August Blooms

New here this year, complements of Walters Gardens, this is 'Midnight Raider', a semi-evergreen tetraploid daylily.  They have made a beautiful addition to an area where there's lots of morning sun.  'Midnight Raider' is a reblooming daylily.  It may not rebloom its first year, but I'll be hoping, and watching for more of these beauties later this summer or in early fall.

Another trial plant sent to us by Walters Gardens this spring is this beautiful hardy hibiscus, 'Heartthrob'.  And yes, mine does (throb) when these gorgeous , dramatic 8" blooms open.

One of a bunch of hanging baskets here.  This one is New Guinea impatiens and scaveola (fan flower).  I haven't tried scaveolas here before - didn't think we'd have enough sun for them to bloom well.  Apparently I was mistaken - so glad I tried them, and will definitely grow these again here.

The foliage is nothing fancy on this hosta, but the 4 foot scapes loaded with double blooms in light pinky-lavender are pretty awesome.  I look forward to the blooms of Hosta rectifolia 'Fujibotan.' all summer, and so do the hummingbirds.

Surprise lilies were divided and spread around last year.  Some are sulking (as they often will after moving or dividing) and didn't bloom this year, but we do have a few small clumps like this. Phlox, bellflowers, and coneflowers are blooming in the background.

Wax begonias are substituting for impatiens this year - maybe every year going forward.  They are so much less thirsty than impatiens, and are great in part sun.

Phlox paniculata 'David', with Diamond Frost euphorbia.

After last year's drought, agastaches are a shadow of their previous selves this season, and one didn't return this year.  It was a surprise, as they've always seemed so drought tolerant.  Hopefully the remaining ones are gaining strength with our cooler, wetter summer, and will return big and strong next year.

Phlox, black-eyed susans, and coneflowers

This is 'Crystal Palace Gem' pelargonium.  I love the chartreuse foliage so much, I'd grow this geranium even if it never bloomed.  I took cuttings from last year's plants, rooted and overwintered them in our basement greenhouse.

Echinacea purpurea 'Butterfly Kisses' is another trial plant from Walters Gardens.  At maturity it will be a diminutive 18 inches tall.  In its first season, it's under a foot tall - perfect for this border of small and miniature plants, and oh, so cute.  That's dragon wing begonias in the hanging basket, and more Diamond Frost euphorbia in the basket and in the background.  I overwinter Diamond Frost, and they get bigger and better every year.

Another surprise lily, with calamint, black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, and agastache.  About to bloom is a pink Japanese anemone.  The tall yellow coneflowers in the background are 'Herbstonne', also known as 'Autumn Sun'.  They languished in last year's drought, stunted, mildewed, and hardly bloomed.  They're in their glory this year, like nothing ever happened.  None were lost.  'Herbstonne' may do best in full sun with moist soil, but they do extraordinarily well in our dry, part sun garden.

'Blue Paradise' phlox is blooming again, here with a pelargonium I've overwintered for years, more coneflowers, catmint, calamint, surprise lilies, and 'Mocha' heuchera villosa.  'Mocha' blooms all season, from late spring through frost - the longest-blooming heuchera I've ever seen.  Hummingbirds love 'Mocha' blooms in our garden, along with many other heuchera flowers.  The cooler weather seems to be keeping 'Mocha's foliage more greenish purple this year.  Most summers the foliage is a beautiful mocha-brown color.  

Phlox was one of the first perennials I ever grew, and they remain long-blooming favorites in our summer garden.  This one is 'Laura.' 

Happy Bloom Day everyone.  To see more August blooms, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

July Bloom Day

Since the ballast shorted out for the light in our basement greenhouse late last winter and it took awhile to replace it, most of the overwintered plants looked pretty crummy this spring.  Turning misfortune to opportunity, it's been pretty nice having a fresh crop of plants for many of our containers.  The spindly, even leafless basement victims recovered in a sunny spot in the meantime, and now fill in pots and other spots in the garden.  Purple fountain grass and the chartreuse-leaved pelargonium  'Crystal Palace Gem'  are among the fresh faces this year.  

Geranium 'Rozanne' sprawls over early-spring bloomers like bergenia and hellebores, churning out blooms from late May through frost, even in part sun.  That's double impatiens in the hanging basket.  

Watering has been a chore during this hot, dry summer.  Most of the pots not directly in the garden have saucers to save water - especially the thirsty impatiens in little pots along this short path between patio and lawn.

The mini-rose has been blooming all season.

Hosta 'Fujibotan' has lavender-pink double blossoms on tall scapes.  It's just starting to bloom, and will keep going for almost a month.   This year it has twenty-one flower scapes!  

I love this combo of  Dragon Wing begonias and Diamond Frost Euphorbia.  

