Summer is about to begin.. show those blooms!

Thought to restart the spring bloom thread Thank you to nutsaboutnature here's a few,not to excitingbut I'm loving it!!!

Guess it's kinda quiet so far:well anyway a few more.

more?

Well even if I'm alone here I thought I would do a garden flower story. Have been forever trying to grow american basketflower or giant cornflower. THE OTHER DAY I STARTED TO CUT DOWN SOME GOLDENROD BUT IT GOT TOO HOT!!! So I gave up, today I noticed a round ball bloom still green on top of one of the goldenrod stalks. As it seems right in the middle of the goldenrod"a cornflower"
And I could stand there for ten minutes and still have trouble telling the difference in the leaves, things do go on in the garden! Makes one wonder about ones self

Japanese tree peony
Hosta, Lamium and Heuchera
Bearded Iris noid
Palabin lilac and dappled willow
Dropmore Scarlet honeysuckle

Just found this thread. More great pics to look at!
juhur - Does goldenrod bloom before ragweed? I'm not well-versed in sun-loving plants. What's that reddish-orange bloom in pic #2 in your second post?
cece - what's your opinion on the 'Palabin' scent? And your hosta looks perfect in that bed of Lamium!

Look to me like a Gaillardia (Blanketflower)

I had just stumbled on to this thread myself just this morning. Hence, pics taken from June

Yes it does .. And that is a blanket flower it could be the "gallo" the did not return ..

cececoogan; I believe I have that iris . it not blooming so far this season .. lots of water is the cause I presume . Nice pics of your flowers .



A Hollyhock

HERE'S a few others

Asiatic lilies
Lysmachia Alexander
Shasta Daisies
Yucca filamentosa
Purple rooster bee balm

new back patio, dh said it didn't take me long to "clutter" it up!

cece - DH doesn't mind the plant clutter as long as there are some tropicals in there. Problem is find a place in the house during the winter for them.
Lovin all the pics!

Rudbeckia hirta, Ice plant 'Fire Spinner', Stachys minima, Geranium 'Rozanne', Ratibida 'Red Mexican Hat'

Ice plant 'Blut', I found apiece of this dark purple petunia in Menards parking lot and stuck sections in with a geranium in a hanging basket.... they took, mixed annual pot, I need to get this one's name, Monardia 'Purple Rooster',

Polemonium>Heavenly Habit', Hens and Chicks, Scabiosa 'Blue Butterfly'

Great pics! I like the 'Heavenly Habit'. I'm kind of hit or miss with Polemoniums here - maybe too much shade.

I agree pretty ,, pretty !!! The only one of those I have is the Hen &Chicks

Great !!! love the flowers .

From today . daylily
nigella
coneflower
zinnia
liatris

Nuts: was talking about bees , so I would post this about how fast they move ..


Gonna fly now ;

probably Happy Returns ..Daylily

Delphinium "Blue Bee"
#2  Asclepsis tuberosa Butterfly weed

Lady's Bells

our small pond

#1 Bananas and Cream Shasta Daisy

#2 & #3 Orienpet Lily buds. They are really late this year. Usually by now they are open and three times the size of bud.

Love all the pics! Here are a couple of mine.

To those growing Asclepsis - I've been tempted to grow some but thought they needed moist soil. Any tips?
Blooms here are winding down. Most of the Astilbe are done, the roses have finished their first flush except for my one Carpet Rose. I keep my upright Clematis integrifolia deadheaded so it's still in bloom. Daylilies are still blooming and Monarda 'Mahogany' just started blooming, blending nicely with daylily 'Raspberry Pixie' (which isn't that pixie-ish).

juhur7... I love Hens and Chicks and bought about 10 varities this year to plant around the peninsula edge of my front perennial bed where it goes between the driveway and walkway before they merge. Also planted several of these in the raised rock garden I made. Also bought a couple of more varieties of Ice Plant this weekend at a Farmers Market. This is my first full season in Indiana, having moved here at the end of September last year, so experimenting to see what comes back and what doesn't in the perennial bed that I've been re-doing. Sunrise Greenhouse had a sale on Monardia and had a $10 coupon, so got three each of two varieites and planted them in one of the gardens that I made on the outside of the dog area fence. Also transplanted Asiatic lilies that I found we had to there as well. Think I'm winding down the planting and moving until the fall when stuff goes on sale at most places. Will keep mulching the beds and weeding, but don't want to do much more planting now. I did put down 20 bags of mulch yesterday.

Hope y'all don't mind, but I steered a couple of threads here to consolidate the ones open.

STU

Thanks Stu!
I agree that too many similar threads are hard to follow and the other one was getting very, very long...so I made one last post (to make sure everyone knew this was our new thread) and I posted this link once more (just in case they missed your link by going all the way to the last post).

Since today, 7/8/13, is the last day of the old thread...here is the link for that thread. Go back and check it out now and then. There are tons of beautiful pics and lots of great info and conversation!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1313397/

As far as this thread...which I actually just discovered a few days ago...Wow,everybody, lots of beautiful blooms and more!!! I'm slowly catching up on all the great pics.

