A Rainy May Bloom Day

Peony 'Bartzella'

Peony 'Bartzella' in the "Little Indians" bed

It's raining here today in my Zone 6b Virginia garden, a soft and gentle drizzle making our fields and gardens so green and lush...  Bloom Day is hosted by Carol Michel's May Dreams Garden Blog on the 15th of every month. Happy May 2024 Bloom Day!

My 'Bartzella' peony is in its full glory right now, and holding up well in the rain, for which we're so grateful. Last year I separated the old-fashioned iris behind it, but this year's blooms have been very disappointing. 

 

Iris 'Victoria Falls' with double flowering quince beyond.

 

Purple Dutch iris with Sambucus 'Black Lace'

My irises are just finishing their display for the year, although some of the late varieties are still blooming; now the peonies are coming into their own. 'Duchesse de Nemours' in the Herb bed is just starting to open.

 

Peony 'Duchesse de Nemours'

 

A flowering spike of the Texas yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) I planted two years ago has appeared, I'm looking forward to seeing the flowers close-up. The spike is impressive in height thus far, let's hope the flowers are equally pleasing.

 

Flower bud of Hesperaloe parviflora

Both of my Ninebark trees are blooming at this time, as is the Asian dogwood, which has recently been re-named Benthamia kousa, replacing the old genus name of Cornus.

Ninebark tree 'Coppertina' (Physocarpus opulifolius)

"Coppertina' with Kousa dogwood behind

Kousa dogwood (Benthamia kousa) in bloom

 

The native iris (Iris versicolor) under the Redbud tree has produced one bloom thus far; last year it flowered so abundantly, I don't expect anything as profuse this year. The Verbascum 'Southern Charm' was looking much better before the rains, but what can one do? The Salvia 'Pink Profusion' near it was a new addition last fall, but it's not living up to its name yet.

 

Iris versicolor

Verbascum 'Southern Charm' with Salvia 'Pink Profusion'

The other Ninebark tree 'Amber Jubilee' near the Japanese maple 'Amber Ghost' complement each other so nicely. Beyond are some Willowleaf starflowers (Amsonia tabernaemontana) with the Anise Hyssop I planted last year, a sedge, and some white Salvia.

 

Ninebark tree 'Amber Jubilee' with Japanese maple 'Amber Ghost'

Amsonia tabernaemontana

I have another variety of Amsonia--hubrichtii--growing in the "Little Indians" bed, but these don't seem to be blooming as well as in previous years--they probably need to be broken up and re-planted farther away from the Korean boxwood. They seem to be re-seeding themselves as well.

Amsonia hubrichtii

The bed on the west side of the house has some nice color--Catmint, Salvia 'May Night,' red Dianthus and a yellow flower that I've forgotten the name of. The Clematis 'Appleblossom' climbing up to the deck still has some blooms

Bed on the west side of the house.

West side of the house with new backyard vegetable enclosure.

Another late-blooming bearded iris variety, 'Wine Festival' offered just one flowering spike this year.

Iris 'Wine Festival'

The pink peony is getting ready to open in the front, by the driveway. The purple Dutch iris are just starting to fade as the Allium moly gets going.

Pink peony with Allium and irises beyond.

Dutch iris and Allium moly

My front yard appears to have the fewest flowers at the moment--the last flower of a lone white bearded iris spike and the red 'Double Knockout' rose. The Double Knockout rose was decimated by sawfly larvae, and I didn't see them until it was too late--the poor rose looks as if it had bronze foliage, but it's only the skeletonized leaves.

 

White iris and red 'Double Knockout' rose

A blast of color is provided by the last of the red Amaryllis flowers opening on the porch.

Red Amaryllis buds.

Before the First Frost

Viburnum 'Cardinal Candy' with witchhazel.

The back yard from the west side.

 

On Halloween day the fall foliage was at its most colorful. We haven't had our first frost yet, though it's announced for tonight, so I took the opportunity to take these photos of my garden just before the plants get cut back by the frost. We've had a few storms with a lot of wind lately--the most recent casualty was the iron hoop arbor that held up the honeysuckle 'Major Wheeler,' which blew down.

 

Fallen arbor with 'Major Wheeler' honeysuckle

The structure had been weakened earlier; I noticed that the vine's expanding trunk had pulled out one of the bolts during the early summer, and the storm that brought down our old oak bent it further. The storm last week was the final straw. It's such a tangle, I'll have to prune back most of the honeysuckle vine to remove the iron armature, and then figure out some way of propping up the vine to let it grow once again. This is one of the hummingbird's favorites, so I hope the drastic pruning won't affect next year's blooms.

Viburnum 'Brandywine'

 

Both of my cultivar Viburnums have showy berries and fall foliage: the berries of 'Brandywine' have changed from the soft pink of early fall to blue-black, as its leaves turn a lovely red-orange. My Viburnum 'Cardinal Candy,' which bloomed for the first time this year, is covered with red berries. I wonder what color the foliage will be when it starts to turn?

