July 2024 Bloom Day

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.

 

Hanging baskets.

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.

 

Hydrangea 'Little Quick Fire'

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Liatris 'Kobold'

Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm')

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!

 

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.

 

Agastache 'Firebird' along the front walk.

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.

Even Fewer Blooms Day

 

Black Cotton Flower (Gossypium herbaceum 'Nigra'), watercolor, 12" x 9".

Today the 15th is garden bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by Carol Michel's "May Dreams Garden.' This month I have even fewer flowers than in August. While the drought continued the deer managed to eat further and further into my plantings, stripping my hydrangeas and anything edible. A couple of thunderstorms finally brought us a good drenching at the beginning of the month, and now everything seems to be growing once again. But, with the plants and buds gone, very little is left to bloom. So, instead, I'm headlining my post with some blooms in a painting. I painted this little watercolor last week from photos taken last year--one of the black cotton plants I like to grow from seed in pots on my deck.

The flowers of the cotton plant hide under the foliage, so it's easy to miss their extraordinary beauty: the exquisite veining of the petals, and the dragon-like dark bracts that will enclose the boll after the flower fades. Here's a look at the blossom from above (taken last year).

 

View of black cotton flower from above.

 

Here are a few more blooms for today--my hanging baskets were out of the deer's reach, but they didn't exactly fill out as much as I would have liked. Trying to keep these going through the drought, my water bill went through the roof last month!

 

One hanging basket on porch.

Second hanging basket on porch.

Out in the yard there are a few flowers that have been spared by the deer, but these aren't making much of a display. My Viburnum 'Brandywine' is displaying its lovely berries turning pink--later on they will turn dark blue.

Viburnum 'Brandywine'

'Texas red' Salvia

The 'Texas red' Salvia I planted this year is just starting to bloom--you can see the deer ate the top bud. Rather unusual, I've never seen deer go after any members of the Salvia family before this year. My Agastache 'Blue Boa' is one they didn't touch--will definitely plant more next year.

 

Agastache 'Blue Boa'

 

Inside my enclosed veggie patch the eggplants are still flowering, along with Marigolds, Roma tomatoes and Calendula 'Neon.' I have one small pumpkin of 'Galeux d'Eysines' growing, which I don't think will get much bigger, now that it's starting to show the characteristic "peanuts" that indicate sugar deposits.

 

Eggplant flower

French Marigolds.

Calendula 'Neon'

'Galeux d'Eysines' pumpkin

The Jerusalem artichokes in a grow-bag became enormously tall this year: the tallest flower stalk is probably nine feet tall. I have yet to harvest these, let's hope the rhizomes will be as impressive as the flowers. Whereas my fingerling potatoes, in a matching grow-bag, didn't amount to much--just enough for a couple of meals.

Jerusalem artichoke flower stalks.

 

The three Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue' shrubs I had died off last winter, only one plant put out a few shoots, but some volunteer seedlings have started to grow to replace them--I have no idea if these come true from seed, but the new plants seem to be similar, though not as tall.

 

Seedlings of Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue'

Russian sage

I have two of varieties of Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) flanking each side of this group of arbor vitae: one is the ordinary genus, but I think this one is a dwarf variety which has turned out to be much taller than I'd expected.

 

Mushrooms in flower beds.

 

This morning I found some mushrooms growing in my weedy flower beds--maybe the pleated ink-cap?--first mushrooms I've seen in this entire, very dry year. The day before I had noticed something strange growing in one my houseplant pots inside, and upon closer examination found three mushrooms growing in there too!

 

Mushrooms growing in houseplant pot.

 

Looking on-line to try to guess what variety they might be, it's likely these are Leucoprinus birnbaumii, AKA "flowerpot parasol." There's always so much to learn from one's garden, I love having my own laboratory!

August Few Bloom Day

Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)

 

Today is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted by Carol Michel's May Dreams Garden Blog. Here in the northwest corner of Virginia, my Zone 6b garden continues to suffer from the drought that has affected the entire Shenandoah Valley this year. Other parts of the state have received some relief lately with summer storms, but the storms have brought only a little in the way of water for my garden. This August we are still short of even one inch of rain with half the month already past!

 

Another Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)

Lobelia 'Starship Rose'

 

The worst part is that with very little to browse in the forests, the wild creatures have been extremely voracious--both deer and rabbits have been making deeper inroads into my garden than ever before, leaving me few flowers to enjoy.

A newly planted Cardinal flower and the Lobelia 'Starship Rose' above had to be fenced off to protect them. After their tops got munched I could see that I'd have no flowers otherwise. The first photo is  of one tiny cardinal flower that mysteriously popped up in the front yard--I have no recollection of having planted it there, but perhaps it came with some bee balm that I'd transplanted from somewhere else.

 

My front yard.

The hardy begonias in the front yard have been decimated, I wonder if they'll have any flowers this year? The other plants along my front walk aren't exactly putting on a dazzling display, but there are a few exotic flowers among them, like my Cuban rain tree (Brunfelsia nitida) and the double Tuberoses in bud. I planted the Tuberoses last year, but they didn't bloom, and I'm waiting for the buds to open so I can inhale their lovely scent.

 

Cuban rain tree (Brunfelsia nitida) with a blossom.

Double Tuberose buds.

Salvias and tropical plants along the front walk.

Other parts of the garden are looking pretty sad. I usually have spectacular display of blue Lobelias this month, but this year most of the buds have been eaten by deer, and only a few have escaped.

