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| Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on Buddleia |
Now in mid-August, the heat of July is subsiding, the mornings are cooler. Today is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted by Carol Michel's May Dreams Garden Blog. Welcome to my Virginia USDA zone 6B garden!
Yesterday afternoon we had a huge storm that dropped almost an inch of very welcome rain--we'd had no rain since the first of the month. We'll start with the best photos-- a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth nectaring on my pink Buddleia.
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| Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris thysbe) |
It's not the first time he's visited, last week he (or a buddy) was thrumming about my Agastaches when I was watering Herb's bed, but I didn't have my phone with me, so I missed the opportunity to get photos.
Stepping back a bit, the pink Buddleia at the back of the Little Indians bed is surrounded by blooms of Queen Anne's lace. You may wonder why I call it the Little Indians bed--when I first moved here, there were ten little Arbor Vitae planted in a row which brought to mind the "Ten Little Indians" rhyme. I planted an eleventh one to take the curse off the even numbers, but the nickname of Ten Little Indians has stuck.
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| Pink Buddleia with Queen Anne's lace. |
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| Long view of the Little Indians bed. |
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| Fennel tops the plantings in the Little Indians bed. |
Over the years I've expanded the Ten Little Indians Bed to be a long deep bed, with lots of herbaceous plants, mostly natives, against a backdrop of evergreens--Korean boxwood, variegated boxwood, Amsonia Hubrichtii and Itea virginica in front of the now huge arborvitae. The bed is weedy, but it works for me: the riotous feel of it, rampant with a variety of blooms over the entire season despite all the deer browsing.
Herb's bed is still a work in progress: started as a sunflower bed, I've expanded it over the years. By August, the peonies and spring flowers have gone, the Agapanthus is fading, and now the Agastaches and red Salvia are the main attractions--hummingbirds and butterflies love them! I couldn't identify the butterfly on the Agastache, perhaps a Silver Spotted Skipper?
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| Herb's bed with red Salvia in front. |
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| Towards the back of Herb's bed, blue Ageratum and Agastaches. |
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| A butterfly on Agastache 'Licorice Candy' |
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| Butterfly on 'Pink Licorice' |
Native sunflowers bloom profusely inside the protected veggie pagoda--I have plenty elsewhere in my yard, but the deer eat them so I rarely see the flowers!
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| Native sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) |
Moving along to the other side of the veggie pagoda, one lavender plant is still blooming there with some thyme.
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| Lavender with Thyme. |
In the long island bed, a few Rudbeckias bloom among the Bouteloua 'Blonde Ambition' and a small unidentified annual weed that grows in my yard--it has a pleasant minty smell that I like--and the deer won't eat it, so I leave it to grow and re-seed itself. My bush Clematis 'True Love' was eaten back so much it hasn't flowered at all.
'Baby Joe' Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum) blooms nearby, and the wild Petunias are indestructible despite much deer-browsing.
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| Rudbeckias with Bouteloua 'Blonde Ambition' |
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| A wild mint? |
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| Joe-Pye weed "Baby Joe' |
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| Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis) |
This odd unidentified Hydrangea is loved by the deer, to see some blooms I have to protect it within a mesh enclosure.
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| No ID Hydrangea |
On the west side of the house, the Russian Sage (Salvia yangii) is blooming. Abelia "Panoramic Color Radiance' in the front bed is presenting some blooms--the deer have been eating them, or there'd be more.
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| Russian sage (Salvia yangii) |
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| Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance' |
In the front west garden my 'Natchez' Crepe Myrtle is developing into a respectable-sized tree. The peeling bark of its multi-trunked form is one of its best features. I've still to come up with some decent under-plantings for this spot. I've been trying to grow a variegated Fetterbush (Lyonia lucida) under it, but the deer won't allow it to grow well, and the soil is obviously too alkaline for this plant's liking.I'll probably dig it up this fall and grow it in a pot. I need to find more suitable deer-resistant plants for this bed.
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| Crepe Myrtle 'Natchez' |
My front porch and deck offer protection for the more often-devoured plants, but my hanging baskets are looking a bit bedraggled after July's heat. I wish my porch was a lot wider and bigger, so I could have some furniture there where one could hang out--but this being a developer's house, with the usual lack of sensitivity to architectural design, they left only room for my potted plants.
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| Sunpatiens, purple basil,black cotton and Celosia on the front porch. |
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| Hanging basket on porch. |
The deck is my outdoor living room during the summer, but the afternoon sun makes it too hot to hang out there during the summer until very late in the day, more like evening. This summer the deck got a complicated re-build, as the wood structure was starting to rot. It's not quite finished yet, but at least I can move back some of my plants there. Maybe an awning for it would be a good addition?
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| Cuphea 'Honey Bells' |
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| Salvia 'Bodacious Hummingbird Falls' |
That's it for this month's flowers. Happy Bloom Day, gardening friends!
