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.

Debby's Gift

 

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) in miy front yard.

Tropical storm Debby arrived in our area last Wednesday evening and stayed through Friday. During that time Debby brought us a generous 6.75 inches of rain--a real gift! After such a severe drought during June and July, my garden is now reviving after these rains. Unfortunately, the deer have eaten so much, there aren't a lot of flowers left, but here are some of what is left for August's Bloom Day.

The cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) under the cherry tree in front has come back--the one I'd planted in a back bed last year died in July--too dry a site for it, I expect. The location of this other seems to suit it, I hope I can get more plants to grow here.

 

Wild Ageratum on the east bed.

The wild Ageratum (Conoclinium coelestinum) which continues to reseed itself in the east bed and Herb's bed was looking very droopy, but it perked up a lot with the rains. Unfortunately the deer have eaten all of my Blue Lobelias (Lobelia siphyllitica) in the same bed, and their usual masses of flowers are gone.

 

Red Salvia

The red Salvia in Herb's bed is offering its blooms for the hummingbirds--we finally spotted a few recently, after seeing none in June and July. The deer ate the blue Agapanthus earlier, but another flowering spike has appeared; they didn't get this one after I sprayed it with repellent!

Agapanthus 'Blue Nile'

 

Deer generally avoid Agastaches, so my 'Blue Boa' were not touched, but the drought set it back somewhat. I need a few more plants to make this patch show up--another project for the fall or next spring!

Agastache 'Blue Boa'

Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm')

A few black-eyed Susans bloomed after the rains despite the deer eating back most of the buds, ditto for the Coneflowers in the back bed. The Seven Son Flower tree is starting to bloom too.

Purple Coneflowers reblooming.

Seven Son Flower tree (Heptacodium miconoides)

A few other blooms typical for this time of the year: white 'Natchez' crapemyrtle, and Russian sage (Perovskia).

Crape myrtle 'Natchez' with Abelia 'Panoramic' and Japanese maple.

Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)

 

Most of my potted plants had to be moved to the porch or the back deck to be safe from the deer--they were bold enough to nibble the black cotton plants I had in pots on the front steps of the house! They ate back the 'Black and Blue' Brazilian Salvia too, which is only now starting to put out a few budding spikes.

 

Irish moss (Sagina subulata)

 

This Irish moss plant has survived for several years in a pot that used to hold a blueberry plant, 'Top Hat'. The blueberry died out this summer, but the Irish moss has persisted. My hanging baskets on the porch haven't filled out as I hoped, but they are colorful. The problem with these Pamela Crawford side planters is they use up so much water! They dry out quickly too, and a few plants never make it, leaving large areas of the coir baskets exposed--not very attractive.

 

Porch baskets.

Front porch basket

Potted plants on the deck.

Tuberous begonia on deck.

 

 

We'll finish up with my two recent watercolors: Ice Mountain Suite #1 has been accepted into Art at the Mill's fall 2024 show. I'm working on completing Ice Mountain suite #2

Ice Mountain Suite #1, watercolor.

 

Ice Mountain Suite #2.

 

Bloom Day on the 15 on every month is brought to you by to Carol Michel's May Dreams Garden blog, Happy August Bloom Day!

Late Summer Flowers

Salvia 'Black and Blue'

 

It's hard to believe it's already August! On Monday the current hot and dry spell broke with a storm that brought a decent amount of rain--what a difference it made! With this drought, the deer and rabbits have so little to eat that they've devoured most of my flowers this summer. Repellents and sprays don't seem to be doing much to dissuade them this year, and they've attacked plants that had been overlooked before.

So, I've been doing all I can to keep my plants out of their reach. The most sought out of potted plants have moved up onto the porch or the back deck. But of the other perennials in my yard, impossible to move, very few have escaped. 

Fortunately Salvias are not to the critters' taste and the hummingbirds love them. I saw one hummer early this morning feasting on the 'Black and Blue' and the magenta Salvia along my front walk.

 

Stella d'Oro daylilies.

I hardly saw any daylilies during their first flush of bloom in June--the deer devoured all of the buds--but now, one late bud of the Stella d'Oro lilies seems to have escaped their notice. A few others, like the pink-flowered Queen Anne's Lace (Ammi majus 'Dara') that I'd planted last year, have apparently also escaped their notice. I have plenty of the white-flowered wild variety in this part of the garden, but this is the first pink-flowered one I've seen.

 

Ammi majus in pink.

Queen Anne's Lace and deep pink phlox.

There isn't much in the way of flowers at a time when my garden should have at least a few, but here's a some.

 

Ageratum.

It's been too dry for the Ageratum, but some plants are blooming in the more sheltered beds. The Anise Hyssop I grew from seed has finally grown enough to present some blooms, although this morning I saw that rabbits had eaten some of my recently planted specimens.

 

Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)

The deer or rabbits also nipped most of the buds of my blue Lobelias, which usually bloom profusely at this time of the year. I'm hoping some will regrow enough to make a decent display, particularly if we get some more rain.

 

Blue Lobelias starting to bloom.

The Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance' has hung on only because of my watering, and is offering a few blooms now. Some of the leaf stems seem to be reverting to the ordinary leaf color rather than the variegated, but that can happen sometimes with these new hybrids or cultivars.

 

Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance'

The mint family does seem to be immune to browsing and the slender-leaved mountain mint is no exception. But the rabbits have been munching on the bee balm next to it, which they haven't done before.

 

Mountain mint (Pycnantheum tenuifolium)

With so little bloom what shall I photograph for the August Bloom Day coming up?