Friday, August 15, 2008

August Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Summer's flying by, and I can hardly believe it's already mid-August. Carol at May Dreams Gardens invites garden bloggers everywhere to share what's blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you enjoy the blooms!
Abutilon (Flowering Maple)

Hosta 'Stained Glass' has a large, delightfully fragrant, white-with-pale-purple-stripes bloom. I love everything about this hosta.

The Surprise Lilies, a/k/a Naked Ladies (Lycoris squamigera) just popped up four days ago, and are already blooming.

Echinacea purpurea 'Ruby Giant' blooming in almost full shade.

Cell-pack dahlias

Hosta rectifolia 'Fujibotan.' The hummingbirds love this hosta. I love the light, lavender-pink double blooms.

Double impatiens - this was a cutting from one of last year's plants. The parent plant didn't look so great by spring - I guess they are truly annuals. Impatiens cuttings root easily though. This one was an experiment, and I plan to take more cuttings from it, and the lighter pinks too over the winter.

Fuchsia 'Blackie' was cut back and overwintered in the basement.

One of the mystery hostas. The foliage started out green and yellow, and has matured to a darker blue-green edge and lighter blue-green center variegation. It looks more green in the photo, more blue-green in person. I'm still not sure what variety it is. The other variegated mystery hosta has remained green and yellow, and is much smaller. No blooms on that one.



Eupatorium 'Gateway,' (Joe Pye Weed,) with Rudbeckias 'herbstsonne' and 'goldsturm' in the background.

Phlox paniculata 'David.' Suddenly this week there's a huge crop of slugs, and they're all over everything. Last year we had very few, and I saw only a few earlier this year. Our cool, rainy August is bringing them out in droves. Time to break out the pie tins and the cheap beer!

Oxalis triangularis - overwintered in the basement. It went dormant almost as soon as I brought it in, and started growing again almost as soon as it went back outside in the spring. I have a few of them in mixed containers. I love the foliage and the blooms.

Agastache ' Blue Fortune' - Anise Hyssop. Bees and hummingbirds love it. This large, stately plant is over three feet tall and covered with blooms even in almost full shade. I'm learning to love its pale, blue-gray blooms. They look bluer in the photo than they really are.

Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta - teeny tiny blooms, and lots of them. Bees adore them.

Phlox paniculata 'Laura.' The phlox , added to the garden late last summer, were pinched in June. As you can see, they aren't very tall.

Cilantro blooms. This is the second sowing of cilantro, one of my favorite herbs. It has tiny, but beautiful flowers.

To see more GBBD posts, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

27 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:22 AM

    Beautiful blooms to start my day off with, Linda. The Echinacia (sp?) seems whimsical in the way its petals grow to and fro, not straight. That is so appealing to me! And all the others, names of which I forget. Some I'd never seen before. The maple flower was new to me. All so special in their unique personalities!
    Brenda

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  2. Anonymous8:26 AM

    Gorgeous blooms for GBBD! I love the carmel colored Abutilon in the first photo. Beautiful. And your Hosta "Fujibotan" with those double flowers is so appealing to me.

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  3. Linda hello and good morning! I have seen the abutilon several times this season and am beginning to find it appealing! Those malvas, can work their magic on us!

    The photo of Joe Pye Weed and Rudbeckia is a lovely view into your garden! The grass looks lush and the bed beyond is inviting....a good place to lie down and look up!

    Have a good day out and about with Bloom day and your garden!

    Gail

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  4. Lots of great flowers! I like the Laura phlox. So pretty!

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  5. Flowering maple is neat! I had the same fuchsia in hanging pots on the front porch but they fizzled out on me a while back. I am sure what happened to them. The hummingbirds loved the things!

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  6. Your sentiments echo mine, Linda, about how quickly summer is flying by. Lots of lovely blooms! I love the double impatiens; I have a pale pink one. They look like miniature roses to me. I'll have to try to see if I can overwinter these or propagate some babies, as you suggest.

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  7. I learned some things from reading your blog today. I didn't know hummers liked hosta blooms and that agastache would grow and bloom in the shade.

    Thanks for taking us on a lovely tour of your garden.
    Marnie

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  8. I love your Fuschia, it's stunning. I admire your ability to overwinter these things in the house. I'll bet your mystery Hosta is related to 'June.' The flower stalks & flowers look the same as my Junes & Halcyons (June is a sport of Halcyon) and it's blooming at the same time. I prefer the look of Rudbeckia 'Herbstonne' to 'Goldsturm,' although I don't have any Rudbeckias. Don't you just love Phlox 'Laura'?

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  9. I love the delicate little cilantro blooms

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  10. Anonymous3:20 PM

    You have a great selection this Bloom Day. I love your abutilon, which blooms in winter here in Austin, and the black Fuchsia.

