June Flowers

Greetings! June is always such a floriferous time of year, from the irises and peonies that are now fading to the roses that are in full bloom.

Here's a few scenes from around my gardens during the past couple of weeks:

 

First, here's my Paradise Garden, filled with poppies and pinks and pansies.

A closeup of the eye-watering clashing going on between the pelargoniums in pots and the poppies behind them -- it was much more strident in person, I can assure you! :-)

Moving on to my delphiniums: This is the first time in 3-4 years that I have had delphiniums flowering here. The bed became overgrown with grass and I had to clear it out three years ago and leave it empty until last year, when I planted more delphs that I raised from seeds. Finally they're blooming!

Another view of the delphinium bed from the front -- I always love how these look with daisies!

Herbaceous peony 'Sarah Bernhardt' -- these flowers are so huge....

Intersectional peony 'Bartzella' in my Yellow Garden.

I finally painted the posts of our pergola white, after nearly two years. (They are treated lumber, so they did need to cure a bit -- but not really for quite so long....) The wisteria 'Amythyst Falls' that I planted two years ago is now blooming better than it ever has, and looks very pretty with the Dame's Rocket that self-seeded here.

Here's our favorite view -- which looks even more beautiful with the addition of the wisteria.

And look what I spotted in this border: an eremurus or foxtail lily! I think I spent $100 to plant a dozen of these in this border -- five years ago -- and never saw any trace of any of them. I guess one of them decided it could emerge and bloom now.

I hope you are enjoying many flowers in your own gardens during June flower time. Thanks for stopping by! -Beth

A Late-Summer Ode to Annuals

Still going strong!

As I walk around my garden areas, I notice that one of the very few things that still look good in August and September are annual flowers. Yes, I have a few mums and asters that are now flowering, but on the whole, most of my perennials are not just done blooming, but also looking tattered, bug-eaten and withered, and actually subtract from the beauty of my gardens.

These ligularia have definitely seen better days, but the impatiens are a bright spot of color here. 

But the annuals have been at their peak for more than a month now. Zinnias, petunias, snapdragons, annual salvias, cosmos, four o'clocks, impatiens, marigolds and other annuals: they're all still looking good at this difficult time of year.

Annual salvia 'Victoria Blue' are the only thing blooming
in this border.

In my opinion, annual flowers are just not given the respect that they deserve. It seems like many gardeners feel that perennial plants are somehow more horticulturally "serious" than annuals, particularly the popular annuals that big-box retailers carry that have been bred for large, colorful, long-lasting flowers, like petunias and marigolds.

Some people might think they're gaudy and too bright, but I think these marigolds fit right into the Yellow Garden, and they've been flowering non-stop since I planted them in May.

Looking around at this time of year gives further weight to my hypothesis: that (at least here in my growing area) in order to maximize flowerage, gardeners should rely on annuals for color in the second half of the gardening season. The sequence of planting and bloom times should include the following:

1. as many spring bulbs as possible, together with the earliest-flowering perennials that will grow here, such as basket-of-gold (Aurinia saxatilis), together with a few cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons  
2. late spring- and early summer-flowering perennials for bloom in May and June
3. a select number of July-flowering perennials and bulbs such as lilies and perhaps phlox (if mildew isn't an issue)
4. significant numbers of annuals, planted in May, that will start flowering in July and continue through to frost
5. a limited number of fall-blooming perennials such as mums and asters to complement the late annuals

This area would be pretty boring without the salvias and marigolds in two colors to complement the mum that is starting to bloom now.

I've been going through my borders to clear some space for planting more annuals next May. There were a number of under-performing perennials in my front border that I will hardly miss: big clumps of iris that flower for only a week and take up more square footage every year, the so-called "obedient plant" (Physostegia virginiana) that is anything but, and other plants that take up too much room for the short-lived and less-than-glorious flowers they produce. I have started moving and removing those to free up space for planting more annuals next spring.

My front border a couple of weeks ago: overcrowded and messy, with little color.

After the clear-out, with spots left for annuals next year. Perhaps some zinnias and cosmos in the big spots and maybe some salvias, snapdragons or petunias near the edge in front. And some more tulips as well, since I have room now.

