FIRST FLOWERS SUMMER!!! Mid Summer Edition

We came from here:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1367797/

Well summer is raging on and though we've had this recent cool spell, I'm still looking forward to more hot temps! Boo on all you nice weather folks. I like my summers hot, but with adequate moisture :)

Here are some new photos from our yard.

Dahlia 'Sayonara'
Penstemon 'Pikes Peak Purple' - representin the xeric garden
Dahlia 'Ginger Snap' - nice but it doesn't quite match up with the picture on the website
Dahlia 'Jitterbug'
Liatris

thanks for the thread update, Steamy Seq! I like some summer heat but to be fair, I don't have to work in it and I do sympathize with those who do. Hey, we haven't hit 100 yet this summer (knock on wood!!)

I didn't take Penstemon to be a xeric choice, who knew.
Disappointin color on Ginger snap- it's sort of a non color-- I grew a petunia from seed once that was shown as peach , turned out so washed out and blah, no good at all. blech

I still like my Gingersnap coloring. It's just a little different than what was pictured on Swan Island's website. Penstemon is xeric but this particular variety can live with less than 10" of rain a year according to HCG's website. That's what I was going for. Our xeric garden is doing so well, I'm really excited. Our agastache cana is starting to bloom too.

We've only had two 90+ degree days so far this summer. Kind of odd. It's been nice with relatively consistent moisture though, which I appreciate.



This message was edited Jul 18, 2014 9:05 AM

Ahhhh--New Thread--just in time....

Some pictures from this morning....

1--4'Oclock--Broken Colors--only it is all yellow so far

2--Finally! B&B Salvia blooming

3--Black-Eyed Susans in my front bed

4--The whole Front Bed---a little "busy" now for my taste...

5--Butterfly bush--healthy for the 1st time in years, An early spraying helped...

Wow G! That 'busy' bed is perfect in my eyes :)

Continued as I walk around....

1--Cardinal flower--the only one that survived the winter

2--Coneflower and Speedwell

3--Heliopsis in corner of YUK bed

4--Pink Canna.. Inky Fingers marching on.
Anyone wants me to start any cuttings of it?

5--An oddball Asiatic Lily. I forget where I got this one...

Marching on---

1--2--& 3- My 3 Phlox--- That PHlox "David" sure grows massive!

4--Pink Canna blooms

5--Tiger Lilies starting to open up. C'mon Butterflies!!!

Seq, love the blooms esp your dahlias gingersnap and jitterbug

none of our dahlias are blooming yet. still lots of potato blooms. lots of buds on hibiscus and nicotiana

our cannas started blooming and a few bird planted sunflowers. I yanked out some chia and goldenrod stems today. Chia spreads everywhere and goldenrod is taking over a patch in between our hibiscus and phlox.

#2 is my new fav zinnia color with a chocolate hue: Zinnia Queen Red Lime
#4 is one of the daylilies from Karen: 'Annie Welch' Hemerocallis

such a beautiful day today!!

I have to say that I really have been enjoying all the beautiful pictures.
Wind, I agree just love that #2 pic.
3rd pic is a dwarf bee balm Petite Wonder only gets about 10 inches tall, real cute little thing.

Nice Wind, I really like that peacy/pink daylily!

G: are cardinal flowers only marginally hardy?

Holly, that is such a tiny monarda!

A few more
Caladium
Garden Phlox
Window Box Caladiums and Diamond Frost Euphoria
One of my new fav plants Sparks Will Fly Begonia

Seq, those dahlias are beautiful! can't believe you still have Penstemon blooming. Mine seems all done for the season.

Gita, what beautiful blooms! Your cardinal flower and black & blue salvia are sure big and bloomful! I'm with Seq--to me the front looks great and not too busy at all.

Wind, what beautiful lilies and I love that peach colored daylily! I've been growing sunflowers this year, too, and totally loving them.

Managed to get outside and walk around the garden a bit today:

1) My first pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) bloom! This seeded so well and shoots came up and grew large, but it has taken *forever* to get a blossom.
2) Agastache 'Golden Jubilee' (from Donner) blooming with the phlox 'David'
3) I'm really loving this profusion of blossoms: the orange cosmos, crocosmia 'Lucifer', and Rudbeckia fulgida
4) I finally got a poppy bloom! I can't tell you how many poppy seeds from Critter I sowed this spring. This is the first one! :-) It's more of a California golden poppy than a traditional red poppy. Just another reminder that unfortunately poppies like lupine prefer the west coast to my backyard (sigh)
5) Rudbeckia, cosmos, speedwell, marigold



This message was edited Jul 18, 2014 1:36 PM

Holly, I love the Caladium with the evergreens and the Diamond Frost. And that begonia is such a beautiful color!