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  11. Anonymous8:46 PM

    GG, your garden runneth over with beautiful blooms. Happy Bloom Day!!~~Dee

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  12. Glad you enjoyed the blooms Brenda. Funny, I hadn't noticed the way the petals are until you pointed it out.

    PG, thanks! I love that abutilon too. The foliage is speckled with yellow. It doesn't get enough sun to bloom a lot, but I love it mostly for the foliage anyway.

    Hi Gail, the foliage is the best part of the abutilon I think, although the flowers are pretty too.

    My lawn man does a great job, doesn't he! My husband puts a lot of sweat into that lawn.

    That area in the back is all winter creeper that's been here for years. You probably wouldn't really like to lie down back there though. . . That's George's designated potty area. :O

    I hope you're enjoying your Friday night!

    Thank you Tina. Laura is pretty, and I'm pleased how well she's blooming in the shade!

    Skeeter, I have to be careful where I put the fuchsia - it doesn't like much sun. They seem to be kind of susceptible to some sort of fungus - I'm glad this one has been healthy so far. It likes lots of moisture, but I think it likes the air circulation of the coco fiber basket too. The hummingbirds love this one too.

    Rose, why does summer go by so fast, and winter so slow!

    I've been a little disapointed with how much those double impatiens are blooming this year (or, not blooming.) Usually they bloom well with the amount of sun we have here, but this year they haven't been doing much until the last week or so. We had some trees pruned a few weeks ago, and that seems to have helped, since they're getting a bit more sun now. They seem to need more sun than the ordinary cell pack impatiens. They are SO easy to start from cuttings. This time I'll start the cuttings earlier. And actually, the cuttings are blooming better than the new plants I bought. I don't know why that is.

    Marnie, I was pretty surprised how well the agastache blooms in the shade. It's supposedly a full-sun plant. It's amazing how much its blooming. I'm really very impressed with these plants - everything except the bloom color! I didn't realize hummingbirds liked hosta blooms either, but it does make sense considering their tubular shape.

    Thanks MMD! It's not really much different than growing any other house plant. I used to enjoy having the winter off from the garden, but I've found I really enjoy puttering with the plants in the basement over the winter. Overwintering and propogating plants in the basement saved me megabucks this season, as I was able to indulge my container addiction very cheaply. The light, which wasn't cheap, has already paid for itself in just one season.

    Megan, this is my first year growing cilantro. I love the stuff. It doesn't last too long before it starts flowering though, so I plant it more than once during the season. Once it starts to flower, it's not really much good for salsa or tacos anymore. But I let it keep going and bloom out, as I love the lacy little flower clusters.

    Thanks Pam! Wish I could leave that abutilon outside all year. It's not hardy here. I have two of them I overwintered in the basement last year, and will be bringing them in again this fall.

    Last August I wasn't happy with my late-summer bloom. That's when I added the phlox, rudbeckias, Joe Pye weed, agastache, calamint. . . actually, most of the stuff that's blooming now! That 2 for 1 sale at the nursery came in very handy! After four years, I finally have most of the garden planted.

    Thank you Dee - I didn't have my blog last year to document it, but what a difference a year can make! Last August was pretty barren-looking here.

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  13. MMD, p.s. I was just googling 'June,' and I think you may be right! I'm excited to know what it is. (It's always interesting when googling plants to see how many images come up that are clearly misidentified!)

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  14. The color in that Flowering Maple is beautiful...love the peach and also pink flowers. Fushcia is one of my very favorites...I never have any luck though! Your flowers sre so pretty.

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  15. Thanks for the tour of your August blooms and for the information you left in the comment about 'Royal Standard'. I bet that's what I have blooming in my garden right now.

    Thanks for joining in for bloom day!
    Carol, May Dreams Gardens

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  16. Thanks Kim! I love fuchsias too. The flowers are gorgeous, and hummingbirds adore them. They've always been easy for me.

    Last summer at the nursery, they were fungusy, defoliating, and not blooming.

    One of the owners asked me to clean them up, and a couple weeks after I gave them some loving care and attention they were releafing, growing, budding, free of fungus, and selling for the first time that summer.

    Dragonflies don't like me much though, in spite of how I love them. :)

    Hi Carol! Thanks again for all you do for us garden bloggers, including starting GBBD. I don't know how you find the time to visit all of us. Oh my goodness how GBBD has grown in the months since I started blogging!

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  17. Hi Linda, Blogger must have been very hungry earlier today... ate my big honkin' comment (sigh)... let's see I was saying...Seeing your rectifolia Fujibotan again is a reminder of how I would love to be able to grow even just one variety of Hosta... it does seem from all the blogs north of here they are so hardy when given the right conditions. AND you have naked ladies. I tried with some bulbs this year and nothing happened. I guess they were extra naked.:-)

    The fuschia is outstanding. They show up in garden stores around here in the spring. Any gardener knows they won't last once brought home so I just wish they would and admire them while shopping. (I think its what you used to have in your header that I loved???)

