Summer Daze

Herb's bed in summer: Clary sage and Blazing Meadow Star

Herb's bed another view

 

In early summer, despite the voracious deer, my garden is looking splendid. Herb's bed is full of the statuesque flower spikes of Clary Sage, some Blazing Meadow Star and the red Texas sage is beginning to bloom. The lavender is a bit past it now, and so is the butterfly weed, but the Feather Reed grass 'Karl Foerster' is sporting its plumes at the back of the bed.

 

Crocosmia 'Lucifer'

Crocosmia ;Lucifer'

I've sprayed most of the plants with deer repellent--despite some browsing, the red Crocosmia 'Lucifer' has retained some of its flowers. I was able to save a few Purple de Oro daylilies too. I finally got to see some blooms on the dwarf Buttonbush 'Sugar Shack', which was planted a few years back, and hadn't had a chance to bloom--deer kept eating the buds. The wild petunia ( Ruelia humilis) usually gets chewed up pretty bad too, but the spray seems to be working.

 

Purple de Oro daylilies with rosemary and thyme.

Dwarf Buttonbush 'Sugar Shack'

Wild petunia (Ruelia humilis).

Deer usually don't care for iris and the Chinese iris (Blackberry Lily) is no exception.

 

Chinese iris AKA Blackberry Lily.

 

The deer left me only one flower of the red bee balm (Monarda 'Jacob Kline') and a few Coneflowers in the back bed despite spraying-- I guess these are the areas in my yard most exposed to them.

 

Red Monarda 'Jacob Kline' with Anise Hyssop, Mountain mint and Oat grass.

Coneflowers and Mountain mint.

 

The Vitex shrub is getting ready to bloom in the east garden woodland--its lavender flowers are a wonderful attraction during July. The unidentified hydrangea in front of it needs protection from the deer, as well as the anemone nearby, therefore the barrier.

 

Vitex in bud.

Mexican Wavy grass (Nasella tenuissima) in the east woodland.

The back yard from the east side

 

Salvias are another plant that is pretty deer-proof. This summer I'm growing several tropical ones, some new for me: deep purple 'Amistad', a red one called 'Faye Chapel', my favorite 'Black and Blue', and 'Hummingbird Falls' in a hanging basket. Early 'Amistad' is the only one that has any flowers right now. 

 

Salvia 'May Night' is almost finished for now.

 

Salvia 'Amistad' in a pot along the front walk.

The trees in my front garden offer welcome shade in the heat, and shelter for potted plants.

 

The front garden.

Petunias are the main feature of my hanging baskets on the porch this year--love that deep purple! The other plants on the porch being kept out of the deer's reach are a Sunpatiens with bicolor leaves, my yellow Hibiscus, and a low-growing Campanula I'll set out in the garden when it cools down a bit.

 

Petunias 'Pretty Grand' and 'Madness March' mix.

 

Petunias 'Pretty Grand' and 'Madness March' mix.

A Sunpatiens and a low-growing Campanula.

 My Australian Red lime tree has produced one fruit and is blooming nicely. 

 

Australian red lime.

 Hopefully, the weather will continue to cooperate and I'll have plenty of flowers for July's Bloom Day in a couple of weeks.

 

Late Summer Rains and Sightings

Viburnum 'Brandywine' with rough green snake.

 

Close-up of berries.

 

This past week we've had a couple of big storms bring a lot of wind and rain--yesterday's thunderstorm dropped 1.67" of rain on my still somewhat parched garden. These late summer rains have brought out some fascinating sights that I wanted to share.

Let's start with the Viburnum 'Brandywine' berries--this is my favorite stage as they are turning pink, with a few blues here and there. Eventually they will all ripen to dark blue and then black. I took the first photo and didn't notice that there was a little green snake crawling on the branch--it wasn't until I downloaded the photos and looked at them on my computer screen that I realized that what I'd taken for a blade of grass was actually a green snake!

As I understand it, these rough green snakes (Opheodrys aestivus) eat caterpillars and other small insects, and he might have been feasting on clearwing hummingbird moth caterpillars. Viburnum is one of the host plants for this moth, and I've seen quite a few of the moths here this summer nectaring on the Asian butterfly bush. I've seen the caterpillars on previous years, but not recently. I wonder if that could be the reason why? 

 

Clearwing hummingbird moth on Butterfly bush (photo taken by David Maza).

 

The abundant rain has stimulated my 'Natchez' crape-myrtle to produce more blooms than ever before, and my Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance' has been sufficiently spared by the deer to offer a few blooms too.

 

Crape Myrtle 'Natchez'

Abelia 'Panoramic Color Radiance' is blooming.

 

The wild Petunias planted a couple of years ago keep getting eaten by the deer, but recently one of the three plants managed to offer enough flowers to appreciate its beauty. This year I grew some Mignonette (Reseda odorata) from seed. Its flowers aren't exactly showy but the scent is supposed to be wonderful. I've only detected a slight perfume, but the bees love it, so I hope it will re-seed itself for next year.

 

Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis)

Mignonette (Reseda odorata)

Another pleasant surprise to see was that one of the two Viburnums that I grew from seed collected at Brookside Gardens had some flower buds--my Viburnums appear to be of the Leatherleaf variety or perhaps a hybrid of them--Brookside has quite a variety of Viburnums growing in that area. I'm curious to see what the flowers will be like. Let's hope the deer won't devour them--they seem to be blooming unseasonably, but some Viburnums do bloom at this time of the year.

Viburnum flower buds.

The deer left me a few buds of the bush Clematis 'True Love' to enjoy--the color is lovely!

Clematis 'True Love'

My double flowering quince has produced a few out of season blooms, and other summer flowers are re-blooming after being cut back:  Verbascum 'Southerm Charm' and a red-hot poker.

Double-flowering quince

Verbascum 'Southern Charm' rebloom.

Red-hot Pokers reblooming.

With autumn just around the corner, the Japanese Anemone 'Honorine Jobert' is developing flower buds. It lives under a protective cloche which I removed to take the photograph, but any buds that protrude from the cloche get eaten.

 

Anemone 'Honorine Jobert'

The deer overlooked a few of the blue Lobelias this year--in better years I've had a gorgeous display of these native flowers which have spread over this east bed. Maybe next year?

Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) in the east bed.

At last, my Salvia 'Black and Blue' is blooming! This hummingbird favorite is usually grown in a pot along the front walk, and I'd never known deer to nip it before, but this year they started to munch on it at the height of the drought, so I moved it to the deck to keep it out of their reach. The pruning set it back a bit, so it only started to bloom this past week, several weeks later than usual.

 

Brazilian Salvia 'Black and Blue'

 

I just love the color!