White lilac blooming

The unseasonably warm and wet weather has fooled the white lilac into blooming--I purchased this one as a named cultivar 'Primrose' and it has turned out to be a rather odd white-blooming one, rather than the pale yellow I was supposed to get. I wonder if the unseasonable blooms are part of this plant's mixed genetic make-up or just a fluke?

Salvia 'Windwalker Royal Red'

The perennial red Salvia I planted this past spring didn't start blooming until very late in the year, and is only now reaching its peak of bloom. It's a bit floppy, but what a gorgeous flower color! I should prune it back before blooming time next year, to see if the flowers will stay more upright.

 

Back corner of the yard from Herb's bed.

 

The northeast corner of the back yard is looking very colorful right now, with the Amsonia leaves turning my flower bed gold, to match the hickories and oaks in the woods. The Kousa dogwood is showing beautiful colors too.

Kousa dogwood.

The Front garden, west side.

Of course, this posting wouldn't be complete without this year's jack o'lantern: Happy Halloween!

Dog Days Coming Around Again

Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia syphillitica)

Great Blue Lobelias

The dog days of August are coming around again, as they do every summer. After July's record high temperatures, they don't seem so awful, thus far.  My Great Blue Lobelias have put forth more flower spikes than ever this year, and they are gorgeous. The crabgrass and weeds are lush, too--I went out yesterday morning to weed around my veggie bed and try to tackle the worst of it in the back yard beds. Two hours later I was drenched in sweat, had one large plastic bag full of weeds, and feeling that I'd barely made a dent. It will take many more sessions to get the weeds under control, in as much as that is at all possible.

Black or Levant cotton (Gossypium herbaceum ' Nigrum')

My three black cotton plants grown from Lili's seeds are producing lots of flowers and bolls. The seeds were collected from the U.S. Botanic Gardens a number of years ago (I've seen this exotic annual selling for amazingly high prices in catalogs), and thanks to my daughter-in-law's green thumb, we've managed to keep this line going.

Black cotton flower bud.

The following spring the collected seeds went in my garden beds, and I shared some with my daughter-in-law. But with soil as poor as mine, only a few blooms and bolls with seeds developed.  Lili had better luck in her garden, and managed to get enough seeds to return the favor last year. The flowers are so lovely! Their beauty is hard to appreciate fully because they tend to hide under the foliage.

Black cotton flower

I've done paintings of both the Great Blue Lobelia and the black cotton--my Great Blue Lobelia painting sold last year, but I still have the watercolor of black cotton that I painted as Artist in Residence at the U.S. Botanic Garden in 2018. The specimen I worked from didn't have any flowers present so I introduced some from my photos taken of the ones I'd grown. Unfortunately, my photos didn't show the exact way the flower stem grows out from the middle of the leaf petiole, so I didn't get this detail quite right. I'm tempted to try another painting to correct my previous misunderstanding.

The back yard from the Badlands.

I took this photo of the back yard from the rearmost bed, the one we call "The Badlands" because the soil there was the worst imaginable. I remember well how little grew here and all along the perimeter of our lot at the edge of the woods. My idea for landscaping this area was to create a transition zone for the huge trees at the edge of the woods with a series of smaller understory trees. These three trees were the first I planted in the back yard: a dogwood, which revealed itself to be a C. kousa (Asian) type only this spring, when it finally produced its first blooms, a redbud (Cercis canadense), and behind that, a Seven Son Flower tree (Heptacodium miconoides) which is a native of China.

Seven Son Flower tree (Heptacodium miconoides)

Flowering clusters of the Seven Son Flower tree

The common name for this small tree comes from the observation that the number of flowers in each cluster is usually seven. I bought this Heptacodium as a sapling on sale for the amazing price of $6--the selling point for me wasn't just the price, but that the tree blossoms in August, at a time when little else in the garden is in bloom, the blossoms are fragrant, and it grows fast.  After planting it I've had time to appreciate its other attractive features--in autumn, after the flowers fade, the sepals turn pink, giving the appearance of a second flowering, and the bark peels in layers of different colors that make a wonderful display in winter.

Basket of begonia.

I didn't find any fuschias for the hanging baskets on the porch this year, so I bought this beautiful red Begonia instead. Calibrachoas in several colors went in the two other baskets, with the addition of some creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea') hanging over the edges. 

Hanging baskets of Calibrachoas on the porch.

The recent rains have brought out some new flowers: Crocosmia 'Lucifer's red flowers make a nice contrast against the fluffy blue Ageratum, with orange marigolds. The yellow Chrysanthemums are already starting to bloom, despite earlier de-budding. I'm curious to see how the 'Autumn Joy' sedum will look in the fall when the pink Muhly grass puts out some of its plumes--the deer have really chewed up the sedums!

Herb's bed.