun, but no, I have been busy with mundane things like cleaning carpets and other household chores  I've also been chauffeuring grandkids around to their sports practices, because, well, that's what Grandmas do.  But I've also been pretty lazy--by late July, I'm tired of constantly pulling weeds and deadheading and would much rather just sit back and enjoy the garden and think about changes to make next year.  So let's stroll around the garden and see what is blooming--I might find something that surprises me as well as you.

The daylilies of June and July are pretty much done blooming for the year, but there are two later lilies in full bloom now, including 'Autumn Minaret' above.

'Challenger,' an heirloom lily, is the other one.  These are both tall daylilies, which are nice because they draw the eye upward, away from the dying foliage of the rest of the daylilies.

The coneflowers are still blooming, though many are looking pretty tattered by now.  I cut back some of the ones that look especially bad, but I leave most of them up for my pretty visitors above.  The goldfinches love the seedheads on coneflowers and are busy feeding on them all through the day.

While I have the native Echinacea purpurea throughout all my flowerbeds, I do have two hybrids, both 'Cheyenne Spirit.'  This is one hybrid that has done well for me, and the cool thing about this plant is that it can have different colored blooms on the same plant.  The one above had orange blooms when I bought it, but you can see it also has some pink on the same plant.  The other 'Cheyenne Spirit' I have has yellow blooms.

The other plant that is still going strong is my 'Vanilla Strawberry' Hydrangea.  I made my husband take this photo of me just to show how large it has grown in just a few years.  I'm 5'8", or I was before age started taking its toll, so this shrub is at least 6 feet tall.  The photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, and now the blooms have turned a darker pink with tinges of brown, but it's still lovely.

The 'Limelight' Hydrangea, however, is just beginning to bloom

 and keeps soaring ever higher each year.

The phlox have a second flush of blooms.  The white one is 'David,' but I'm not so sure about the pink--I think this might be a volunteer, since I also have some pink ones in my shade garden that I know I never planted.

The 'Radsunny' Knockout rose also is beginning a second flush of blooms.  It must have heard me telling a friend that I thought I might dig it out next year and plant something else.  We'll see--I have two, and unless the second one starts over-achieving, it may be destined for the compost pile.

Containers are still looking good, for the most part, though some of my petunias are getting rather leggy.  I had to share this container on the back porch, though--these caladium leaves are huge!  They are at least 10" across and 12" inches long.  I received these bulbs last year from a fellow volunteer at the County Nursing Home who passed away unexpectedly this winter.  I hope they make it through many more winters as a reminder of his friendship and generosity.

Okay, so let's move on to some new blooms or ones I haven't shown in previous Bloom Day posts.  'Wendy's Wish' Salvia is so hard to capture on camera, but it's a hummingbird favorite, just like its kin, 'Black and Blue.'  Next year I plan to plant one near the front porch where I can see the hummingbirds in action from my seat on the porch swing.

It's been so dry here for the last few weeks--I don't remember the last time we had a good rainshower--that about the only garden work I've had time for is watering.  Lantana, though, is one tough annual that seems to thrive in the heat and drought.

Volunteer Cleome are just beginning to bloom.  

A new perennial in my garden this year is Calamintha.    After seeing this at the Olbrich Botanical Garden in Madison, Wisconsin last year where it was swarmed by bees, I knew I had to add it to my garden.

I don't usually think to include my hostas or their blooms, but this is a new hosta I planted at the end of last season that I really like.  Not only does it have pretty blooms, but I love the color and and edging on these leaves.  And 'June Fever,' unlike some of the other hostas right now, doesn't have a single brown leaf.

No August Bloom Day post would be complete without my favorite late-summer annual, the 'Zowie Yellow Flame' zinnias.  They started blooming a couple of weeks ago on rather short stems, but as the days have gone by, they have gotten taller and filled with blooms.

August has never been my favorite month.  It's usually miserably hot, and I still think of this month as the end of summer and having to go back to school, even though I no longer have that deadline.  The garden is often looking a bit worn-out as well.  But one aspect of August I do love is that there seem to be more critters visiting my garden than earlier in the summer.  The hummingbirds are in a frenzy of activity right now, and there are more and more bees buzzing about.

After seeing few butterflies this summer, I am finally seeing many more of different types.  Sunday I spotted the first Buckeye of the season on the Nepeta.

The first Black Swallowtail in some time also appeared on Sunday.

And finally, there are so many Painted Ladies.  This lady fluttered about, but seemed to enjoy the tall Liatris most of all.

Even the 'Zahara' zinnias were sampled.  

Seeing all the butterflies and other winged visitors enjoying the garden this time of year makes me happy.  And while I may not be working much in the garden, I am enjoying just standing back and enjoying some of the fruits of my labor.  Garden chores can wait till September!

