Saturday, August 9, 2014

Early August Blooms

Even though I feel mentally and physically pooped out at this point like I always do by mid-to-late summer, my gardens don't notice and they just keep doing their thing. This sometimes seems to me to be somewhat miraculous, until I realize that the uncontrolled and unpredictable nature of plants is what keeps them blooming even if I'm not constantly cutting back, weeding and watering everything. I may have planted them, but the plants are on autopilot.

We threw our kids' birthday party at our house and had lots of people over for that event last weekend, so we did, in fact, spend some time mowing, weeding and deadheading in anticipation of that. But this week has been spent preparing for the beginning of the new school year home schooling my kids, so I've been a bit distracted, and I confess that feel a bit surprised that there's actually all this beautiful flowering going on in spots outside my house, even though, again, I planted all of it.

Anyway, here are a few photos of nicer scenes from my gardens over the past week or so:

Obedient Plant (physostegia), purple phlox, shasta daisies 'Becky', hollyhocks, coneflowers and cosmos in the middle section of my Front Border.

The east end of the Front Border, with phlox and cosmos. Roses can be seen in the background....

...and here's a closeup of them. 'Lovely Fairy' is looking good these days, after dying back nearly to the ground last winter. This is their second flush of bloom.

The oriental lilies on my porch railing (which really needs to be painted) might be 'Stargazer'. They smell heavenly.

The Peony Bed, with roses interplanted with four o'clocks, which are supposedly poisonous to Japanese beetles. I've noticed a lot fewer of those nasty insects this year, and I read that our very cold winter killed much of their larvae. One good thing about the dreadful winter, anyway.

The Rainbow Border. The zinnias are starting to bloom, but the color effect is still a bit weak, although it can still just be perceived.


The North Border is starting to become more colorful, filling with sunflowers, zinnias, petunias and cosmos. There are still a few holes in this border, in its 2nd year, but I'm thinking about how to improve it. I think I'll add some tall Asiatic lilies this fall to start with.

A closeup of the center of the North Border. The zinnias are looking especially nice this year, I think.

And another closeup, with shasta daisies, zinnias, sunflowers, phlox in back and a lovely pink mum 'Clara Curtis' just coming into bloom at far left.

The north, shadier half of my White Garden beds, with white liatris, meadowsweet filipendula, cimicifuga, 'Crystal Peak White' obedient plant and 'Henryi' clematis on the close side of the arbor seat.

The south, sunnier half of the White Garden beds, with 'David' phlox, 'Casablanca' Oriental lilies and 'White Swan' coneflowers. White wisteria is growing on the the arbor seat pillars (which has not yet bloomed for me in two years). This area is at its peak right now and looks all right.

Flowers really are miraculous things, are they not? Such beautiful blooms despite our spotty attention. Thanks for reading! -Beth

16 comments:

  1. Beth your gardens are spectacular...those sunflowers at the back of the border to the gorgeous plantings along the pickets....my I am smitten!!

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    1. Thanks so much, Donna -- I'm glad you like the photos. It is a pretty nice time of year, flower-wise. Thanks for visiting! -Beth

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  2. Hi Beth, I really like your north border, your front of the house plantings, and your white gardens. I hadn't heard of white wisteria. Will look forward to seeing it in the future. You have some interesting sunflowers - I have some with the tan like yours - I bought a packet of mixed sunflowers from Seed Savers - by chance is that what you planted as well?

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    1. Hi Beth, Thanks so much for your nice comment! I don't know much about wisteria in general, but this is 'Clara Mack,' a Kentucky wisteria (not the invasive Chinese sort), which is supposed to bloom much sooner than the Asian kinds, but I haven't seen any sign of white racemes yet.... I think the sunflowers might have been Burpee 'Mammoth' seeds that I planted last year. They have re-seeded this year (very obliging of them), and I don't think they're hybrid seeds, so perhaps they are true to the original ones -- otherwise who knows what colors you get? Thanks again for reading! -Beth

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  3. Hello Beth - I came visiting via Janneke - your garden looks really lovely especial the physostegia against the white picket fence. Thank you for the introduction to such a pretty flower which I have not come across before.