    I keep reminding myself to try the double impatiens everytime I see yours. Maybe in the fall I'll remember at the right time. Love the Joe Pye Weed and the Rudbeckia too. Always enjoy seeing phlox in bloom... so bountiful looking. The Oxalis triangularis is a deeply hued beauty that really caught my attention. I'll have to do some checking to see if it is possible to add to my garden.
    Lovely GBBD post, Linda... thanks for the visit.
    Meems @Hoe&Shovel

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  18. Most surprising is that amazing flower of hosta. I had no idea they can be so different and big.
    Greetings,
    Ewa

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  19. Dear Linda, I just forgot to ask if you mind that I add you to my blogroll? Mabe we can exchange?
    Ewa

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  20. Hi Meems, I'm sorry you lost your comment. I feel your pain. Internet outages have been a staple here since a storm a couple weeks ago. It's been so frustrating! I'm going through garden blog withdrawal.

    Funny you should mention the fuchsia header - I was looking for it the other day to switch it back, and can't seem to locate it in all the photo folders I have. Aargh! Technical difficulties abound here the past couple of weeks.

    I'm glad you enjoyed the blooms. I think I'd trade hostas for all the tropicals you can leave outside all year! I've been assessing things here and wondering how I'm going to cram it all under the light in the basement this winter. :(

    On a more serious note, I'm thinking of you and hoping you, your family, and home are safe through the storm hitting Florida.

    Hi Ewa, most of our hostas have pretty ordinary blooms, but we do have a few with really special blooms. I'm still waiting for 'Royal Standard' and 'Aphrodite' to bloom. Both are white, large, and fragrant. 'Aphrodite' is a double like 'Fujibotan.' One has buds, but the other, no sign of flowers yet.

    You are welcome to add me to your blog roll. It was getting hard to keep up the list, so I added the Blotanical blog roll widget in my sidebar. Scroll up near the top, and you'll see I have Ewa in the Garden there. Yours was an early garden blog I found, and I have enjoyed it from the first day. Your garden is an inspiration.

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  21. Late to the party, Lintys. Great blooms for GBBD.

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  22. Nice pics. That's a lot of blooms!

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  23. Hi there Garden Girl :-D

    What a wonderful selection of varied blooms are in your garden at the moment. One flower really caught my eye - the Abutilon! What a beautiful colour :-D

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  24. Love that fuscia, Linda. That's an annual, right? Is it hard to grow?

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  25. Thank you Carolyn!

    Hi Kim & Victoria, thank you. I do like variety!

    Hi Shirl, I'm not sure which I enjoy more - the blooms or the speckled foliage. It's a good thing I like the foliage, as it doesn't bloom a lot in the shade.

    Hi Beth, It's actually a tender perennial. I've had them before and let them freeze, but the one I have now I brought inside and kept in the basement under a plant light over the winter.

    I've always had good luck with fuchsias. I grow them in mossed or coco fiber baskets, and I think that helps. They like moist soil, but they can also be subject to fungus and rot. Mine usually gets a good soaking nearly every day, especially when it's hot outside, and it seems to like the good air circulation it gets in its porous container. To me it seems the biggest challenge with fuchsias is finding the right spot - too much sun scorches them, not enough sun, and they don't bloom. This one gets direct morning sun for an hour or two depending on the season, and that seems to be perfect, although the blooms will still scorch if I let it dry out. On really hot days, I sometimes even water it twice (especially this year, since it's a two-year old plant now.)

    They're a little picky, but I wouldn't say they're hard to grow. It's really easy to start a new plant from a cutting too.

    They seem to enjoy a few doses of organic fertilizer over the summer. I've had great success with the Gardens Alive line of fertilizers. They're a little stinky, (ok, a lot stinky,) but my plants love them, including the fuchsia.

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  26. Gorgeous bl;ooms, I especially like the ablutilon and the Fuchsia 'Blackie. Clilntro is also one of my favorites, I am waiting for the cooler fall weather to sow another crop.

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  27. Thank you Nicole! That fuchsia is at the top of my current favorites lists. I love the blooms, and it's the best hummingbird magnet I've ever seen. I'm glad to have it, since I had to take the feeder down. The wasps were all over it, and knew how to use it. They were driving us inside, so the feeder had to go.

    The fuchsia works just as well bringing hummingbirds to the garden, without the wasps. I don't have to buy nectar, natural nectar's probably better for the hummers anyway. The organic fertilizer I use helps keep the blooms and the hummingbirds coming. Now if I could only get a picture of them.

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