The peachy pelargonium and petunia in the pot on the left are basement survivors.  The geranium is five years old, and amazingly, Supertunia Vista Silverberry, fondly nicknamed Spring Fling Petunia, (gift from Proven Winners for participants at Garden Bloggers' Spring Fling Chicago 2009,) has survived three winters in the basement.

Cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis, a native hummingbird magnet, just started blooming.

Rudbeckia 'Herbstsonne' hasn't much liked our hot, dry summer.  They're two feet shorter, and not nearly as full as they normally are by the time they start blooming.  The first flowers are smaller too.   Behind the rudbeckias and coneflowers, Joe Pye weed is shorter than usual too.

'Sunday Gloves' daylily seems oblivious to the heat.

This brunnera was a volunteer seedling that popped up over here from a neighbor's plants.  It's the first time I've seen a brunnera rebloom.

We have heirloom potatoes from Landreth Seed growing in two of  the samples the nice folks at  Smart Pots gave me last August at the Independent Garden Center Show at Navy Pier.  Potatoes have nice foliage, pretty blooms, and they're fun to grow.  We're looking forward to harvesting our first home-grown potatoes in a few weeks.

Culver's Root, moved last fall,  seems to be thriving in its new, slightly sunnier spot along with a coneflower.  In the background, 'Blue Paradise' phlox, new last year and still small, just started blooming.  Geranium 'Biokovo' is reblooming for the first time, and barely peeking out from behind the tree, 'Jacob Cline' monarda is very popular with hummingbirds.  

Here's a different perspective where you can see the phlox and monarda a little better.  Heuchera villosa 'Mocha' shows up in this shot too.  Besides the nice foliage, this heuchera blooms all season long.

Bloom Day posts here tend to include a lot of closeups, so it seemed fun to change it up with some long shots this time.  Hope you enjoyed them.  To see more Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts that will surely include closeups and long shots of what's blooming in gardens around the world today, please visit our host, Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

June Bloom Day

Hard to believe it's mid-June already, and time for Bloom Day!  It's been busier than usual, hotter than usual, and much drier than usual this month, much like the rest of Spring 2012 in our little corner of the world.

Still, Bloom Day goes on, and these are some favorite blooms in our garden this month. Tree pruning last year left us with a bit more sun, and that's meant more blooms at once than ever before on this 8-year-old mini rose.

Borage grown from seeds from Renee's Garden last year happily reseeded, and are most welcome for their second year.

The ballast on our basement light burned out this winter.  It was replaced under warranty but in the meantime most of the overwintered plants didn't fare well including a poor fuchsia.  Since the hummingbirds love them so much, we sprung for a new one.  The buds look like little lanterns.

Centaurea montana has been blooming for several weeks.  We're enjoying the last few blooms, and so are the bees.

'Happy Returns' daylilies generally start blooming here in June.  Some summers they go nonstop until October.  Other years they rest a few weeks between bloom periods.

Salvia nemorosa 'Blue Hill' is another long-blooming perennial here.  Last year they bloomed all summer. Aside from it's long bloom and attractiveness to pollinators, it has among the cleanest foliage I've seen on a salvia. 

Some years heavy rains have rotted Rieger begonias.  Not this year.  Rain has been far too scarce.

Heuchera x villosa 'Mocha'  has become a favorite of the coral bells we grow here.  The photo doesn't do justice to its large, rich, coffee-colored foliage.  This heuchera blooms all summer.  Even when the bunnies eat the bloom spikes I don't fret, since there will always be more.  The flower spikes are really pretty in cut flower arrangements, and they glow in morning sunlight in the garden.

Geranium 'Rozanne' is another long-blooming perennial, even with very little sun.  It gets dappled sunlight here a few hours a day, but still manages to bloom from June through the first hard frost.

Overwintered Dragon Wing begonias didn't fare well after the ballast for the basement light burned out, so we sprung for new ones.  They're a container staple here in our shady conditions.  They're so easy care, and bloom beautifully all summer.

Two  pelargoniums in this pot survived the ballast debacle and are starting to bloom.  Besides the two pelargoniums (commonly called geraniums,) basement survivors, this pot has a few cell pak impatiens, some ivy, purple fountain grass, a couple of orphaned celosias given to me by my favorite local nursery since their cell-pak mates were dead, and a couple of 'Crystal Palace Gem' pelargoniums.  'Crystal Palace Gem' is a cultivar that's been around since the 1800's.  They have great chartreuse foliage that's so pretty, who cares whether they bloom.

A stem on Asclepias purpurascens suddenly wilted inexplicably, so it was cut back.  The flower head came indoors to be enjoyed, along with a few sprigs of curly parsley.

March was uncharacteristically warm here. The heat jump-started many perennials, and we've had a lot of early bloomers. None have been so early though, as this sedum, 'Matrona,' budding several weeks earlier than usual. 

To see more June blooms from gardens around the country and around the world, please visit the host of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, Carol at May Dreams Gardens.