 

Blue Lobelia (Lobelia syphillitica)

Blazing meadow star (Liatris ligulistylis)

 

Only one spike of the Blazing Meadow Stars came up this spring, but it got eaten down, and only a few flowers have re-sprouted. The newly-planted Liatris 'Kobold' was eaten back too; that hasn't re-sprouted at all. The Stella de Oro daylily buds were eaten, as were all my other daylilies. Only now is one flower spike of Stella starting to rebloom.

 

Stella de Oro daylily.

The potted plants on my porch and back deck are about the only ones the critters can't get to, and even they aren't exactly dazzling--just getting by, perhaps..

Hanging basket on porch.

Plants on the front porch.

Zinnias, orchids and begonias on the back deck.

 

A yellow 'Benary's Giant' Zinnia I planted from seed has started to bloom--one of the few that made it, most got eaten, probably by rabbits.

Zinnia 'Benary's Giant'

My Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance' has put forth one tiny flower spike, let's hope it will have a few more, but the plant's variegated foliage is so beautiful on its own, it may not need to flower.

 

Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance'

 

The new bed with the Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) grown from seed hasn't filled in yet, but there are a few plants in bloom. The ensemble with white salvia, mountain mint, a sedge and oat grass will look better as it fills in with time, and hopefully become a pollinator magnet.

White Salvia with sedge, slender-leaved mountain mint, oat grass and Anise Hyssop.

Tomato harvest.

 

This year the only thing that has flourished are my deck-grown tomatoes: Roma, cherry and yellow pear. Please pray for rain for our parched gardens in Virginia!

July Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Clary sage (Salvia sclarea)

Clary sage

 

This summer the deer have been incredibly voracious--they haven't left me very many flowers to show! One they haven't touched is the biennial Clary sage I planted last year. The flower spikes are big and bold, I'm sure their musky smell is the reason they've been left alone.

 

Centaurea cyanus 'Emperor William'

The nearby Centaurea 'Emperor William' which I grew from seed a couple of years ago, has been reseeding itself ever since, but this year, the seedlings all got chomped back and only this one plant somehow managed to avoid being eaten. I love their bright blue color!

 

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)

 

Butterfly weed is another plant deer don't eat much, although they managed to eat the flower buds of all the 'Hello Yellow' ones--these plants are just finishing their cycle of bloom. The Buddleias are starting their show--with the extreme drought in our area and barely enough rain to bring relief, nothing is looking too great, only a few flower spikes where normally bloom would be profuse.

 

Butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii)

 Buddleia Pugster 'Miss Molly'

Buddleia lindleyiana

The Buddleia lindleyiana is a native of Japan and is doing well in my Virginia garden, but I'm discovering that it likes to sucker, and needs more room. I  love the graceful arching flower spikes, and the pollinators really like this variety: butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.

 

Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora)

Speaking of plants beloved by pollinators, my Bottlebrush buckeye is about to bloom--it's a bit late this year, it's usually in full bloom by now. My tree is now about 6 foot tall and wide, it will probably reach its mature height of about 10 feet in a few years.

 

Seven Son Flower Tree (Heptacodium miconiodes)

The Seven Son Flower Tree, which normally doesn't bloom until August, budded out very early and has started to open its small clusters of seven flowers each. This shrub is a native of China, but still attracts lots of native pollinators such as dark swallowtails, and the hummers too.

 

Coneflowers under the Seven Son Flower Tree

Close-up of Coneflowers.

The back bed with a variety of Coneflowers and other blooming plants lies under the Seven Son Flower Tree, but this year, the coneflowers have been decimated--very few are left. I really need to be more proactive in spreading deer repellent or there'll be nothing left to show for all my labors.

 

Crocosmia 'Lucifer'

Clematis 'True Love'

 

Again, these Crocosmia and clematis flowers above are the only ones left from the deer's depredations. The heather below grows under a wire cloche, or there would be nothing left of either foliage or flowers. 

Heather.

On the east side of the house, the hydrangea 'Incrediball' is lovely, the other hydrangeas have been chewed up a lot--only one flower left on the lace-cap  hydrangea, the one on the other side of Incrediball (behind) has not a single flower left! 'Little Quick Fire' hydrangea sustained very little damage, but the Oakleaf hydrangea 'Ruby Slippers' is standing only because of the tomato cage protecting it.

Hydrangea 'Incrediball'

Hydrangea 'Little Quick Fire'

Oakleaf hydrangea 'Ruby Slippers'

 

Lavenders are among few flowers that deer don't go for, and the mint family is also generally spared.

 

Lavender 'Grosso'

Hoary mountain mint with Ninebark tree 'Coppertina'

 

Salvias are not appetizing to deer either, and generally spared--I bought the one below at Green Springs Gardens, where our botanical artist group had a show this spring, and deadheaded it--it's starting to re-bloom. I thought that zinnias were immune to deer too, but this year my seedlings have been decapitated.

 

Salvia

Vitex agnus castus

The Vitex above is usually in full bloom at this time, but with the current drought, growth has slowed down so much! 

The plants on the deck and hanging baskets are out of the deer's reach, of course, so I may still enjoy those flowers.

 

Cuphea 'Hummingbird's Lunch' on the back deck.

Hanging basket on the porch.

Calibrachoas on the deck.

 

The Cuphea 'Hummingbird's Lunch' hasn't attracted many hummers, but well I remember how one evening last year, in late September, a lone female hummingbird, apparently starved, came and gratefully buzzed every flower.

To sum it up, this July I'm short of flowers to show. Let's pray for some good rains in our area soon, so that I may have something in bloom to show you next month!