An Explosion of Color: July GBBD

I don't get to travel as much as I would like.  Between family obligations--including who's going to take care of four dogs??--and this and that, it is hard to get away.  So when my daughter offered to let me tag along with her to Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago, I jumped at the chance.  My husband stayed home, so I didn't have to worry about the dogs, and not much was going on in the garden that needed my immediate attention, so it was perfect timing.

While the garden was kind of at a lull when I left, all that changed in the few short days that I was gone.

In six days' time, the purple coneflowers had gone from a few opening blooms to a sea of pink!  And when I say "sea," I'm not exaggerating.  It's hard for me to get a good photo of the sidewalk garden that shows all the flowers, but maybe this one section will give you an idea.  Even though I dug up many seedlings in the spring, there are so many that there isn't much room for anything else.  Good thing I love coneflowers:)

Almost all the coneflowers that grow here are the native species, but 'Cheyenne Spirit' is one hybrid that has done well here and hasn't been overtaken by the natives--yet.  'Cheyenne Spirit' is one that will have different colored blooms on the same plant.  I bought this one before it bloomed, hoping for yellow blooms, but as you can see, I didn't quite get what I had wished for.  Still, I like the varied shades of coral and orange on this plant which sets it apart from all the common coneflowers here.

The other coneflowers have spread everywhere, including to the Lily Bed, which has been a riot of color for the past two weeks.  Even though I initially named this the Lily Bed, not all my lilies are growing here--I ran out of room here long ago! Since the daylilies are the other star of the garden right now, let's take a little closer look at some of them.

One of the first to bloom, 'Little Hug' is still putting out a plethora of blooms.

'Susan Webber,' a registered cultivar named after a local gardener.

'Moonlight Madness'

A NOID lily, given to me by a friend.

'Andrea's Dragonfly,' a division shared with me by my friend Beckie who named it in memory of her daughter. (Not a registered daylily)

Another NOID lily that I call 'Nettie's Coral' after my aunt who gave me several of these years ago.

It's probably apparent from the previous photos that I am partial to pastel lilies.  Take me to a daylily farm, and no matter what my buying intentions are, I always gravitate to the pastels:)  But I do have a few darker ones, including this lovely whose name has long been forgotten and which was also given to me by my friend Beckie.

Another non-pastel is this NOID that apparently got mixed up with some 'Stellas' I bought years ago.  I keep meaning to divide it because I really do like it much better than the Stellas anyway.

Some of my "literary lilies" are also a little darker like 'Divine Comedy.'  

And 'Canterbury Tales.'

'Romeo is Bleeding' is a bright red edged with yellow.

Of course, 'Romeo' had to have a companion, so I named this no-name hybrid 'Juliet.'

More of my "literary lilies"--and pastels again--'Tennyson' is a prolific beauty. I can't quite decide if this is my favorite daylily....

...or if 'Mistress Prynne' is my favorite.

I have many more daylilies than this, but I think you get that idea that I have become addicted to them.  The last few years, though, I've  also branched out a little to other types such as the Orientals, including what I call everyone's favorite, 'Stargazer.'  I've yet to see any blooms on the Casablancas, however, one of my favorite Orientals.

There are a few Orienpets as well, including this one whose name I've already forgotten.  With their downward-facing blooms, they are interesting but hard to photograph.

Although the coneflowers and lilies are the stars of the garden right now, there are other blooms as well.  Grey-headed coneflowers have been blooming for several weeks in the butterfly garden.

Hostas are just beginning to bloom in the Oak Tree garden.  All the rain we have had recently has turned my shade gardens into jungles once again.

In the Arbor Bed, the phlox are just starting to bloom.  This is 'David' with a fuschia no-name peeking behind it to the left.  I noticed this combo one day of whites with the pinks of the coneflowers and 'Stargazers'--another one of my happy accidents in planting.

I love, love the garden this time of year, but it's not just the blooms that I enjoy; it's all the creatures that come to visit it that bring me joy as well.  Well, not that darned Japanese beetle on the left coneflower, of course.  But I have been thrilled that finally the butterflies have appeared.  I was beginning to worry that their numbers were down this year, but in the last two weeks, I have had so many come to visit that my camera memory card is filled with nothing but  butterfly photos.  Black swallowtails, Red Admirals, and many smaller butterflies that I haven't identified are enjoying the coneflowers.

The Tiger Swallowtail is one of my favorites, 

and I'm pretty sure on Friday a Giant Swallowtail made a short visit as well.