It seems as though I haven't had much time/motivation for blogging the past several months, so I especially want to thank our hostess Carol of May Dreams Gardens for continuing to host Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day each month and giving me the nudge to get busy and record what's blooming in my garden every month.

GBBD: Summer's End

Summer is winding down, and I, for one, will be happy to have an end to the relentless heat of this past season.  The days are getting shorter, and on some days you can feel a crispness in the air, the first hints of autumn approaching.

While I will miss the explosion of color that was summer in my garden, there is still much to enjoy about the garden.  A few coneflowers still bloom here and there, but most are now dried seedheads, a tasty treat for all the goldfinches.

Blackberry lilies are no longer blooming, but their seedheads are every bit as delightful to look at.

Walking around the garden, one can see that not everything has finished blooming, however.  The 'Limelight' Hydrangea is in all its fall glory, reaching up to the rooftop once again, despite a pretty good pruning this spring.

I just love these big blooms!

Nearby, the Turtleheads are also blooming.

Also in the shade garden, the hardy begonia (name forgotten) is also blooming.  I bought this plant for its foliage and was so happy it survived the winter here, so the tiny blooms are a bonus surprise.

It pays to looks closely or you will miss some other surprises as well.  Apparently, this little gnome thought I needed some help weeding (and yes, I do).  I have no idea where this little rake came from--garden fairies, perhaps??

In the sidewalk garden, 'Senorita Rosalita' Cleome is flourishing.  I've planted this annual in pots the past two years, and it's never done well.  Obviously, it likes being planted in the ground much better--and all the rain this summer no doubt helped as well.

Lavender is beginning to bloom again.  This is the first year I've had success with lavender surviving the winter, and I hope it continues to do well.

In the Arbor Bed, the berries on the Beautyberry are beginning to turn.

Fall is the time for grasses to really shine, and 'Morning Light' Miscanthus is putting on quite a show.

Goldenrod is also popping up everywhere.  I usually pull most of it from the Arbor Bed, but I missed this one, and I think it complements the zinnias nicely.  More on those zinnias later...

In the little Butterfly Garden, the sneezeweed Helenium 'Autumnale' has been blooming

 for several weeks.

And, of course, the Obedient Plant is making its annual appearance.  A few asters are just beginning to bloom, and soon the butterfly garden will be full of asters and goldenrod as well.

So many of my container plantings are looking pretty sad these days.  Coleus and begonias are still looking great, but the petunias are pretty pathetic--time to hit the local nursery for some new cool-weather annuals.  However, there are other annuals planted in the garden that are doing very well, including one of my all-time favorites 'Victoria Blue' Salvia.

The Lantana are also doing well and finally spreading out.  The only problem this year is that they are often hidden by some taller volunteers, like the Rudbeckia Triloba.

A few Cosmos are also finally blooming, though not nearly as many as I had hoped.

A new annual I planted this year is finally blooming as well--Tithonia, or Mexican Sunflower.  I've admired these bright orange blooms on Jason's blog for several years, so I finally started some seeds this spring.  The only problem is that I didn't realize how tall they would get!  Next year I'll find a better spot for these 4-6' pollinator magnets.

Also in the Arbor Bed, Nicotania is still blooming here and there.  These are all volunteers--from seeds planted over five years ago!  I started to pull most of these out one day, until I noticed a hummingbird moth sipping nectar from them.  Of course, I didn't have my camera handy, but I was mesmerized by this creature and its long proboscis.  I haven't seen it in a couple of weeks, but I'm leaving the Nicotania for now, just in case it returns.

Of all the late annuals, though, the most colorful and most abundant in my garden are the zinnias. These old-fashioned favorites have to be one of the easiest annuals to grow.  I direct sowed seeds from Renee's Garden and Botanical Interests (though which ones are which, I don't remember),  and some of them have grown to 4 1/2 feet tall.  Though only pink ones are shown here, there are blooms in orange, reds, and purples as well.

When it comes to attracting butterflies, you can't beat zinnias.  And although they aren't particular, the pollinators do seem to love my 'Zowie Yellow Flame' zinnias in particular.

On a recent afternoon, the 'Zowie's' were covered with all kinds of butterflies.

The colors of the 'Zowie's' are almost a perfect match for Monarchs, 

but Swallowtails make a nice contrast, too.

It's a good thing I planted lots of these zinnias this year, enough for a crowd!

Thanks to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting this monthly meeting of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and giving me the incentive to keep a monthly record of what is blooming in my garden.  

GBBD: Bloomin' October!

