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.

The Fullness of the Season

Herb's bed in July

 

The fullness of the season manifests itself at the height of summer, and the sequence of bloom in my garden hasn't slowed down despite the heat. Herb's bed is so colorful with the red Crocosmias, blue Centaurea, and blazing meadow stars! Several monarch butterflies showed up during the peak of bloom of the blazing meadow star (Liatris ligulistylis)--that's the most monarchs I've seen in my back yard in the decade that we've lived here. 

Monarch butterfly nectaring on Liatris

Monarch butterfly

 

The monarchs flying about the garden performing their mating dances with consummate grace made for a beautiful sight! The humming birds too have been enjoying the flowers, though they have proved much more camera-shy than the butterflies. The other evening Herb and I were standing on our front porch when a tiny humming bird approached and flew within a foot of our faces--it was a female checking us out. Deciding we were probably not dangerous, she went about her business of sipping nectar from the few fragrant petunias and other plants along the front walk. The tropical salvias, one of the hummingbirds' favorites, haven't been very floriferous thus far, so there's not much to nourish them at the moment.

Coneflowers (Echinacea hybrids) and bee balm in the back bed.

Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora)

The back bed with Buddleia lindleyana in front

The display of coneflowers in the back bed becomes more colorful every year as the plants multiply. The bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora), another pollinator favorite, is looking better than ever; each year it expands further into its corner of the back yard.

 

Bush Clematis 'New Love'

I was determined to not let the deer eat my shrub Clematis this year, and covered it with garlic spray. The spray doesn't seem to deter the deer when it comes to other tastier plants like my roses, unfortunately. 

 

Joe Pye weed 'Baby Joe'

Hydrangea 'Tiny Tuff Stuff' with Gladiolus

Vitex agnus castus on the right.

Along the east garden, the hydrangeas have fared better with a bit more rain this year than last summer. The other hydrangeas near the house are about finished blooming, except for the variety 'Tiny Tuff Stuff' above. The Vitex shrub is displaying its purple flowers that look like a summer-blooming lilac.

 

Caladiums on the porch

This spring I bought an assortment of Caladium bulbs for the porch which are doing very well--love the different colors and patterns! These remind me of the shady patios of the houses in Cuba during my childhood.

 

Hanging basket on porch

 

The hanging baskets on the porch haven't been as successful--I'd envisioned the baskets lush with tiny tomatoes, herbs and flowers by this time, but the Nasturtiums (they have edible flowers) have grown way too much and the flowers and herbs not enough. The one above is the better looking of the two, but the plants still haven't grown enough to cover the coconut fiber of the containers.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed several of my arborvitae--the two flanking the house and one of the "Little Indians" were dying back and discovered that they were heavily infested with bagworms--I've never seen such a concentration of these insects before!

The two arborvitae flanking the house are huge--about twelve to thirteen feet high--an impossible job for Herb and I to tackle. I was fortunate to find an arborist in the area who came to spray for the bagworms right away. I hope the problem has been taken care of in time to help the trees survive!

 

Male pumpkin flowers

More male pumpkin flowers

This summer I've been growing an heirloom pumpkin vine, 'Galeaux d'Eysines,' in order to see what the vine and flowers looked like. I wanted to add these to my painting of the pumpkin that I started last fall. It's fascinating to learn that pumpkins have male and female flowers, and that although they appear similar on the surface, they are easily distinguishable: the males have one large structure in the center that carries the pollen, while the female buds have an ovary that looks like a tiny pumpkin at their base. Inside, the pistil divides into three lobes.

 

Female pumpkin flower bud

Female pumpkin flower

Pumpkin developing on the vine.

Nature always allocates its resources wisely, so the male flowers outnumber the females by a ratio of about ten or twelve to one--I expect to have maybe one to three mature pumpkins at the end of the growing season, unless something eats or finishes them off before harvest time. I'll be finished with my painting by then, and it would be nice to be able to taste the pumpkin--last fall when I bought the warty "peanut" pumpkin it took me a couple of months to paint it, and by that time the pumpkin wasn't very appetizing. I cooked it and used the pulp to bake some pumpkin bread, but it would be nice to be able to taste the flesh when it is fresh. I understand it's delicious!

 

My unfinished painting of the Galeaux d'Eysines pumpkin.

Mid-Summer Harvest

Blueberries and Strawberries

This year my 'Top Hat' Blueberry bush has done well, thanks to a self-watering pot. I fed it lots of Holly Tone in the spring and it rewarded me with ample blossoms and later, fruit. As the berries started to ripen I noticed that the mockingbirds were circling around more frequently. In years past, I've lost most of the berries to them and squirrels; this year I was determined they wouldn't get the best of my harvest, and I covered the bush with bird netting. One mockingbird perched on the porch roof and scolded me for an hour after I did that, but I've been able to enjoy my home-grown blueberries at last!

The ever-bearing strawberry 'Mara de Bois' continues to produce too, though not in the profusion of the first flush in June. Tonight's fruit salad will be all home-grown.

 Blueberry 'Top Hat' bush.

We're now in the middle of the summer doldrums--so hot and dry that all my plants are suffering. I spend my evenings watering, trying to keep everything alive. Below are a couple of yellow roses I cut before they got blasted by the heat. If only it would rain, lots and lots of plentiful water we desperately need!

Yellow roses: 'Molineux' on the right, rootstock or 'Peace' on the left.

Still, many plants offer their blooms at this time of the year, such as the Butterfly bush (Buddleia hybrids), and this white hibiscus with a deep red eye.  The hibiscus wilts frequently, but with a bit of watering, perks up right away. The Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is still displaying some flowers, as well as the lavender.

Butterfly bush (Buddleia) and white hibiscus.

The flower spikes of Vitex, also known as Chaste-tree (Vitex agnus-castus) appear at this time of the year--its blue spikes give the illusion of coolness in the blistering heat.

Vitex shrub (Vitex agnus-castus)

I planted this Bottlebrush Buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) as a small sapling some five years ago; it's now over my head and covered with flower spikes that are starting to open. It will eventually reach some 12 to 15 feet high and wider, since it tends to spread out by suckers.

Bottlebrush Buckeye (Aseculus parviflora)

The Meadow Blazing Star (Liatris ligulistylis) that I added to Herb's bed this spring is starting to bloom--I wish I'd ordered more plants--there were only two bulbs in the order of three I was sent, and I planted the other bulb in the Lil' Indians bed, where it promptly disappeared--overshadowed by other plants. Oh well, I'll move the other bulb here in the fall and hope they'll form a nice clump eventually. The flowers are unusual in that they open from the top down--most flower spikes tend to open from the bottom upward.

Herb's bed

The black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm') in the long bed is starting to bloom, and the ornamental blue grama grasses (Boutelua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition') thankfully don't need a lot of water.

Black-eyed Susan and ornamental grasses.

My white-flowered Crape myrtle 'Natchez' is finally reaching tree height, though it tends to lose some top growth during the winter. The bark peels in attractive layers of brown and gray, giving it added interest during the winter season.

Crepe myrtle 'Natchez' in front.

The drift roses are holding their own with some watering--I'm thinking of expanding this bed all the way across toward the crape myrtle and putting in more drift roses, maybe white ones? I like the way the blue fescue grasses look with the roses, but the bed needs a touch more of blue--maybe add more of the same variety of blue Veronica growing below the crepe myrtle, or some blue lupines?

I'm counting the days until fall planting season now.