But what makes me happiest of all is to see the Monarchs.  I've had at least two--my husband says he saw four at once--hanging about the garden for the past two weeks.  My milkweed plants are pretty puny, but at least I can provide some nectar for the adults with all these coneflowers!

It's been a hot, hot summer so far, but I am enjoying the garden right now, and I hope you are enjoying your summer garden, too.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is brought to you once again by Carol of May Dreams Gardens.

What Will 2018 Bring?

The New Year has begun with an arctic blast, bringing cold and snow to much of the United States. I've been housebound most of the past week, venturing out only to pick up a few groceries and return some library books.  It's not that the roads are impassable; it's just that it's too darned cold to go out if I don't have to.  I really don't mind too much--after the whirlwind of the holidays and two trips to Texas in the last month and a half, I'm happy to settle down to a slower pace.  It's a good time to work on those New Year's resolutions and then settle down with a good book in the evenings.  Every year I make the same resolutions like eating healthier and exercising more, but my main goal this year is to purge this house of some the clutter that has been accumulating over the past 13 years in every corner of the house.  Once gardening season begins, I know that will occupy more of my time, so if winter is short, I may not get much done!

The New Year represents a clean slate, a chance to start over and focus on what is really important to us.  For some people, it means a goodbye to a bad year, in hopes that this year will be better.  But 2017 wasn't a bad year for me, other than the political climate in this country, but I'm not going to get into politics here.  For me, 2017 was filled with lots of family celebrations and activities from graduations to baptisms to birthdays to many, many sports events.  Many hours and days were spent with grandchildren, filling my heart with joy.

2017 had its ups and downs in gardening, too, and I'm hoping for an even better gardening season in 2018.  We had a mild--and short--winter.  By late February crocuses were blooming, the earliest in my memory, and I was already working on cleaning up the garden beds in March.

The first crocus blooms appeared on Feb. 22, 2017

The early spring meant that by mid-April the tulips were in all their glory.  Those of you who have read this blog for awhile know that spring is my favorite season of the year, and I love, love tulips.  The problem with tulips, of course, is that they are more short-lived than other spring bulbs, so every year I try to take photos of the flower beds so that in October I can remember where I need to plant more.  The photos do help, but I still do a lot of guesswork in planting, which means that every spring brings some surprises.  Last year I noticed so many of the early tulips were yellow, which is strange since I'm not particularly fond of yellow.  But this year I got carried away ordering all different types of orange tulips.  I think I planted nearly 200 tulips this past fall, so I can't wait to see them all come up this spring!

I also planted another 100+ daffodils between the pine trees, in my goal of creating a "river of daffodils" on the edge of our yard.  I'm anxious to see these, too, and a little worried since my husband mowed this area last spring before I gave the okay.  I have my fingers crossed that the older daffodils survived despite the early shearing.

If I could have one wish for 2018, it would be that spring would last longer.  Though we had an early start to the season last year, by May the weather had turned warmer, almost summer-like, and the spring bulbs didn't last long.  There aren't many new blooms in my garden during this transition time, but I'm usually busy for several weeks planting hundreds of annuals in containers and in borders around the flower beds.  I remember telling some friends how excited I was about a shopping trip to a favorite nursery some distance away where I spent $400 on annuals that would have cost at least $600 locally.  They all thought I was crazy to have spent even that much--I think I am now officially the crazy plant lady of the group.

I remember thinking last year that it was time to cut back on the number of containers, especially when August and September rolled around and I was spending all my time watering all of them, trying to keep them alive.  But it's hard to cut back, especially when I find a new container that catches my eye, like this old wheelbarrow that my husband rescued from the neighbor's trash.  I know I'll be planting this one again!  One thing I learned last summer was that petunias don't like this wheelbarrow for some reason.  I wasted time and money planting and re-planting Wave and Supertunias, only to have them die shortly afterwards.  This photo was taken in the fall, when I'd replenished it with small mums and gourds, but I need to find something else besides petunias for the summer months.

Summer brought my favorite flowers, daylilies...

...and my beloved coneflowers.

The daylilies multiplied, and the coneflowers self-seeded, so that by mid-summer every flowerbed was a mass of blooms. Will 2018 finally be the year I get ambitious enough to finally divide and purge so that my garden isn't a jungle? Well, we will have to wait and see, but don't count on it.

By August I had the garden blahs--oh, I enjoyed whatever was blooming at the time, but I had no desire to get out and weed or do much of anything else.  It didn't help that we went for weeks without rain. I remember dragging out hoses every day and rotating sprinklers on all the garden beds, but that just isn't the same as nourishing rain.  I lost some plants, but by September I really didn't care, other than some native seedlings that I should have taken better care of. If it's not too much to ask, Mother Nature, I do hope you'll send us more frequent rainshowers in 2018.