Some of my favorite annual flowers, ones that flower well for long periods here:

• Short annuals: petunias (don't sneer, millions of gardeners love them because they flower their heads off), marigolds, dianthus
• med-height annuals: zinnias, snapdragons, annual salvias, four o'clocks (these look like a flowering shrub by August)
• tall annuals: cosmos (they can get to be eight feet tall!), sunflowers (I like the smaller-flowered ones)
• shady annuals: impatiens (it's too bad about the blight that sometimes is affecting them), lobelia

The four o'clock plant makes a larger shrub than some actual shrubs and trees -- this one nearly dwarfs the magnolia behind it! I think I'll plant more of these next year here in the West Island, which is reserved for trees, shrubs and bulbs.

Additionally, I think I might be ready to try some different annuals to see how they perform, perhaps some more exotic and less common ones, like amaranth and some tropical annuals. I'll have to get out a few books about annual flowers that I haven't looked at for a while.

Does anyone have any suggestions for less well-known annuals that thrive and flower well?

Thanks for reading!  -Beth

Autumn's Surprise Posy

I was walking around my Pond Gardens yesterday and happened to see that my dianthus 'Sweetness' are blooming again, despite the fact that they are an early summer-blooming perennial:

A few tiny blooms can be seen on the dianthus edging the four L-shaped gardens beds around my pond. (They're easier to see close-up. Note: the left bench blew over in one of the windy storms we had a few days ago.) The phlox 'Bright Eyes' are about done too, although I'm happy that they still have a few flowers on them, since they've been blooming since late June!

Here's what the dianthus looked like at their peak in early June, with 'Prairie Breeze' Buck roses (I grew the 200 or so dianthus from seed in 2012 and they are still going strong, despite my clay soil):

June 2014. What a lovely time of year!

A closeup of June's magnificence.

Anyway, I was quite delighted to find even a fraction of their earlier blooms repeating this late in the year, and the fragrance is still every bit as delicious as it was before. So I picked a selection from the mixed variety and brought them inside for a miniature posy bouquet (it's only about 3" tall in the vase). The spicy-sweet scent is just the thing I need at this time of year.

Another view from a different side, showing all the different
beautiful colors and shapes of the flowers in the mix.

This is time to enjoy the late flowers in our gardens. You never know what might surprise you by blooming when you least expect it.

Thanks for reading! -Beth

August Roses

The most beautiful time of year for roses is, of course, June (as every gardener knows). But if the weather is right, I've noticed that there can often be two more flushes of bloom (in addition to periodic individual flowers): one in August and one more right before frost. Here are a few photos of some roses in my gardens during August:

Light pink roses in my rose cutting bed. I've moved these around so many times that I can't remember the varieties -- although I did put tags on them and could go find out if I really needed to and could overcome my natural laziness... 

A photo of my rose cutting bed. I've interplanted the roses with four o'clocks, which I've read are poisonous to Japanese beetles, and I hope this will minimize the damage those buggers cause (and at the very least, the annuals will camouflage the defoliated, spindly legs of the roses later in the season when they look their worst).

A single red bloom, with bright yellow four o'clock
(perhaps not the best color combination, but the
mixed seed packet results in random colors, and these
roses are mainly meant for cutting and taking
inside the house.)

More red roses.

These ones look a little nicer with matching four o'clocks behind them, instead of bright yellow.

Yellow 'Happy Child' David Austen rose on the east side of my house.

'Seminole Wind' (aka 'Rosarium Uetersen'), a climbing rose in my front border. I replaced the 'New Dawn' roses that were growing up each side of the arch over my front gate a year and a half ago with these, for two reasons: first, because 'New Dawn' was too pale pink in color to look good against the white wood, and second, because it never repeated bloom for me (I've read that there is a new breeding strain of 'New Dawn' being sold widely that doesn't repeat like the original strain -- or it could just be that it didn't like the full sun, regular watering, and feeding I gave it...) I've moved the 'New Dawn' to the front of the chicken enclosure in our kitchen garden, where it doesn't occupy such a high-profile spot.      

