Midsummer Blooms

7/19/15

Shasta daisies

     So much blooming is taking place in the garden.  I took most of these photos before we went on vacation ten days ago.  Some of the blooms are fading now.  The photo to the right shows the daisies that line the front of what I call the electric garden that hide the electric box in the yard.

     Here's what else was in bloom ten days ago.

The milkweed surrounding the electric garden is full of bees.

I noticed that the balloon flowers in the side yard garden had finished their blooming when we returned . 

The glossy abelia bush in the side garden is growing and blooming nicely.

The butterfly bush has shot up dramatically from last year even after pruning.

The wonderful scent of the asiatic lilies perfumed the backyard garden.  Now there are only about three lilies left.

The hosta plants in the backyard garden were in full bloom when we left and are now about done.

 

The miniature rosebush in the backyard garden is putting out more blooms.

     There is more blooming in the backyard and side gardens.  But that will have to wait for the next post.

Summer Turns To Fall

9/21/14

mums in side yard garden

     Fall has arrived here.  After being in the 90's the first week of September, the temps in the last two weeks have been below normal.  We've been down in the 40's at night.  But on this last weekend of summer, summer weather returned.  It is supposed to hit 90 today.  Fall is beautiful here with warm, dry, sunny days.  I planted some mums in the side yard garden to replace flowers that are no longer blooming.  But there is still blooming going on in most of the yard.

The lavender is still blooming in the side yard garden.

The glossy abelia bush is loaded with blossoms

My goldenrod (Solidago rugosa) Fireworks just flowered last week.

In the electrical garden, surrounding the electrical box, the milkweed plants are full of milkweed bug beetles.

The coleus in my deck pot is full of blooms.

Since I cleaned out a lot of the cosmos from the garden, the Japanese anemones are much more visible.

A photo of one of two annual vinca (Caranthus roseus) plants that reseeded from last year.

The pink dogwood tree is full of red berries that the birds love.

The loriope plants have lots of purple blooms.

The back yard garden

 
     The back yard garden that surrounds the patio is lush and full of flowers and plants.  I wish it could stay this way all year.  At the first frost all this will be gone.  Sigh. 

New Blooms

7/13/13
    

Asiatic lily

    In one of my earlier blog posts I wrote about three Asiatic lilies that suddenly appeared at the side of the house.  Since they were here when we moved in, I had no idea what color they would be.  I transplanted them to the backyard garden, because my husband wanted to put the trash cans there on the side of the house where they were growing.

lilies amid the hostas

     Here are the three lilies planted among the hostas in the backyard garden.  They finally bloomed about a week ago.  Their fragrance is heavenly.

butterfly bush

     This is a photo of a little slip of a butterfly bush I bought at a garden club plant sale this past spring.  It was planted in the side garden in May.

butterfly bush

 
     Here is the butterfly bush now with its first bloom.

glossy abelia

 

 

     This week the first bloom appeared on the glossy abelia shrub planted in the side garden.

crepe myrtle

     The crepe myrtle tree also had its first bloom this week.

zinnia seedlings

     Although I bought zinnia plants in May for the side garden to quickly fill up all the empty space, I really like to grow them from seed.  After reading Adrian Higgins garden column in the Washington Post two weeks ago where he said it wasn't too late to plant zinnia seeds, I immediately went out and bought some and planted two rows of them.  This is a photo of the seedlings after two weeks of planting. 

cosmos seedlings

 

     When I bought the zinnia seeds I also bought some cosmos seeds.  I always like to have cosmos somewhere in the garden, and I hadn't gotten around to planting any cosmos seeds this spring.  I thought, "Well, if I'm going to plant zinnia seeds I might as well plant cosmos seeds too".  I planted two rows of the cosmos seeds in the backyard garden.

     We've had another week of rain here.  It has rained every day since July 6th, and I'm really fed up with the weather.  Some of my plants have mildew, and there's all sorts of fungi growing in the yard.  I hope we get the hot, sunny weather that's forecasted for this week.  Maybe it will dry everyhing up, and the yard won't be so squishy anymore.

Side Garden Additions

6/12/13

side yard garden

     The side garden is starting to fill in as I have added more plants over the last two weeks.  I'll be adding a few more annuals and perennials over the next few months as I watch the plants grow and see how much room is still available.  Here are photos of what I've recently added.

glossy abelia

     Glossy abelia is a deciduous or semi-evergreen shrub that has rounded, gracefully arched branches.  It can grow six feet tall or more, has glossy green leaves, and blooms from mid-summer to autumn with fragrant, funnel-shaped, white flowers tinged with pink.  I have never had an abelia in any of my yards.

oriental fountain grass Karley Rose

     On each side of the garden I have planted the oriental fountain grass Karley Rose.  It has graceful, fluffy flower spikes.  It can grow two to three feet and blooms from June to September.  This is a new grass for me.

gallardia Arizona Sun

yellow foxglove

     A gardening friend gave me some yellow foxglove.

goldenrod

     The same friend also gave me some goldenrod. I don't know the species as there are over 50 species.  It has bright yellow flowers that bloom late summer into fall.  It is sometimes considered a weed, but many insects interact with goldenrod, uncluding bees, butterflies, and moths.

salvia

      I filled in some space with annuals like red salvia.

marigolds





zinnias

coreopsis grandiflora

     Although supposedly deer-resistant, like everything I have planted in this garden, I presume the deer sampled the flowers which are missing off the top of this coreopsis and the zinnias.

roses

      For the past two weeks, roses have been blooming all over the neighborhood.  The rose bushes in my back garden have bloomed also.  I have no idea what kind they are.  The rose bushes were here when we moved in in February.