August's End

This August has been a month to remember in my personal life and although I don't have much of a subject for this post on the gardening front the simple recording of images- moments in time are comforting and worth sharing.

My last post had a teaser image of rebloom on one of my favorite performers~ Hibiscus 'Red Flyer' has returned for an encore.



My Energizer Bunny analogy for Daylily 'Cripple Creek' is still dead on. It's the only daylily in the garden that's even thinking about blooming right now.



The white form of American Beautyberry is at its brief peak for berry viewing.



This enthusiastic member of the Ipomea clan is trying to claim it's territory in a young Curly Willow.



Since I've learned how to create textures for use in Photoshop from my own photos I've been even more aware than I am normally of this attribute in the garden. The Georgia Aster has always been a favorite for its form~ here it is gearing up to bloom.



And the wabi sabi award for texture goes to this photo of fuzzy yucca seedpods with lovely bokeh.



Bring on September!

Bloom Day ~ July 2010

I nearly missed posting yet another bloom day so I decided to be a purist and post just these 5 images of blooms taken this morning before leaving for work( for the sake of brevity if nothing else).

The ants are happily pollenating the Pineapple Lily~ this is Eucomis comosa I believe. If it's a named selection I've forgotten the name.



Reliable Hibiscus 'Red Flyer' has just started blooming this week. It's not as tall as I've seen it but I'm grateful it's bloomimg at all.



Phlox paniculata has not taken off in my garden so I was delighted to find this one stalk lagging behind and giving new flowers.



I have a couple of blooms from my Sweetbay rugosa.



and the Daylily star of the day was Cindy's seedling.



The weather has been brutally hot and way too dry for the garden to look good as a whole but the beauty of blogging is that you don't have to see all of that:) For more eye candy visit our hostess at May Dreams Garden where you'll find links to gardens around the world.

A Grand Debut

It has been a typical August week in the garden with hot temps and not much new to see except for the debut of flowers on Hibiscus grandiflorus. It seems as though the tight little flower buds transform magically overnight. I love this plant for its greyish green velvety leaves almost as much as these powder puff pink blooms. Another plus is the Japanese beetles and Sawfly larvae don't like the velvetey leaves.





Stokesia laevis 'Peachie's Pick' was divided and transplanted in several different locations in the garden last fall. The result has been a nice staggering of bloom time among the plants this summer.



My one stalk of Sedum 'Matrona' in bud. The voles ruined the original clump and this is a start over plant.



I thought I had removed Lantana 'Miss Huff' a couple of years ago but it has persisted amid the new plantings. I leave it to see who will win out.



My first clear shot of a Silver Spotted Skipper( I wish it had been captured with the newer camera).



The bunnies kept this new planting of Mexican Petunia trimmed back until recently. It's nice to finally see flowers.



Galaxy Explosion is reblooming.



This clump of Blue Love Grass didn't get a trim this year and is in full fluff.



And to finish~ my wonderful patch of Bog Sage~ still keeping the bees happy:)

August Blooms

I learned a valuable Blogger lesson yesterday morning: don't assume your draft has been auto saved and never use the back button while composing. It's been a whole day since I lost my first blog post so this one won't be quite the same~ my memory is not what it used to be.

I'm not sure I can really remember a summer since I started gardening with as regular rainfall as I've seen this year. I wish I could have known it would be this way earlier in the season. I would have planted more moisture loving plants.

I've never had Brugmansia to bloom before September here- usually they are very late blooming but this noid pink brug is full of blooms now.


In 2007 I bought 4 clumps of unregistered daylilies from Dan Bachman's breeding program. This one is by far my favorite. I love the animated character of the blooms and would love to give it a name but since I'm pretty sure that I didn't get all of the plant it would be best left unnamed. This is the last bloom to open this year:(

This neglected clump of Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' is showing its appreciation for the rains. It's planted in my front foundation bed and I'm pretty much a backyard gardener so I've been pleasantly surprised at its performance this year.

This is the very first bloom stalk from this Eucomis pole-evansii that I planted in 2006. Not sure if it's "sleep,creep,leap" or the rains that are responsible but I'll take it,lol.

I bought this a couple of weeks ago on the day of the Dave's Garden Roundup and PDN open house~ Crocosmia 'Walrhead'. A funky name for a gorgeous flower;)

I'm sure that I'll never again be without this plant. It reseeds agressively but is a great filler plant so I just try to reign it in occasionally~ Eupatorium coelestinum aka Hardy Ageratum or as I prefer, Wild Ageratum

Hibiscus 'Red Flyer' is still blooming too. I love this plant! The bugs leave it alone and the flowers are huge.

Past and present cont.

My attempt at backtracking continues.... This is Geranium sanguineum 'Ankum's Pride' blooming on May 5th. Plant Delights Nursery says it's a blooming machine for hot and dry sites which remains to be seen. I love the tiny flowers and foliage but the blooms where short lived and have not returned so far this season.



One of my oldest and favorite salvias is Salvia chamaedryoides, Blue Oak Sage. I think I have the right conditions for it because it spreads with abandon in the tiny bed it's in. It normally blooms in spring and fall flushes- some years better than others but the silvery foliage is there year round.



These little guys are hard to beat for simple beauty and bold color. It's a shame that I can't seem to control them in any way,lol. California Poppy is a reseeding annual that is best started by seed in situ in the fall here in the Carolinas but in my garden they seem to just do what they please once started.



I posted a pic of the cool foliage of this Epimedium back in April so here are the flowers. I'm not sure which one this is right now but I believe it to be a species and no particular cultivar. I'm so happy to finally be able to grow some part shade plants successfully. From what I hear Epimediums were a good plant to start with because they're tough.



For the present part of this post I have a summer favorite~ Hibiscus 'Red Flyer'. I belive this is its third or fourth year in the garden and is not as tall this year as in previous years. If it ends up being one of those perennials that peters out I will definitely be repacing it.