The other side of the arch, with the other 'Seminole Wind' climber, with petunias and snapdragons. I really do like this deeper pink color much better than the pale 'New Dawn,' and I've read that it blooms generously throughout the summer and fall. I'm excited to see it flower in the second year, since many climbing roses don't bloom much at all for 2-3 years (the first year they grow roots, the second year they grow in height and the third year should be full of glorious flowers to reward our patience). 

I've been enjoying this second flush of rose flowering, and I'm also looking forward to the final, late bloom period too. In some years, I've had roses in flower as late as mid-November, even after most other annual and perennial flowers are gone (and in other years, October sees out the last of the roses). Here's to a late and warm winter this year.

Thanks for reading! -Beth

Zinnia Time!

This is a great year for zinnias, I've noticed. Something about the weather or the amount of rain and sunshine we've had during the past two months has really made them sparkle this summer. Here are a few shots of this easy-to-grow, old-fashioned favorite in my gardens:

Mixed zinnias of several different types in my cutting garden. These make lovely bouquets, and I've noticed that I actually like the smaller ones better for bringing inside, for some reason.

A single pink zinnia in the Pink Section of my Rainbow Border. I don't know why more pink ones haven't germinated from the seeds I planted in this section....

The red zinnias have done a bit better in the Red Section of the Rainbow Border. Shown here with some scarlet salvia, these have many more buds ready to flower.

Moving on to the Orange Section of the Rainbow Border, these look pretty good except for the hole-y leaves that have been bitten by some cursed insect or other, even though the red and yellow ones just a few feet on either side were left alone. Yet another of the myriad mysteries of gardening...

The Yellow Section is filled with color from these yellow zinnias. Most late-summer color in the Rainbow Border comes from annuals such as these zinnias, as well as the petunias and marigolds shown in this photo.

Green zinnias are one of my favorite colors of this flower. Green flowers are fairly rare, and these zinnias make a very important contribution to the Green Section of the Rainbow Border.

The one color that zinnias aren't available in is blue, so I'll skip to the penultimate Purple Section of the Rainbow Border. These were sold as one of the most lavender (as opposed to magenta, which has less blue and more red in it) zinnias available, but I'm not sure that these really can be called lavender, except perhaps for the fading older blooms. I don't want to sound overly picky, because they certainly are very pretty, but I'm trying to choose colors very carefully in this border, which is an exercise in color gardening (and a very good learning experience for me as a gardener). I have learned that zinnias really can't be very blue at all. (But perhaps I could mark the flowers that are slightly more blue and save those seeds, and eventually get bluer ones that way? --Though I'm sure many have tried this before.)

I would really like to find some pure white zinnias to add to the two White Sections that begin and end the Rainbow Border, but I've had trouble finding white zinnia seeds sold locally, and I've noticed that the zinnias that are sold as already-blooming annuals in packs aren't white, but are actually a cream color. Perhaps I will try to look harder next spring. Has anyone had experience with a commonly-available brand that is a truly white zinnia?

A few last mixed zinnias in neon colors in the North Border, which look nice with the petunias, sunflowers and shasta daisies, I think.

Zinnias are really one of the best flowers for adding color to borders and for cutting, especially in late summer when most perennials have finished blooming already. They are very easy to grow and also inexpensive -- I grew all of these from seed packets that cost about $1 apiece (except for the special "lavender"-colored zinnias that I bought online, which cost me quite a bit more...).

Some garden designers disdain such a "common" flower, but there's a reason why old-fashioned zinnias are so "common": they grow well and flower generously, as long as you have sufficient sun and heat for them, not something in short supply in Midwestern summers. (They originally hail from Mexico, South America and the Southwestern United States, which explains their love of strong sunlight.) They are also drought-resistant, long-blooming, and require little-to-no maintenance.

If you have a sunny spot, why not toss some zinnia seeds there in May and forget about them until you see their beautiful, cheery blooms? You'll enjoy their color continuing through autumn and they often reseed the next year. What's not to like about an easy, inexpensive, colorful and long-blooming flower like zinnas?

Thanks for reading! -Beth