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| Purple iceplant, although actually it looks more like magenta... |
Summer has arrived in the PNW, but even so, it still isn't getting much over 80 at the peak of the day's heat, and it takes forever to reach that. Many of our mornings are starting out cool and foggy or hazy, and we've had some freakish thunderstorms pass over as well. Rain, in the form of persistent misty drizzle, is normal for us, but thunder, lightning and torrential downpours aren't.
The relative warmth and dryness means most of my gravel garden plants are growing in leaps and bounds, and flowering like crazy.
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| Salvia greggii |
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| Teucrium aroanium/Germander |
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| Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips' |
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| Hens and chicks |
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| Hens and chicks with thyme |
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| Hens and chicks |
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| Asclepias tuberosa |
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| Origanum libanoticum, an ornamental Oregano, its first flowers are quite small |
In another area of the garden, the lilies, both Lilium and Hemerocallis, are really going to town.
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| Lily 'Eyeliner' with its subtle purple picotee |
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| Daylily (tags get blown or raked out of the beds so often, I've lost track of this one) |
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| Daylily 'Going Bananas' (from Proven Winners) |
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| Lily 'Eyeliner' with shasta daisies (whenever I see this picture, I hear the wedding march) |
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| Shasta daisies, with a slightly frillier petal |
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| Lily 'Landini' |
My Dahlias like the warmth too, and have started blooming.
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| Dahlia 'Arabian Night' |
I got a bunch of Dahlias at a plant swap last spring, over a year ago, and they have really done well. I'm thrilled with the variety of colors and size of the flowers. I don't dig these up, they are planted in a raised bed in sandy soil, which keeps them from rotting in our rain-drenched winters.
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| Unknown Dahlia |
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| Unknown Dahlia |
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| Unknown Dahlia |
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| Unknown Dahlia, might be 'Kelvin Floodlight' |
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| My red bee balm is doing well, and is a hummer favorite |
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| Penstemon hartweggi 'Tubular Bells', from seed last year |
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| I just bought this Penstemon 'Blackbird' the other day, I couldn't resist that color. |
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| Shasta daisy and Dianthus barbatus 'Sooty' |
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| Echinacea 'Pow Wow Wild Berry' |
Although my PNW native area is primarily planted with spring bloomers, I still have several PNW native flowers blooming too.
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| Erigeron glaucus/Fleabane, from seed, growing up through twinberry foliage |
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| Calochortus/Mariposa lily |
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| Lilium columbianum, a PNW native lily |
I have quite a few shrubs flowering now too.
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| Hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit' |
This hardy Fuchsia didn't die back all the way to the ground this winter, so it is flowering profusely. I have another that did die back, and needed to be pruned severely, that is not flowering yet.
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| Fuchsia magellanica |
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| Native mock-orange Philadelphus lewisii smells amazing! |
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| Leycesteria formosa/Himalayan honeysuckle |
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| Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' |
I saw this Hydrangea macrophylla "Pistachio' on a couple of other blogs, and went out hunting for it at Swanson's Nursery in North Seattle. With discount coupons I got it for half-price, $15 instead of $30. They only had two left. Now they have one. I just had to have it. I don't have a clue where it's going.
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| Hydrangea macrophylla 'Pistachio' |
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.
Click over to her blog to see what's flowering all around the world.
