Heat Lovers

For the hot summer days, we get rewarded with a host of beautiful blooms including these:


Ascelpias Tuberosa, Butterfly Weed.

Echinacea 'Sombrero', hosting a black butterfly.

Tickseed (Coreopsis) "Route 66", a lover of heat and sun.

Bear's Breeches (Acanthus mollis) likes partial sun, and I think prefers a slightly alkaline soil and decent drainage.

Echinacea, as most of us know by now, includes the native Echinaceas  purpurea and tennesseensis - the purple coneflowers, and slew of cultivars of crazy bright colors in the white/yellow/orange/red ranges. They grow in full hot sun, don't want extra water, and have not too many problems. The natives grow about 3 feet tall, the cultivars come in all sizes.

Butterfly Weed, part of the milkweed genus, is both a wild and cultivated sun-lover. Best in full-sun, not excess water. It grows about 18 inches high and blooms mid/late summer with a bright orange clusters. It doesnt transplant well but I have saved the seed and started plants.  Be patient in the spring as it really waits for very warm weather before emerging from the ground. I leave a marker at its home spot in my garden so I know where it will be each year. There are cultivars to be obtained as well, but I like the native so much, it's all I want.

Coreopsis is a great sun-lover that is pretty easy care. It doesn't need a lot of water,and blooms most of the summer. Sometimes they can get a little floppy, so may need staking or some friends nearby to crowd them into standing up. They are daisy-like blooms with the cultivars available in yellows, reds, whites and oranges. A fantastic starter is "Jethro Tull" with its appealing cupped bright orange petals.

None of these get supplemental watering in my yard, unless we go through a two or three week drought.

Just Because It's Summer

Some lovely blooms of summer:
Hydrangea quercifolia, a dwarf variety, a close-up of the bloom, and en masse. Then a 'Vision in Pink' Astilbe. And 'Endless Summer' Hydrangea macrophylla.
 By the way, the Hydrangea quercifolia (Oak Leaf Hydrangea) tolerates quite a bit of dry weather. Astilbes, on the other hand, really want some regular moistur

Mid Summer

I have been pretty busy this summer so not much posting, but how about all the flowers!?

So much to do and see!
Summer is so full of color...we are seeing all the displays of the summer flowers and shrubs. Hopefully we have time to enjoy them, not just see the weeds and pruning to be done.

There's been a lot to do this past month, but here's a list of the perennial flowers and shrubs I have admired blooming in July:
Canna lilies
Echinaceas and other coneflowers
Daylilies
Hibiscus
Hosta
Hydranageas
Coreopsis
Catmint
Pop up lilies
perennial geraniums
Roses
Rose of Sharon
Buddleia
Vitex

Garden fun (I am avoiding the idea of 'tasks' in the garden): pull a few weeds; deadheading roses, coneflowers, coreopsis etc for rebloom; you can cut back hard the catmint (Nepata) if you haven't already and it will send a second flush of growth with flowers in a few weeks; dead head the flowers off your basil to keep it producing leaves; watering as needed.
We are in pretty good shape for rain...just think back to 2007 and be grateful! But we still need to water pots.

And enjoy the flowers, cut a few to bring in, doesn't have to be fancy, a few coneflowers and some of those basil blooms stuck in a water glass make a nice reminder of the beauty outside.

Whats blooming in mid-June

I do not have much spare time to write this week but I want to keep a log of the color changes as we move through the season..so here is this week's tally.

WOW - Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) everywhere is big and orange and beautiful. Most of these plants are slow to show their foliage in spring, (mine didn't show until after the hostas even), but as soon as we got heat, they went crazy. I love this plant. It is stunning, loves heat, and is not very demanding.

Daylilies (Hemorocallis), all kinds are showing off, especially the old fashioned orange and the tall yellows. Stella d'Oro, a reliable repeat bloomer, is around on many a development corner, and look nice in small bunches in corner gardens too.

Hydrangeas are really lovely this week. I have seen all colors, but my favorite is a warm pink in an old old homestead in Woodbine.

Lots more perennials blooming are: Coneflowers, Echinaceas and Rudbeckia; Magnolias, Southern and Sweet Bay are looking good and smelling nice too; Garden Phlox; and Knockout Roses.