Nice Cat! Those pics with the 'profusion' of blooms are beautiful...the more blooms jammed into a garden, the better!

My penstemon might be an abnormality. It was planted in May and trimmed back from the vendor. I assume that it might be a second flush but we'll see when it blooms next year when it had a chance to grow from dormancy in my soil.

thanks, Seq! Yeah, I know when I see an empty spot in my garden, I don't think, 'Oh space for the plant next to it to grow,' I think, 'Oh what else can I plant there??' LOL!

There are a hundred or more species of Penstemons in North America, the majority of which are native to the western half of the continent. With this diversity comes a great deal of variation in natural history, including bloom time. While eastern species are finished blooming, some western, more xeric species bloom in summer.

Jeff--

I believe that Lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal Flower) and B&B Salvia are
both considered "tender perennials"....

I was so worried that my B&B would not come back. Seems some of it DID!
It had so many Hummers on it last year.

My Cardinal Flower may not have come back--but my prolifically propagating
neighbor gave me a start (roots). I think the one I have blooming may be from that.

Holly---

How does Ric hang those head-planters on the wall?
I have plenty of walls to hang something on....My raised bed--and my neighbor's
6' fence--but the latter would be complete shade. Hmmm...Impatiens??

Is what you call Diamond Frost Euphoria also known as "Snow....somehting"...?
It looks nice when small, such as in purchased HB's, but by the end of summer--
it will have "swallowed" everything else in the pot. Euphorbas do that!

G.

Euphorbia marginata, Snow-On-The-Mountain?

Lol Cat, we have the same gardening style for sure!

Sweet GT, thanks for the info! This is indeed a western native and that's why I picked it. I got it from HCG as well as the rest of my xeric plants. This garden has been a joy to me and all the plants are living, most blooming. I was concerned with how they'd like our humidity but so far so good.

G: I always thought that cardinal flowers were hardy to zone 5 or so, maybe not all of them I guess. It certainly is pretty and I absolutely love that B&B salvia. That looks like a must have to me.

Jeff--
I am sure I will stand corrected on the cardinal Flowers zone survival.
This is the 3rd yer I have them.
Between year 1 and 2--I buried them in a pile of leaves b/c someone said they were
"tender perennials"...Too many leaves...I think...
When I removed them--there was already growth showing.

From last year to this spring--I just had a couple of hand-fulls of leaves over them.
Didn't see any life toll way later...

However--BECAUSE they live in my YUK bed--all kinds of delays can be justified by
all the maple roots a few feet away.
Even though they are there now--they are nowhere as big and full as last year.
G.

1--Cardinal Flower last July (2013)
2--B&B Salvias growing last June. N.E. Aster in the middle
3--B&B with blooms. Last June.

Sp far--this year--my best one just has 3 stems.

Greenthumb, thanks for the info about different varieties of penstemon! That's good to know.

Seq, you're right that Cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) are hardy in this area. However, I think Gita may also grow different varieties of red Salvia (e.g., Salvia coccinea) which are tender perennials here.

No Gita, The Diamond Frost Euphorbia is an annual. Really airy, great for brightening up a dark shady corner and looks great in just about any planter. IMHO

Here it is in two planters one with verbina and the other Bonfire Begonias.

Holly what a pretty accent plant! I had not heard of it before-very nice.

Jeff--
Sorry--I do not know of the variety of my Cardinal Flower.
Got it from my Pakistani neighbor. She buys a lot of plants. She does not know
names of any plants..But--everything she sticks in her beds--roots.
Her secret is-----You MUST water the cuttings 4 times a day.
Must work....

I let her take any cuttings from my plants she wants and try to root them.
Right now she is working on my Carpet Rose cuttings---and my BIG, white
Azalea cuttings. .."Lake....something".....

She always wants cuttings of my Hybrid Roses. I tell her they will NOT root!
So far--I think I have been right. One day--she will surprise me......

G.

Holly--

I based my comment on the "Snow on the Mountain" Euphorbia because
once I had it in my BIG pot as a 'filler"---and, BOY!, did it fill everything.
Of course--when I make my BIG pots--I fill them to the hilt with flowers.

Basically--it had obliterated all the other plants by fall.

Just said it from my experience....G.

Such beautiful summer blooms!

Holly, Diamond Frost is one of my favorite summer annuals. It looks great with begonias.

Seq, I really like that dahlia. It looks like the leaves on yours aren't as multi-layered as some of the images online, but the color is spot on.

