Odds and Ends in the mid-summer garden

Trough planter

Native plant - Culver's Root

Wine-colored bee balm

A new daylily variety

Daylilies line the bed at the road

Multicolor hydrangea at my mom's house

A new iris variety

Rain barrel added to the garden shed this summer.  Already filled and overflowing from a few storms

On and around the deck/patio...

New pets in the fountain (converted planter)

Yellow (!) begonia mixed with perennials -- a shady container

Rex begonia 'Escargot' -- perfection

The soil/light combination here produces giant-sized versions of plants

Purples, pinks and whites

Shady spot under the deck

Butterfly/Bee/Hummingbird Garden Mid-Summer

Entry Path

                                                     

Butterfly Weed -- Swarming with activity

The tall pink cotton-candy-like flower --- Queen of the Prairie.

Goose-neck Loosestrife -- an awesome cut flower

Yellows and purples

Exit path

Clematis climbing the trellis

Clematis and climbing rose on the other side of the trellis

A flower stirs a memory...

I found this unusual flower and was surprised to read the tag said it was a gentian.  It reminded me of a poem I had to memorize in 5th grade.  I knew it belonged in my garden...

September

The golden-rod is yellow;
The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.

The gentian's bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun;
In dusty pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest,
In every meadow nook;
And asters by the brook-side
Make asters in the brook,

From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes' sweet odors rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.

By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer's best of weather,
And autumn's best of cheer.

But none of all this beauty
Which floods the earth and air
Is unto me the secret
Which makes September fair.

'T is a thing which I remember;
To name it thrills me yet:
One day of one September
I never can forget.

 

by Helen Hunt Jackson

Mid to late summer pics

A tour of some of the gardens in mid- and late-summer.

Limelight Hydrangea -- Massive this year!

A visitor to the coneflowers...

The butterfly/hummingbird bed/

Black-eyed Susans light up the front!

A mutation of my regular coneflowers.

Another strange mutation.  I think a green envy crossed with a regular purple coneflower?

Shade garden surrounding/under deck.  Love the different types of foliage!

Side border garden transformed from pastels and irises to yellow and orange lily varieties.

It's been a while...

So it's been over a year since the last post, but life has been busy and hectic!  I was unable to mulch or get the gardens cleaned up last fall, so combine that with a mild winter and the beds this spring were a huge mess!  I spent March - May cleaning out, weeding and mulching but finally the beds were ready to go!

Below are a few pics from late spring blooms.

A new re-blooming iris.  I've had it for 2 years and this was the first year it bloomed.  Gorgeous!  It's now August and hasn't re-bloomed yet though.

First bouquet of the season featuring iris, New Dawn climbing rose, lamb's ear, rose campion and salvia.

The reddest red I've had in my garden. Hummingbirds are loving it!