Summer Daze

Herb's bed in summer: Clary sage and Blazing Meadow Star

Herb's bed another view

 

In early summer, despite the voracious deer, my garden is looking splendid. Herb's bed is full of the statuesque flower spikes of Clary Sage, some Blazing Meadow Star and the red Texas sage is beginning to bloom. The lavender is a bit past it now, and so is the butterfly weed, but the Feather Reed grass 'Karl Foerster' is sporting its plumes at the back of the bed.

 

Crocosmia 'Lucifer'

Crocosmia ;Lucifer'

I've sprayed most of the plants with deer repellent--despite some browsing, the red Crocosmia 'Lucifer' has retained some of its flowers. I was able to save a few Purple de Oro daylilies too. I finally got to see some blooms on the dwarf Buttonbush 'Sugar Shack', which was planted a few years back, and hadn't had a chance to bloom--deer kept eating the buds. The wild petunia ( Ruelia humilis) usually gets chewed up pretty bad too, but the spray seems to be working.

 

Purple de Oro daylilies with rosemary and thyme.

Dwarf Buttonbush 'Sugar Shack'

Wild petunia (Ruelia humilis).

Deer usually don't care for iris and the Chinese iris (Blackberry Lily) is no exception.

 

Chinese iris AKA Blackberry Lily.

 

The deer left me only one flower of the red bee balm (Monarda 'Jacob Kline') and a few Coneflowers in the back bed despite spraying-- I guess these are the areas in my yard most exposed to them.

 

Red Monarda 'Jacob Kline' with Anise Hyssop, Mountain mint and Oat grass.

Coneflowers and Mountain mint.

 

The Vitex shrub is getting ready to bloom in the east garden woodland--its lavender flowers are a wonderful attraction during July. The unidentified hydrangea in front of it needs protection from the deer, as well as the anemone nearby, therefore the barrier.

 

Vitex in bud.

Mexican Wavy grass (Nasella tenuissima) in the east woodland.

The back yard from the east side

 

Salvias are another plant that is pretty deer-proof. This summer I'm growing several tropical ones, some new for me: deep purple 'Amistad', a red one called 'Faye Chapel', my favorite 'Black and Blue', and 'Hummingbird Falls' in a hanging basket. Early 'Amistad' is the only one that has any flowers right now. 

 

Salvia 'May Night' is almost finished for now.

 

Salvia 'Amistad' in a pot along the front walk.

The trees in my front garden offer welcome shade in the heat, and shelter for potted plants.

 

The front garden.

Petunias are the main feature of my hanging baskets on the porch this year--love that deep purple! The other plants on the porch being kept out of the deer's reach are a Sunpatiens with bicolor leaves, my yellow Hibiscus, and a low-growing Campanula I'll set out in the garden when it cools down a bit.

 

Petunias 'Pretty Grand' and 'Madness March' mix.

 

Petunias 'Pretty Grand' and 'Madness March' mix.

A Sunpatiens and a low-growing Campanula.

 My Australian Red lime tree has produced one fruit and is blooming nicely. 

 

Australian red lime.

 Hopefully, the weather will continue to cooperate and I'll have plenty of flowers for July's Bloom Day in a couple of weeks.

 

New Art Works

Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) on Purple-Fringed Orchid (Platanthera grandiflora), watercolor, 13"h x 10"w.

With the current heat wave, spending time outdoors hasn't been very appealing. Aestivating in air conditioned comfort has its advantages: I finally get around to doing paintings I'd been meaning to do for ages!

The Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) above was painted from photos taken four years ago when I was artist-in-residence at the Red House. I visited an acquaintance in nearby WV who took me to a site where there were a lot of native Purple-fringed orchids. The orchids were in full bloom and attracting scads of butterflies, among them this Great Spangled Fritillary. 

Painting the butterfly was very challenging, and so was the orchid--those fringed edges are so tricky!

 

Mountain Laurel II (Kalmia latifolia), watercolor, 14"h x 11"w.

 

Above is the second painting I've done of Mountain Laurel, inspired by my recent hike to North Mountain. I sold the first painting I did of it when I was artist-in-residence at the Red House a few years ago. Both paintings were done from sprigs of the actual plant. I love the way the branches of this plant grow in such artistic patterns, and the dark leaves set off the pale flowers--definitely one of the loveliest of our native plants. 