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    1. Hi Rosemary, I'm so glad you visited! The physostegia is indeed a pretty plant, although some people have complained of thuggishness in richer soils (I haven't had a problem here in my clay soil, and they seem to pull out easily enough -- and such a pretty plant can be given a bit of leeway, in my opinion). Your own blog looks to be filled with beautiful flowers too and I look forward to reading more of your posts. Thanks again for stopping by! -Beth

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  4. Your gardens look so beautiful, I am fond of your white garden bed, really stunning!

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    1. Thanks, Janneke -- that's very kind. I'm glad you visited! -Beth

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  5. Beth... it truly is very lovely.... I think it's hard for us to get past what the garden was a couple weeks or so ago... I know I always want things to be at their very peak and as I move into August I get a bit down from what was my mid-summer 'high'. We passed through Iowa City this past weekend and considered calling but my knee was in so much pain that we decided against it... Sarah ended up driving most of the 1000 miles we traveled. We did get to see Ron and Beth which was really nice as it had been a couple years... they have some exciting plans for their gardens. It also had been so long since we saw the grandchildren so the trip had to be made, knee pain or not... I'm edging and mowing today... could get major rain this afternoon. lilies are all spent but still remnants of some beautiful daylilies and a few I don't recall starting to bloom just now. Some phlox is very nice now as well... I am feeling overwhelmed with work and hardly know where to start... working on limbing up and fencing the NE windbreak and building fences... I also want to add a perennial garden where I lost that large 'Brozzonii ' magnolia. On top of that I'm working on some glass commissions and the house will get several new windows tomorrow. Visitors have slowed down although the gardens will be used for family portraits tonight by neighbors and the Oshkosh garden Club is coming Thursday evening so I really need to get to a lot of deadheading, having been gone for four days... take care and good luck with the new school year... we look forward to meeting your children ... perhaps next summer... my best to you and Brian... Larry

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    1. Larry, We would have loved having you here! But I totally understand the knee pain, having experienced that too off-and-on for years. We all have to live within our limitations. I hope you'll be able to come in early June next year, the time that I think is the nicest here. I hope to visit Beth's garden in Des Moines too at some point. I'm glad you got to see your grandchildren on this trip -- that's very important to do before they're too old to appreciate you. Try not to work too hard in your gardens -- not everything has to be done this year, and you can only do so much yourself (since you don't have a large garden staff like the English nobility had 100 years ago: a head gardener, 27 under-gardeners, and assorted garden boys, etc. -- don't we wish!). Thanks so much for reading and for your very kind comments. Take care, Beth

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  6. Your gardens are breathtakingly beautiful. I love how all of the blooms' colors harmonize with each other. They are all so lovely. Nature really has a way of powering through and creating beauty, even without human intervention. Thank you for sharing those amazing pictures! Wishing you all the best!

    Sam Lucas @ Green Collar

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    1. Thank you, Sam, for your very kind comments -- I'm so glad you enjoyed the photos. Thanks for visiting! -Beth

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  7. Everything looks beautiful! You have such a wide variety of flowers. :o) If you want a really cool, pollinator magnet to fill in some of those gaps, add agastache 'Blue Fortune'. It will get big and lush and likes full sun. :o)

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    1. Hi Casa, Thanks for your very nice words and especially for your suggestion -- the agastache does look like exactly the kind of spiky, mid-summer plant I need to fill in my sunny North Border, and the variety you suggest apparently does better in wet winter soil, which my clay location has plenty of. I will put it on my list of things to buy next spring. Thanks! -Beth

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  8. The purple phlox are amazing and fragrant. My mum has them on her allotment and I will be getting them for my garden :)

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    1. Hi Aga, thanks for visiting! I'm glad you have enjoyed the photos, and I certainly agree with you about how nice phlox are -- one of the joys of the summer garden. Best Regards, -Beth

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