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| Hanging basket on porch. |
It's hot and very dry here in my corner of Virginia--USDA Zone 6B--on this July Bloom Day. We haven't seen a drop of rain in going on three weeks, and June's rains weren't exactly plentiful. Despite my attempts to keep it watered, my garden is really suffering, and the local deer are more voracious than ever. So, this Bloom Day, hosted by Carol Michel's May Dreams Garden, is going to be skimpier than usual.
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| Hanging baskets. |
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| Fuchsia on porch. |
Thanks to their daily watering in the scorching temperatures, the hanging baskets on the porch have about the most flowers: petunias, calibrachoas,blue and white lobelias, coleus and a Fuchsia in one basket. There are a few flowers the deer have mostly left alone, so let's take a look.
Starting on the east side of the house, the hydrangeas 'Little Quick fire' and 'Incrediball' have flowers that haven't been mauled--while another hydrangea, 'Endless Summer' next to Incrediball has been completely consumed.
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| Hydrangea 'Little Quick Fire' |
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| Hydrangea 'Incrediball' |
My Vitex usually blooms profusely at this time of the year, but despite lots of watering, the shrub (now about 10' tall) isn't nearly as showy as in other years.
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| Vitex in bloom. |
Coming around to the back yard the 'Blue Nile' Agapanthus I planted last year has produced a couple of stalks, and the red Salvia next to it is also flowering.
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| Agapanthus 'Blue Nile' with red Salvia. |
The deer left me only a few blossoms of Liatris, and black-eyed Susans in my flower beds, probably because they couldn't reach them easily. The Chinese iris, formerly known as Blackberry lily or Belamcanda, don't appear very appetizing to them either.
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| Liatris 'Kobold' |
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| Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm') |
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| Chinese iris (formerly called Belamcanda) |
Towards the west side of the back yard, the bed with the Anise hyssop and bee balm 'Jacob Cline' are doing well, they seem to be fairly deer-proof. But my Coneflowers and Phlox have been decimated, very few flowers have survived. Just about every Daylily bud was eaten before it could open, among dozens on plants: Stella de Oro, Purple de Oro, yellow and peach colored varieties, so sad!
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| Anise hyssop and bee balm 'Jacob Cline' |
Back toward the front walk, the Agastache 'Firebird' is among the few plants that deer don't find appetizing--I must plant more Agastache in my garden, so I can have a few more summer blooms. Unfortunately, they prefer well-drained soil, which with all the clay here is just about impossible to provide, so they do better for me in pots. But the pots have to be watered on a daily basis.
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| Agastache 'Firebird' along the front walk. |
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| Back deck potted plant collection |
That's about it for bloom day in my garden, pray for rain in this area, plentiful rain! Then maybe I'll have more to show next month.