Every October, it seems, I get lulled into a sense of complacency.  Although the days are getting shorter, they are warm and sunny, making me think fall will go on forever, and I have all the time in the world to get all my fall clean-up done in the garden.  Instead of planting the bulbs that keep arriving on my doorstep, I spend my time watering, trying to keep a few new planted perennials and the fall mums alive.  I keep hoping for some rain--we haven't had any significant rainfall in over a month--so that I don't have to water, and so that I don't need a jackhammer to drill through the concrete-like soil to plant bulbs.  But time is running out--I know it, and the garden knows it.  Any day a frost could arrive, putting the garden into hibernation till spring.

Although the growing season is winding down, there are a few new blooms since last month, surprisingly.  What would October be without 'October Skies' asters? I especially like these asters because they form nicely mounded masses of sky-blue blooms, perfect for the front of the arbor bed.

The butterfly garden is mostly green and brown these days now that the New England asters and goldenrod have stopped blooming.  But at the back of this area is a latecomer, Tatarian asters that mysteriously appeared here last here and happily have returned again.

In the front of the butterfly garden, as well as several other places throughout the garden, Frost asters have burst into bloom in the last week or two.  While many may think of these as a weed, when they're in bloom, it's hard to think of them as anything but another pretty aster.

A new bloom this month that has me excited is the Pineapple Sage.  I usually plant one plant each spring, but in the past it has bloomed for a week at the most before getting zapped by the first frost.  This year, though, it bloomed early enough so that I have been enjoying it for a couple of weeks.

Not only has it put out numerous blooms, it's grown into quite a monster!

Also new since last month are the Japanese Anemones, which have actually been blooming for at least three weeks now.  It took a few years for this plant (now plants??) to get established, but once it did, it took off and now provides lots of lovely white flowers when the rest of the area is fading away.  I'm pretty sure this is 'Honorine Jobert.'

I have a pink Anemone, too, one I had forgotten I had planted. I don't remember the name for sure, but it may be 'Robustissima.'  It's a shorter variety, which in my garden means it gets lost among all its neighbors, including the dark burgundy sedum flopping to its right.

Not actually a bloom, but one of my favorite sights each fall is the Beautyberry covered in purple berries.  This year the berries are partially hidden by a tall switchgrass that I temporarily planted near it---one more plant that didn't get moved to a proper place this year, sigh.

Everything else that is blooming has been around for awhile.  The 'Golden Guardian' marigolds at the front of the veggie bed are going crazy.  That's a good thing, because they're hiding the rest of this area that desperately needs some pulling of plants and cleaning up.

The Arbor Bed is pretty wild and crazy right now, too.  But this is the time of year when I appreciate all the annuals that are tough survivors, holding up in spite of no rain for what seems like forever and some serious neglect by the head gardener the last two months. Annual salvia, nicotania, zinnias, and gomphrena should keep on blooming right up until frost.

One of my long-time standbys, 'Victoria Blue' Salvia farinacea, can't be beat for a long-term bloom.  It will even stand up to a little frost.

And of course, one of my very favorite annuals can't be overlooked this month--'Zowie Yellow Flame' zinnias still going strong and still attracting the pollinators.

Volunteer Debbie deadheads the Zowies at the nursing home--I rarely deadhead mine, though.

I've not only bragged about this annual over and over again in this blog, but I also convinced my cohorts at the Nursing Home garden to plant some this year.  As you can see, they are doing well, and my fellow volunteers think I'm a genius:)

The trees are just beginning to turn in our area, but there are other signs of autumn everywhere.  'Limelight' hydrangea blooms are tinged now in pink.

Hostas are turning yellow and crinkling up.

Ornamental grasses are swaying with the autumn winds.

The white crabapple is loaded with fruit--the birds make short work of these once it turns cooler.

Pokeberries are turning a deep purple at last.

Blackberry lilies are showing off their seedheads, actually my favorite stage in this flower.

There are other obvious signs of fall in our area, too.  The last two weeks have been a busy time for farmers as they put in long days harvesting all the corn and soybeans.

Surrounded all summer by tall corn, we can now see for miles once again.  Of course, that also means I probably shouldn't go out to the garden in my ratty blue robe anymore:)

It's a time for gathering pumpkins at the popular local pumpkin patch.  We took two of the grandkids when they had a day off from school last week--Jack's sister was too "cool" to have her photo taken.

And it's time to spruce up a few containers with fall annuals.

Although there are near-freezing temps in the forecast for this weekend, next week promises to be warmer once again, and there's even a chance of rain--hallelujah!  I'll be covering up a few plants like the pineapple sage for a couple of nights, trying to prolong the season.  And most of all, I'll be enjoying the garden for as long as I can.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is hosted the 15th of each month by the indomitable Carol of May Dreams Gardens.