If Spring 2017 was somewhat short, Autumn made up for it.  Warm weather continued through much of October, delaying the changing to fall color, but the leaves finally turned, providing a few weeks of beautiful color, a bit surprising considering the dry conditions.

The front yard, late October 2017

We had a very late frost as well, the first killing frost not arriving until November 8.  

The highlight of Autumn, though, had to be the return of the butterflies.  Through much of the summer I worried about the lack of butterflies.  A few Swallowtails appeared now and then, but it wasn't until late August that Buckeyes and throngs of Painted Ladies appeared.  In late September a few Monarchs made daily flights through the garden.

But one day in late October I experienced something I've never seen before.  My husband urgently called me to come out to the garden--a rare occurrence in itself--and there I saw two dozen or more Monarchs flitting about in the flowerbed, lighting in particular on the zinnias.  I stood there for the longest time, mesmerized and in awe.  My youngest grandson, who loves insects, happened to be there at the time and was impressed as well.  It was an experience I won't soon forget.  I hope this means more Monarchs in 2018!

A few weeks of mild weather after the first frost gave me time to do some clean-up of the garden and eventually do a little outdoor Christmas decorating without freezing my fingers.  The old wheelbarrow was cleaned out and decorated for the season with some dollar store finds and cuttings from around the yard.

The large urn in front of the porch was also decked out--

and then finished off later with a dusting of snow.

The first measurable snow fell on Christmas Eve, just in time to give us a white Christmas and the coneflowers their fluffy white hats.  And now the garden and I are ready for a long winter's nap.


We have no way of knowing what might come in 2018, but I wish you all . . .

Happy Gardening in the New Year!

November GBBD: End of Another Season

What a difference a few weeks can make!  Last month I was counting butterflies and enjoying the beauties of autumn's late arrival.  This month we are headed straight into winter.  We haven't had any snow, other than a few stray flurries, but it's been cold--frost on the windows in the morning is now the norm.

As for my garden, well, this is pretty much the scene everywhere.  The hostas stayed green longer than usual this year, but when the first killing frost came, they seemed to say, "Ok, ok, we give up!"

As I looked around the garden a few days ago for something still blooming to show for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, the only thing I could find were some blooms on the Yarrow.

And one errant 'Stella d'Oro' bloom that was frozen in time for awhile.

Even the Knockout roses have given up for the year.

Although the temps dipped below freezing several times in late October, it didn't seem to affect my garden.  Then we left the first of November to visit my daughter and family in Texas for a week, celebrating my youngest granddaughter's first birthday.  The morning after we returned, a killing frost finally signaled the end of the season for the garden.

No more zinnias for butterflies to enjoy--and no more butterflies this season, for that matter.

  But there is still some beauty to be found in the garden, even in winter.  'Wendy's Wish' Salvia (in the forefront of the photo) gives one last lovely gasp before succumbing to the inevitable.

Behind it, the Amsonia hubrichtii and the berries of Beautyberry add some pops of color.

A glaze of frost gives the seedheads of coneflowers a little extra pizzazz.

They will look even better with a topping of snow.

The cold can bring some other surprises--I never saw any blooms on my milkweed, but they did produce seed pods!  I'm so happy--maybe next year there will be more than just one or two plants for the Monarchs.

Anyone recognize these plants?  They're asparagus--finally, it's time to cut them back.  In fact, I haven't done any clean-up at all in the vegetable garden.  I managed to get all my bulbs planted before we left for Texas, but that's about all I've accomplished in the garden this fall.  I'm hoping for a couple of warm, sunny days to finish up the must-do fall chores before the snow flies.  Everything else will have to wait till spring.

The blooms on the 'Limelight' hydrangea are aging well.  They will hang on through winter; the branches of this shrub are a favorite of the birds since the suet feeder is nearby.

The trees were slow to change color this year, and once they did, they didn't last long.  It took weeks for the maple in our front yard to fully turn gold/orange.  Luckily, we arrived home from Texas just in time to see it in all its glory.

Now, a week later, half the leaves have fallen.  With any luck, a few windy days will blow these all away into the fields . . . if not, it looks like a good job for the grandkids:)

Although I am sorry to see the season end, I'm not really sad. I'm ready for a break from garden chores, time to enjoy the holidays and re-charge for a couple of months. And time to dream and plan for next year's garden, which I'm sure will be the best ever!


Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is held the 15th of every month.  Thanks to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting this so faithfully and keeping me motivated to keep a monthly record of what is blooming in my garden.