Don't be fooled. Inside this thin coating of sweetness is a fiery core of total insanity.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day -- August, 2015

Almost all of my flowers right now are in the front garden, but even so, it still seems sparse to me. So many plants have flowered and gone past already because of our hot, dry summer. Still, there are a few to show for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

My Brugs have been flowering off and on all summer, but my cream-white one had produced a big flush of flowers that I can smell as soon as I set foot out the front door. Such a beautiful flower and a lovely scent!



The yellow one has been flowering too

I have a few Dahlias in flower. I planted and/or transplanted all of them this year, and many of the new ones produced just a bunch of leaves, but no flowers. They've gotten minimal watering. Maybe next year and in future years, with more water and more temperate temperatures, there will be an impressive show.





I think I started this one from seed a couple of years ago

Variegated Knautia

Sedum 'Thundercloud'

A second clump of the same Sedum is always behind, although it's in the same bed only 6 feet away

Echevaria flower stalk


Lobelia tupa in the front garden is much darker red than the one that blooms earlier in the back

Alstroemeria 'Rock and Roll'

Love Lies Bleeding is not even a foot tall, such a disappointment

Thank Heaven for Crocosmia in the mid- to late summer garden

Eucomis 'Sparkling Burgundy' is much shorter than last year and not flopping (yet)

A touch of rebloom on the Bougainvilleea that I bought back in the spring -- I'm so relieved I haven't killed it (yet)

Rudbeckia is another star of the mid- to late summer garden

In the same bed with the Rudbeckia are several different ornamental grasses. I often forget that this is the time of year when they "flower" too, although it's hard to think of their panicle as a flower.

Pink-tinged Panicum virgatum, probably 'Rotstrahlbusch'

Sesleria autumnalis

Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition'

Aka eyebrow grass

Pennisetum 'Redhead'

Anemanthele lessoniana

There is some great color on the blades of my Little Bluestem, but the awns are not quite as far along as my other late season grasses. Perhaps I'll show you my Little Bluestem tomorrow for Foliage Followup.

Crocosmia 'Gold Rush,' a recent purchase, is destined for the back garden

I have a multi-pronged raccoon-foiling plan for the back garden, but I won't be implementing it for a few weeks

A couple of dainty Aloes are flowering


I bought a couple of tender cactus a week or so ago, one of which almost immediately produced a bunch of flower buds. I neglected to get photos of the flowers completely open.



Nicotiana has seeded around from last year's plants

One last Kniphofia

Himalayan Honeysuckle/Leycesteria formosa

One of my favorite flowering shrubs

Verbascum bombyciferum -- so fantastically Seussian

I know it as Belamcanda chinensis, but it has a new name -- Iris domestica


Calendula officinalis 'Solar Flashback' self-sown from last year's plants

I'd prefer even more of them, so once the flowers have produced seed, I'll save some and sow them in pots in the spring to be planted out

Calendula has the strangest seeds -- that green thing that looks sort of like a fuzzy caterpillar is one of them

Cardoon

Joe Pye Weed and Monarda 'Raspberry Wine' in one of the few beds in the back garden untouched by the raccoons


That's my flowers for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by Carol Michel at May Dreams Gardens. You'll find her Bloom Day post here, along with links to lots of other bloggers around the world.