What's up in the garden?

Your pics are great, Poinget! I have to take dozens of pics of a plant, from different angles and distances and with different camera settings, in order to get one good pic. I don't know much about digital photography! My DH allowed me to download an authorized copy of his high-powered Adobe Photoshop software onto my laptop, but I only ever use it to downsize pics for e-mailing to friends who have slow Internet connections.

Here's a pic of my hanging basket fuchsia from July 2010. I still have this plant (or a cutting from it), and it began flowering today.

Nice fucshia!

Here is my Canada day and fourth of July container.

This message was edited Jul 5, 2013 5:34 AM

How pretty!!!

have a few pretties today

not the greatest with roses but this year a few come out to make me smile!
Just might go purchase more..

Great patriotic planters, Caroline!

Lovely flowers, Betty. Everything seems to be growing well this year!

Some lilies are blooming already. This is Lilium 'Citronella', with Hemerocallis 'Aztec Gold' to its right.

Aren't they spectacular!

I thought of you when I wrote about Sonic Bloom, Betty. I wondered if you would make room for it in your gorgeous, chock-full-of-goodies garden. They're available in pink, red, and pearl (white that turns pink).

June, you're forgiving. All I hear is "Here, give me the phone, I'll take the picture"! :) It's nice to know I'm not the only one challenged by a small camera. Very pretty fuchsia. Does it get a lot of visitors?

CLScott, did you stick blue into your Canada Day pot when July 4th rolled around? Lol that's awesome.

I'm not very good at creating segues.

I definitely will inquiring about the sonic bloom..

just went out and took a few photo's, time for bed but thought I'd post a few

can see a few flowerets on the phlox, how excited I shall be to see them all in bloom, must have 100 of them

Yes, the one container does for both Celebrations.
Just add blue lobelia and phacelia to the Canada Day one.

I just added Winnipeg Parks to my roses. Does anyone else grow it?

I am enjoying all the pictures you are posting.

I look forward to seeing your 100's of phloxes, Betty! It was brave of you to venture out in the dark to take photos, and I hope you didn't get attacked by the mosquitoes.

I'm holding off on planting any more roses until I figure out how to stop the caterpillars from defoliating them. I don't have 'Winnipeg Parks' - but it sounds super-hardy!

Here's my 'Snowball' hydrangea. The ferny foliage next to it is the herb Tarragon, which much to my surprise is hardy here. I like to sprinkle fresh tarragon leaves onto a green salad.

I have not ventured out today to see what got flattened by the rain yesterday, but I can see Iliamna remota still upright in the flower border next to the house. Iliamna is a native mallow, and I was so pleased with the tall stalks bearing pale pink flowers that I planted another one in an island flowerbed far from the house. Unfortunately, the deer discovered the isolated plant, and found it wonderfully tasty. It never managed to produce flowers, but responded to the deer's pruning by putting energy into growing underground. I am dismayed to find Iliamna sprouts coming up in a wide circle around the second plant, encroaching on other perennials in the flowerbed. The first plant, unmolested by herbivores, has been well-behaved so far.

wondered if you were in the area hit by that downpour.

a lot of my phlox are starting to rust between rain/humidity and growth around of them..big sigh

Sorry to hear about your phloxes "rusting", Betty. The hollyhock is another plant that has a rust problem. I've been encouraging my hollyhocks to self-seed, in the hope that rust-resistant plants will be strongest and form the most seeds, so most of the offspring will inherit rust-resistance. The hollyhocks started off at the back of the flower border, then migrated forwards through the bed, and now they are growing in the driveway gravel at the fore.

I was off the Internet all weekend, due to water getting into the works of the satellite dish and forming condensation that obstructed the signal, but now it's fixed and I'm back. What has everyone been doing, these past few days? It's been way too hot and humid for gardening here, except for a few hours in the early morning. Lots of flowers, though!
Here are:
Hemerocallis, unidentified, peach colour with dark stems.
Hemerocallis 'Baltimore Oriole', a stand-out orange-red.
Lily 'Jolanda', a nice, clear orange Asiatic type.
Lily 'Capuchino'. Not sure if I like it or not. I'm an espresso gal, allergic to milk.
Leucanthemum superbum 'Banana Cream', a lovely Shasta Daisy that opens yellow and fades to near-white.

Isn't it a treat to walk out each morning and see such flowers..makes it all worthwhile..just love them, especially the Jolando

Those are beauties.
I like them all.

Thank you all for your "likes"! It is incredibly hot here today, 34C according to the outdoor thermometer. Who likes red? I have a super, blood-red bergamot flowering at the moment, Monarda 'Jacob Cline'.

What a great picture of the Monarda. Wow on that Jolanda. June, you make me want to go out and buy lilies and I don't have anywhere to put them!