Cindy ? To those growing Asclepsis - I've been tempted to grow some but thought they needed moist soil. Any tips?
The red likes the moisture all year and there is another besides incarnata that grows in wetlands ,
The others are only hard to start , any soil , more dry than wet , usually .
Field or roadsides , they are usually soaked during the spring and dry as a Desert in the summer .. A winter sow plant for sure , or very early spring for sure.
Some won't start to grow until summer . others poof right up but it still takes a couple of seasons before they grow to bloom ..
A tuberosa is fastest ,the creatures seem to like some of others better though , at least here .
Stu ; Hen&Chicks' Dug mine out from under grandma's front porch . someone did not want to take care of them , I decided I would grow them for grandma set them out in a pot . on lava rock .. poof away they go .. I will eventually try some others, the old heirloom is all for now .
1&2 A.Tuberosa
#3A.Syrica
4&5 heirloom Hen&Chicks

Love my A. tuberosa. That bright orange. I have A. Syrica also and one seems to come up where ever it darn well wants. I planted two and have this year about 9. A. tuberosa seems finicky about where it grows but it it likes it....................... it spreads. Took me three years to find a spot it would be happy with.

The frequent, heavy rains are turning the leaves on some plants yellow (thankfully some of them have bloomed some already). Others are loving the rain and I haven't had to do any watering so far this season.

A few things that are blooming now:

1) Hemerocallis 'Always Afternoon' (Daylily)
After 3 years the color is getting better, but at first it was a tan-taupe, nothing like the bright, light Raspberry in Bluestone's catalog that caused me to buy it at half price. I considered digging it out at first. It does get a lot of blooms.

2 & 3) Monarda 'Grand Marshall' (Bee Balm)
Love this plant! The blooms are actually a slightly deeper Maroon color than it looks in pic. Supposed to be a miniature at about 15" tall, but it grows to over 30" with blooms up to 3"!

4) Same Monarda blown up to show a new "Friendly" I discovered a few days ago. Posted in the Insect ID forum and Flapdoodle, who has helped me many times, said it's a Flower/Hover Fly in the family Syrphidae (adults are polinators and larvae eat aphids)

Echinachea (a Rose-colored variety, but forgot the name. I'll have to try to find the tag) Goldfinches absolutely love the seeds and spend lots of time on them, especially in later Summer.

And a few more:

1) Heuchera 'Smokey Rose' blooms.
Tiny, but bright pink and very prolific. They bloom for a long time.

2) Spiraea 'Neon Flash'.
I just learned a couple days ago the Chicago Botanic garden lists this on their "Best Plant Varieties for Illinois". Their website is a great source for Good Plants, Invasives and more.

3) This is actually one of the blooms from the previous Echinacea I posted, but it grew without petals. I've never seen them grow like this before, but I think it looks very cool!

4) Drumstick Allium -
These are tiny...only about an inch in diameter...and not real tall. They grow here and there around other plants. I'd probably see more of them, but they should be in full sun and they're not.

5) Some more prolific Heuchera blooms. This time 'Silver Veil'. They've been blooming in spurts for about a month.

Thanks juhur and cece for info on the Asclepsis. I'll do some more research as to what variety will work here. Nothing really gets swampy or wet enough to qualify here to get them started.
nuts - I'm liking varieties of Heuchera with colorful flowers. A lot of the varieties with attractive foliage have nondescript flowers that I usually remove. Nice pics!

THAT is what my spirea is. I couldn't remember but knew if I saw one and heard the name it would jar my memory. Thank you.

nuts ; and you say I have lots of flowers ! Pretties there !!!


Cindy ; tuberosa and syrica are really xeriscape drought plants. A.tuberosa the original name was desert milkweed..

Lavender ; love the butterflies .. great pic's there also !!

Still blooming ...

more from today

Maybe the aster will quit overrunning the Coneflowers Seeing if can get the flowers to "crowd out the weeds" ,,, silly me ... Yes I know , it usually called mulch ..

nutsaboutnature Your Coneflower looks like Raspberry (?) Love the daylily and the Allium .. Alliums do not like growing for me except leeks ...lol

Thanks Cindy!!
Thanks Juhur!!
You're Welcome for the ID, cece!! I was happy to find out that Spirea was on the "Good Guys" list. If it's a good plant for Illinois, then most likely it's good for all the neighboring states.

By-the-way, since I just discovered this thread a few days ago, I want to mention how gorgeous everybody's blooms look!!

juhur, you could open your own nursery with all the varieties you have!! And so many colors!

cece, love the new patio and your pond!!

Cindy, you're so right about the Heuchera blooms. Some also don't bloom very long while others keep blooming most of the Summer.

lavender, love all your butterflies!! We still haven't had many this year. Maybe all the rain?

Stu, is your Polemonium blooming now? It's very pretty! I have a 'Stairway to Heaven' with variegated leaves and light blue flowers, but it bloomed in Spring.

Cindy, my Polemonium is rated for mostly sunny to mostly shady. Maybe the problem is with the varieties you've tried.

juhur, the coneflower in my pic is called 'Rose-something-or-other', but I haven't been able to locate the original tag and I never wrote it down.

Polemoniums - some I've planted in too much shade and others in a sunnier, drier spot. Guess I haven't tried a happy medium.
I find that if I dead-head the prettier Heucheras, they'll keep blooming.
Hot and muggy here today. Stayed indoors mostly but darted out to trap JBs. I did take some green cuttings of an azalea and hydrangea to see if I have better luck than with woody cuttings.

Saw something funky in a pot of brugs, and took a pic. Never saw this happen before Must be all the rain......................