I'm thinking about replacing my astilbe with cardinal flower. I need some summer blooms in the wet part of the yard, which is shady but plenty bright for lobelia.

Do you get repeated blooms on crocosmia, or are they done for the season once you get the green seed pods? I saw some crocosmia at the local Ace, but they only had the seedpods and no flower buds.

My cannas are *still* not blooming! They're soooo late this year.

SS--

None of my big Cannas are blooming either. The small, pink, potted ones
have been blooming for a while now. I have them in a copple mixed planters
as well as in one of my beds.
They stayed in their pots all winter in a dormant state. I did not dig them up.

The bigger cannas--I think we all were late planting them. Besides...the rhizomes
were SOOOO dry! Mine are growing well--but it will be a while till they bloom.

Patience.............................:o]

cat, what are the blooms next to your orange poppy?

Wow Holly, just looooove your window box with the caladiums! And, love your Sparks begonia too

I was excited to see some Tarahumara Popping Sorghum (direct sown seeds) coming up strong next to our cannas in the back. I'll post a close up of it when I get a chance. I knew it had to be the plants because the grass has a cool white stripe down the middle of each blade. Nice looking grass. Next year I'm going to plant more.

this is just a pick of a few cannas

SSG, I'm not sure yet whether the crocosmia repeat blooms. However, the blooms are lasting a nice long time.

Wind, I like your cannas!

I think the flowers with the California poppy are baby's breath and creeping daisy.

I went and bought a new plant at Lowes today. Yes...I did! Cost me $8 too...
A most intense dark orange Coneflower called "Sombrero Flamenco Orange"

It also showed the parentage of it. Echinacea x hybrida 'Balsomenco'.

It was from Monrovia. I will try to plant it this evening.

Here she is.....

Here is the tag--close-up.

That's a beautiful Echinacea, Gita--what a lovely color! :-)

Spent some time this afternoon in my garden just watching the pollinators. A few new blooms:

1) My very first heliopsis bloom! This is from seed from Gita from the swap.
2) Foxglove is reblooming. I took the advice of several of you and cut the tall central stalk back and lo and behold, several more have grown up and they are blooming! yay!
3) New pink flower opened in the midst of where I did the wildflower and poppy (from Critter) sowing. Not sure what it is! It is right next to the hollyhock growing from Speedie's seeds. :-) I think the other flowers in the photo are: creeping Daisy, Chinese forget-me-not, California poppy, and Baby's breath.
4) First bloom from my Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia), from seed purchased on an excursion with Coleup.
5) Caladiums from the bulb buy plus pink astilbe from Gita from the fall swap last year.

It looks like most of these blooms are tied in with fellow MAFers one way or another! :-)




This message was edited Jul 19, 2014 7:28 PM

Nice plant Gita.

A few new flowers, garden seems to be in a bit of a lull.

Phlox No ID
Downy Skullcap - Scutellaria incana
2 of Lily 'Pandora', a favorite due to its soft, delicate tones.

such pretty flowers, everybody.

Black stemmed Taro has a flower lol, but its the leaves that are wowing me. It's in ground on my 'damp' side, and loving it, poor thing that has struggled mightily for a couple years now has leaves really deserving of the name elephant ear. thanks, coleup!

pink Brug over there is pretty happy too, and blooming now. But it is not the best for fragrance, I find it sort of cloying/ medicinal rather than delicious.

can't wait for first Moonflower (Ipomoea) still a couple weeks off but there are buds. They are soo beautiful, white, fascinating to watch, and smell fabulous. Gita did you grow them this year?

Lovely blooms, David! I love the soft, delicate color of that lily, and also the phlox.

Sally, I'm looking forward to seeing some photos! :-)

Gita, that's a good bargain!

Catmint, that's awesome that you got your foxglove to rebloom. I cut down the stalks on a biennial (silver leaves, red flowers, the name escapes me now) but couldn't get it to rebloom for me.

David, the thalictrum that I from you is *still* blooming! It is the longest blooming perennial in my garden.

thanks, SSG. I feel lucky about the rebloom--it doesn't always happen, that's for sure!

My thalictrum from David is still blooming, too! :-)

The longest blooming perennial in my garden is definitely the viola cornuta--been blooming nonstop since end of March; it was up with the crocuses and still going strong! One of the seven cultivars has disappeared, though ('Sorbet Orange Duet'). :-( I'm hoping against hope that Betty's will have some viola cornuta. I know a lot of places only carry it early in the season though.

This message was edited Jul 19, 2014 7:26 PM