I recently finished a bed, though I'll have to do some tweaking. It's unguarded and the deer gave it a visit. There are some irises there I haven't cleaned up (were there already), Jupiter's beard (the pink flowers, now gone), the wine weigela (although stout and woody, also being chewed down), wallflower (out of the picture), fuchsia (out of the pic), and halimium iasianthum. The plant I worried about the most was the halimium, but it was the only one left untouched (along with the irises).

That halimium was one heck of a performer when I had it in a pot. Nonstop flowers for about three months. It grew well over a foot already, maybe two, and it's still growing. I love that plant.

Poinget, there is always room for lilies! If space in my flowerbed is tight, I use a post-hole digger to make the planting hole. You might need to put deer-fencing up, though. When I had an extremely deer-infested garden, I used to grow my lilies inside an upright tube of wire-netting - not a very attractive method, I know - but I just HAD to grow lilies somehow.

The halmium sounds great. I wonder if it would be hardy in my zone. I can grow helianthemums, which are related, but they are relatively low-growing and get the protection of snow cover. The helianthemums, being semi-evergreen, are much loved by the deer in wintertime, and they will scrape away the snow to get at the leaves. The pic is an unnamed seedling helianthemum growing in my gravel flowerbed.

This is a picture I took after it gave me about a month and a half of solid flower show where I could barely see the leaves. It gave this display for the remainder of the blooming period with occasional bursts of higher flower count. I couldn't give it enough water. It drank all I gave it, and the more I gave it, the better the display. Although, it looked very good without all the water, it exploded when I gave it more. (It was in a pot for over a year.)

How clever to use a post-hole digger! I'm not at that point yet. I have space where plants could go, but I have to make that space into proper beds. I think this is going to take another couple of years. About the deer-netting, my DH hates it. He thinks it's ugly and doesn't want to use it unless absolutely necessary. I wanted to net my Sambucus nigra as it has been stripped, and he stubbornly protested until I reminded him that it was my plant! Our yard, but my plants - lol. He agrees, too :) He would have a fit if I started putting it around a bunch of individual plants. We are planning to fence part of the yard in a year or two, so until then, I will have to resist those beauties. No reason I couldn't keep them in a pot, though.

Very nice flower colour for your helianthemum. It's not a colour I have in my garden, not until the peonies bloom next year (if I'm lucky). Digging into the snow to eat them - my goodness!

Your Halmium is gorgeous, poinget! In its honor, all my pics today will be yellow. They are:
Achillea 'Sunny Seduction' (purchased by mail from Gardenimport).
Allium flavum (grown from seed kindly donated by Todd Boland).
Glaucium flavum (bought from Humber Nurseries near Toronto). It's biennial, but self-seeds.
Hemerocallis 'Free Spirit' (bought from Nottawasaga Daylilies near Creemore). A graceful, light yellow flower.
Hemerocallis 'Yellow Lion' (purchased by mail from Gardenimport). A big flower and an outstanding pure yellow.

Not around much...hauling plants to save them from possible tornados, hail, high gusts, monsoon rains, etc. has kept me busy (as well as working). Also had surgery so no heavy lifting...used a fridge moving cart a lot.


A sampling of what is doing well here.
not sure if these will post in the order I uploaded them so here is what is pictured

Hibiscus Snow Queen, Duranta, Hawaii'an Sunset vine, Plumeria, and a waterlily (didn't trace it back to pot for id).


This message was edited Jul 18, 2013 6:42 PM

gorgeous flowers, I'm so envious
gardens are pretty well finished with
this weather and not being able
to water, thought for a bit when it
was rumbling tonight that we just
might get rain, but passed us by.

just to show you, here is my front lawn
leaves from the trees had already
fallen and dry..will be raking this
weekend for sure

did find a pretty though

Beautiful, beautiful flowers. Lilypon, that waterlily is stunning. June, I love your allium, but I must absolutely have that Achillea. I will look into it for next year. Betty, is that a rose? I cringe whenever I guess. I'm amazed at the toughness of roses. I rescued mine from shade and deer where it would survive on a few partial leaves the whole year. I put it on my balcony and it now has a lot of new growth, as you can see below.

Unpredictable, dangerous weather these days. Lilypon, I feel for you having to emergency-haul around your plants.

Yes, I have found that the carpet rose survives almost everything including my care.

Winds up, keep saying we'll get thunderstorms but then it passes us by.

Keep safe

Beautiful flowers, you people grow!
Have family here so not much chance to get pics of garden.

Lilypon, I love those tropical climbers. Did you grow them from seed? Are those little flies sitting on the waterlily mosquitoes - 'cos if they are, you have more than I do! I hope you are soon fully recovered from your surgery.

Betty, the storms missed here too yesterday, but the water table is still high and so I see no drought symptoms in the garden yet. Amazingly, I still have green grass, even though DH insists on mowing it short when the temperature is 30C.

