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!

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.