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.

Flirting With Freezing

4/28/15

Kwanzan or the rarer Hizakura cherry?

     I postponed planting flower seeds and plants in the yard last week after looking at the weather report.  We were down in the 30's at night last week with a frost warning one night.  The beautiful Yoshino cherry trees in the front yard only lasted a week.  But now the later blooming  kwanzan is loaded with flowers.  The flowers on this tree look like flowers on the rarer Hizakura cherry in a photo from a book I got from the National Aboretum. Whatever it is, it is beautiful.  Here are some photos of what is happening in the yard.

The tulips finally showed up!

The hosta plants seem to be getting high quickly.

The two dogwood trees finally bloomed.

This is a miniature rose bush my husband gave me on Valentine's Day.  After staying on my kitchen table for six weeks, I put it out in the back yard garden at the end of March.  It just produced a bloom.

The Asiatic lilies are pushing through the soil.

The azaleas finally opened a few days ago three weeks late.

     The leaves on the trees are slowly coming out.  Most of the leaves are small, and some trees still don't have any leaves in our neighborhood.  This week I am planting flower seeds in the back and side yard gardens, and I am going to put plants in my deck pots. It is going to be May 1 on Friday, and  I am tired of waiting. 

Slowing Down

10/9/14

goldenrod Fireworks

     It is definitely fall here, with temps in the high 30's two nights last week.  We had to turn the heat on.  By next week, I'll get out the winter blankets.  But fall is generally nice here in northern Virginia with warm, sunny days.  The leaves are just starting to turn on the trees.  I did some cleaning out of my side garden.  I took out all the fading zinnias that were only supposed to get two feet tall, but ended up being four feet tall.  Now the goldenrod fireworks bush is finally visible.  There are still a few late blooms in the side garden.  Here are a few photos of what is still blooming.

The side garden is looking kind of bare with the zinnias gone, but you can see the goldenrod bush now.

 

 

 

The marigolds are doing well.

There is one late bloom among the stand of black-eyed Susans.

A few short blooms are still appearing on the buddleia bush.

After pruning all the dead branches on the midnight salvia, it produced a few flower stalks.

In an out-of-the-way dark corner in the back yard a lonely hosta just flowered.  I rarely go back to this corner.  I planted this hosta in this bare space in the spring and promptly forgot about it.

The grass is full of black walnut fruit that has fallen from the black walnut tree in the back yard.

In the garden surrounding the electric box the milkweed pods have opened.

Some of the seeds from the milkweed pods have been blown into the scotch broom bush nearby.

The deer are intensely foraging now and have eaten some stems off my jumbo begonias that line the front of the house.  They never bother them until October.

     Fall is nice here, and it can be warm until mid-November.  The one thing I really miss is the birdsong of summer.  I don't know a lot about birds, but yesterday when I was walking the dog, we passed a tree where a bird was trilling away for the longest time.  It was the first time I hear extended birdsong since August.  It made my day.  I decided I was going to put a clear bird feeder up against my kitchen window, so I could see birds close up this winter, and hopefully learn a lot more about them.