Today, I think I'll post white flowers to help those of us suffering from the heat feel cooler. The pics are:
Clematis 'Kaiu'. It was supposed to climb over a rose bush, but the rose didn't grow, and so the vine wanders all over the flowerbed. It usually dies back to the ground in winter.
Delphinium 'Double Innocence'. Needs staking, or the first storm knocks it over.
Echinacea 'White Swan'. Seeds itself if I forget to dead-head, and a good proportion of the offspring are white.
Lilium 'Navona', an Asiatic type, pure white, no spots.
Nicotiana affinis. Annual, but self-sows.

Betty I too love your rose! :o)

June your white garden is gorgeous! I've been admiring some delphiniums here (but want to make sure my nasties are truly gone before I purchase some).

June the tropical climber I picked up at a local greenhouse. It wasn't blooming and wasn't named. All they could tell me was it had a pinky orange bloom with gold inside and they thought it was a perennial morning glory. I grinned ear-to-ear because, with their description, I was pretty sure it was a plant I originally saw here (a member from Hawaii originally uploaded it). I think it was just last year I saw some Floridians growing it (still pretty rare for many in Florida). So you can imagine my shock to see it in a prairie greenhouse. Now when I first got it it was small and the buds turned brown due to our cold (for it) temps. It also got a bad case of edema due to being unable to expire moisture (again too cool for it). Since then I found one more (it had broken vines and trellis). I'm trying to baby it along since my daughter expressed interest in it. Floridians are reporting it takes 6 months to a year to root (in their perfect climate) and even with paint brush pollinating it isn't working. I can easily understand why it is a rare beauty here.

The flies on my waterlily are aphids. It seems in certain weather they just love to make themselves at home on them (and one can't spray with fish sharing the water). Now the leaves I'll wash off but the flower I just leave alone.

I'll be coming back to this thread once the insanity of summer is over to ask about other plants that catch my fancy here (and there are many :o) We are also painting the porches on our house as well as rebuilding brick pillars and rebuilding a deck so not a lot of spare time.

The deck that we are rebuilding is on a side of the house not often used. We thought we'd make an Italian garden on that side. A couple of nice roman type pots, maybe a fountain and a couple of grape vines. Maybe I should start a thread looking for ideas for that area.

And whilst I don't have too much time here I would like to say how much I have enjoyed looking at your lovely plants/flowers ladies and thank you for your compliments re mine. The prairies have been more hot and humid then normal prairie dry here so I thought if my location is recording Florida temps (some years) I may as well grow the beauties that they do (or at least try).


This message was edited Jul 19, 2013 7:26 PM

Your garden is endless, June. It's a joy to look at it through your spyglass of a camera. The delphiniums in the nurseries didn't look nearly as nice as yours, but I secretly want one. Do you mail order most of your plants?

Lilypon, funny you say that about Florida, they have experienced weird cold snaps. I went to school there, and I remember that one day the temp had dropped to below freezing (2 degrees if I recall). It didn't snow, it was just cold, and all schools were cancelled. :) That was a long time ago.

I don't have anything to show off in my garden, but my son recently chose this dahlia as his own. He is taking care of it.

nice that he is taking interest in the gardens..love the dahlia

storm passed through last night so must go pick up branches and lawn furniture..im one of the lucky ones, trees still standing.

Hi folks, sorry I haven't posted for a few days. The storms on Friday afternoon knocked my garden flat, and I was without power for about 5 hours. Then when I got back on the Internet, I discovered that the latest round of software "updates" at DG have affected my computer adversely. I can only see half the lines in the text box in this post - the right side just runs away out of sight - and only seeing part of a sentence makes it hard to grasp the meaning. I'll give it a couple of days and if the programmers don't fix the problem, I'll try opening a new thread. In the meantime, feel free to carry on without me!

We were hit by the storm as well, spend most of yesterday cleaning up..gardens about the same as yours..did find a few pretties though

the phlox are deep blue although in the photo they look purple..need a better camera lol

That's lovely, Betty. Seeing pics like those makes me hopeful for my future garden. And yes, I agree, I'm glad my son is taking an interest in gardening. He loves the huge flowers, too. He stops for sunflowers and the largest dahlias, begging me to buy them lol.

It seems June has left DG :(

Lilypon, I know you mentioned this on the fuchsia forum, but I've been noticing surges of particular fuchsia varieties throughout the season. A month ago, I started seeing Galadriel. I found large Autumnales, by chance, at a roadside nursery and nowhere else. However, a few days ago I saw a few sprouts at one of the large garden centres. This was after I had asked a guy four months ago about fuchsia, and he had basically said good luck because it was the end of the season - he was so wrong! You might find some goodies if you check inventories every few weeks. I've never bought so many plants before so this is all new to me. I'm learning!

This is my newest acquisition: Fuchsia denticulata