 

North Mountain Patch of Ground (Hawkweed sp.?), colored pencil, 12"h x 10"w.

 

This last piece is for the upcoming "A Winter Walk" exhibition that the Botanical Art Society of the National Capital Region (BASNCR) is going to present at the Athenaeum in Alexandria, VA, during the holidays this year. Our show is scheduled from Dec. 18, 2025 through Jan. 24, 2026.

I was intrigued by this tiny, very hairy plant growing on the slopes of North Mountain that I came across during a VNPS hike last year. One of the botanists guiding us tentatively identified it as a hawkweed, perhaps Panicled Hawkweed (Hieracium paniculatum) but I'll need to go back in about a month to see if that is indeed the correct identification, or perhaps it's another species, Beaked Hawkweed (Hieracium gronovii). Both bloom in mid-summer.

I selected colored pencils for this piece in order to use a technique I'd learned about and saw demonstrated at this year's ASBA Spring Symposium--I wanted to try it. Using a metal point to make marks on the paper turned out to be an effective yet simple way to render those long hairs.

I'm busy working on other paintings now, waiting till we get a respite from the weather.

 

June Bloom Day

Island bed.

 

I'm quite a few days late with this post--my computer was in the shop being upgraded and on top of that I came down with a summer virus (another nasty Covid variant?) and was feeling very poorly. Now that I have my Photoshop back, I'll try to catch up with the flowers in my summer garden--most of these shots were taken last week before I got sick. "Bloom Day" is hosted by Carol Michel's blog, May Dreams Gardens, on the 15th of every month.

We've had an extraordinarily wet spring this year in my northwest corner of Virginia (zone 6b). May topped out at a record ten inches of rain, and this month so far I've recorded about 4.6 inches. Some of the storms have been spectacular, with high winds. After three years of drought conditions it's a welcome change. The deer continue to eat so many of my flowers, but there are still enough left to enjoy.

The long island bed next to the veggie pagoda has been filled to red-hot pokers in two colors, Yucca, Tansy and both blue and white lavender. The Sedum ground cover is full of tiny yellow flowers.The English thyme is lush with flowers, and makes a delicious seasoning for chicken and other dishes.

 

White lavender with red-hot pokers and tansy flowers.

English thyme in bloom.

 This year I finally have butterfly weed in both orange and yellow. That makes up for the deer eating all of my Asian lilies and so many of the Stella de Oro daylilies too. I used to have masses of these in a long row, but this year, only a few buds have been spared.

 

Butterfly weed in the Little Indians bed.

 

Regular and 'Hello Yellow' butterfly weed.

 

Lavender is blooming in several beds--'Hidcote', 'Grosso' and 'Munstead' varieties as well as the white. 

 

'Munstead' lavender.

'Hidcote' lavender.

Lavender 'Grosso' in the front.

 

There's a bit of Veronica 'Skywalker' and a pink variety in the front bed by the garage, but not a whole lot of bloom on them this year--I wonder if it's getting too shady there for them? Some of the Clary sage I seeded into this bed is blooming behind the bush roses. The original patch of Clary sage in Herb's bed is also blooming.

 

Veronica 'Skywalker'

Clary sage with Blue Fescue

Clary sage in Herb's bed with Prairie Blazing Star.

The pink Bee Balm under the cherry tree is blooming nicely, but the red 'Jacob Cline' in the back yard has been eaten back by the deer, so I don't know if I'll get much from it this year. The deer have also been attacking the Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) I grew from seed last year, so again, I may not get much bloom this year. I'd read that this plant wasn't particularly liked by them, but apparently they will eat it.

 

Pink Bee Balm (Monarda)

 

This summer the deer have even gone after my 'Incrediball' hydrangea--one they hadn't attacked before--so now I've put them behind a mesh barrier. They spared the Oak Leaf hydrangea for a while, but devoured the flowers right after I took this photo.

 

Oak Leaf Hydrangea with 'Incrediball' Hydrangea behind.

 

Oak Leaf Hydrangea

 

Hydrangea 'Incrediball'

 The Tradescantia in this part of the garden also needs protection, or there'd soon be nothing left of it. I'm seriously considering fencing off the entire back yard, these deer are becoming such pests!

 

Tradescantia '

 

The Japanese maples in the east woodland garden are loving the rain, I've never seen them looking so good! The pagoda dogwood has shot up at least two feet, and the Carolina Silverbell behind it is growing well, though since the little bells were all burnt in the early April frost, there are no seedpods this year. 

