August 2026 Bloom Day

Painted Daisies

 

My goodness, it's Bloom Day, the 15th of every month when we gardeners share what's blooming in our gardens, hosted by Carol Michel's May Dreams Garden blog. I'd almost forgotten about it, and here I'd already posted most of what is blooming in my garden earlier this week!

There are a few flowers I missed, let's see. First, the Painted Daisy above--at least I think that's what it is. I bought it at Lowe's this spring, and seem to have lost the tag. I planted it out in my front garden, but the deer kept eating it back, so I finally dug it up and put it in a pot on the back deck. The flowers only open during the day when it's sunny, but they're gorgeous!

 

Plant stand on the back deck

 Some of the plants on the plant stand look a bit beat-up, a storm blew off some stems and I haven't cleaned up. The pansies are all dead too, but I haven't had time to re-plant the pots. The Thai basil a friend gave me has the largest and prettiest flowers I've ever seen on a basil. Tiny sweat bees love it!

 

Thai basil

Petunia 'Red Maple' on the back deck

Native Lobelias are a bright spot at this time of the year--the one Cardinal Flower in the front is flowering; the three new plants I set out haven't developed any blooming stems so far. The blue and white Lobelias in the woodland garden continue to proliferate.

 

Lobelia Cardinalis

 

Blue and white Lobelias

 The Seven Son Flower Tree is displaying its small scented flowers.

 

Seven Son Flower Tree

 

The other day I was weeding under the Zelkova tree and moved what I though was a leaf stem caught in the nylon mesh that protects the trunk. A couple of minutes later, the little green stem was back up on the trunk of the tree--a stick insect, it turned out! Such amazing critters, these mimics.

 

Stick insect on a tree trunk

My artichokes were a bust this year--they didn't grow much, so I replaced them with cardoons--supposedly a hardier version of artichokes. This variety is spineless, and I'm curious to see how they'll do, if they'll bloom next year.

  

Cardoon plant

The No ID hydrangeas are unfazed by the dry conditions and keep blooming. Only two of the White Cleomes that I grew from seed a friend gave me survived the harsh summer conditions to bloom now.

  

No ID Hydrangea

White Cleome

 That's all folks! Thanks for visiting!

 

Dog Day Suprises

Porch basket

 

My porch baskets full of Pretty Grand petunias, which were lovely when I left, were barely alive when I returned from Peru. I managed to save a few petunias in this one, the other basket had to be re-planted with other flowers--whatever was available this late at a local store.

We're in the Dog Days now, when flowers are generally wilting and fading in the heat of August. Yesterday I found some surprising blooms in my garden: these tiny pink Cyclamen that I planted last fall and totally forgot about--I spotted two of these beauties peeking out of my woodland garden east of the house when I was watering.

 Looks like more buds are sprouting, hopefully they'll make a nice display in about a week. I believe they're the fall-blooming Cyclamen coum, and I'm wondering when the foliage will emerge. It's the first time I've grown them, and it's always fun to see the development of a plant new to me.

 

Cyclamen flowers coming up

Cyclamen

A tomato hornworm has been decimating my cherry tomatoes, but I haven't been able to find it--hopefully parasitic wasps will make short order of it soon if they haven't already. A few days ago I did find a black swallowtail caterpillar eating my dill, a 5th or 6th instar it looks like. It has now disappeared, which means it's likely attached itself somewhere to spin its cocoon. I'll be looking for it somewhere near by, though the chrysalis are difficult to spot.

 

Black Swallowtail caterpillar 

 

Herb's bed is splendid with the Agastaches  and Ageratums in bloom. The butterfly bush in the Little Indians bed behind recovered and is blooming too.

 

Agastaches in Herb's bed

 

Buddleia with Queen Anne's lace

Lots of butterfly action in my garden last week when these flowers were still in bloom: the Monarch butterflies love the Prairie Blazing Meadowstar (Liatris ligulistylis). A gorgeous male Tiger Swallowtail on the Buckeye Bottlebrush, and a Silver-potted Skipper and a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on my Anise Hyssop. The flowers have faded now, and new plants are blooming, apprently not as attractive to the butterflies, although I did spot a Red-spotted Purple Admiral a few days ago while I was watering. It flew by too quickly to get a shot of it.

 

Monarch butterfly on Prairie Blazing Meadowstar

 

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (male) on Bottlebrush Buckeye

Silver-spotted Skipper and a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on Anise Hyssop

 

Recently I've been more focused on butterflies because I took a workshop in colored pencils dealing with incorporating insects and butterflies into botanical paintings, and had chosen to do an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (female) on Joe Pye week, based on a photograph I took last year. It took me about two weeks and a lot of layers of colored pencils of many shades to finish it. Below is a photo of the finished piece.

 

 

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly, colored pencils on Bristol 300 Vellum finish, 9" x 12"

 My next artwork will probably be the Monarch butterfly on the Prairie Blazing Meadow Star, but in watercolor, just to see if a different medium is faster and/or better for this type of work.

 * * *

My heather is full of flowers after a severe pruning in the spring, and the "Baby Joe" Joe-pye weed is about to open.

 

Heather in bloom

 

"Baby Joe' Joe-pye weed

The plants along m front walk are presenting some nice flowers. This year I grew some Eucomis for the first time. The double Tuberose has some lovely scented flowers. And I've got my favorite tropical Salvias like 'Black and Blue' and 'Faye Chapel' as well as two new ones, 'Brazilian Blue' and Salvia Gentian 'Cambridge Blue'.

Eucomis

Double Tuberose

Variegated cotton and double Tuberose

Tropical Salvias in pots along the front walk

Salvia Gentian 'Cambridge Blue'

A Red Dahlia I couldn't resist buying is starting to bloom. Canna 'Tropicana' hasn't bloomed yet, it's in its second year, and I'm still hoping to see its flowers, but the leaves are so gorgeous anyway, it's fine.

 

Red Dahlia

Canna 'Tropicana' with red 'Double Knockout' rose

I have no idea what I'll have in bloom for the coming August Bloom Day next Saturday the 15th.