 

East garden trees.

 

A new Cuphea called 'Torpedo' bought this year has a very unusual combination of colors. Unforutnately, the deer came by right after I took the photo and ate all the flowers--it's now on the porch regrowing, hopefully will have new flowers soon.

 

Cuphea 'Torpedo'

Cuphea 'Torpedo'

 

That's the highlights for June Bloom Day in my garden, thanks for visiting!

 

North Mountain Hikes

Mountain Laurel on North Mountain Trail.

In the past two weekends I've had the opportunity to hike on North Mountain. The first Saturday was a Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) organized hike, and although I had been there with them the previous fall, I missed the turn and had to back track to find the road--I ended up arriving quite late. By the time I got to the site, the group had already started out.

 

Minniebush flowers (Rhododendrum pilosum)

 

Fortunately, being plant people, VNPS folks don't cover a lot of ground in a hurry, and I found them only about 40 yards up the trail. The weather was splendid, and seeing familiar faces: Sally, Emily, and Richard, all expert plant ID'ers, was wonderful--I always learn so much from them. Running into my friend Lori was an extra treat--we had no idea we'd both signed up for the hike! 

 

Blueberries along the trail (Vaccinium angustifolium)

Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)

Mountain Laurel in bud.

 

Mountain Laurel grows profusely all around this area, but it was still mostly in bud, with only a few flowers open on the lower slopes. We spotted some pink Ladyslippers blooming along the trail.

 

Pink ladyslipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule)

Another pink Ladyslipper orchid.

 
We foundd a number of young American chestnut trees growing--this area must have had quite a number of these trees back in the 1920's before the blight killed them off, and saplings frequently sprout from the dead stumps. Unfortunately, these never reach maturity, as the blight attacks them just as they reach the size when the bark starts to furrow.

 

Young American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata)

Going up the trail, we saw two pink native azaleas in bloom--Roseshell azaleas (Rhododendron prinophyllum), which are fragrant. One had some galls on it,caused by a fungus called Exobasidium, which doesn't harm the plant too much. Oddly enough these are the only two azaleas of this species we found--why in this particular spot, I wonder?

 

Roseshell azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum)

Roseshell azalea with Exobasidium gall.

Near the top of the mountain we saw some young witch hazel trees with witches' hat galls caused by the Witch Hazel Cone Gall (Hormaphis hamamelidis). 

Cone galls on witch hazel tree.

The view opens up as one reaches the top of the mountain, where a few Table Mountain Pines grow along with pitch pines. I learned a new botanical term, "epicormic," to describe the new growth that sprouts from the trunks of the pitch pines. There were plenty in evidence on these, a sure way to identify them, as this doesn't occur in other species of pine.

 

View near the top of North Mountain.

Epicormic sprouts on pitch pine trunk.

The view from the top, at Eagle Rock, is amazing, and on this sunny, cool spring day the greens and blues of the distant mountains were just spectacular!

 

The view from Eagle Rock.

 

My friend Lori and I on Eagle Rock

 

We had such fun that Lori and I agreed to repeat the hike the following Saturday just by ourselves, hoping that the mountain laurel flowers would be further along toward full bloom. After a very rainy week, we met there to walk the trail on another gorgeous, sunny yet cool morning.

 

Mountain Laurel on the hillside.

Mountain laurel in full bloom.

Just we we'd hoped, the woods were alive with the blossoms of Mountain Laurel--a riot of pale pink! The lower slopes were almost fully out, although higher up, the laurel was still mostly in bud. 

 

Close up of the flowers.

 I had in mind to take a couple of sprigs with blossoms home to paint, so we took a side trail looking for places where I could do so unobtrusively. Along the fire road which the hunting club maintains, we found some huge bracken ferns.

 

Bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum)

 

There were many folks on the trail this morning, some with young children--always nice to see young people enjoying the woods. The Roseshell azalea, so lovely the previous week was about done blooming by now. 

 

View from Eagle Rock

The view from the top is always spectacular! This young red oak sapling near the top of the mountain caught my eye, it was such an amazing color.

 

Red oak sapling.

 

On the way back we took the side trail again and I cut and carefully packed my samples for a new painting of  Mountain Laurel--I hope it turns out well. North Mountain is such a a beautiful place!