FIRST FLOWERS OF MID SUMMER 2015

gardens look beautiful, Holly, and glad to hear you're getting out in them too!

Everything looks gorgeous, Holly! Your goldenrod is probably Solidago 'Little Lemon' from North Creek nurseries via coleup: http://www.northcreeknurseries.com/plantName/Solidago--Little-Lemon

Yes, Holly, you dwarf Goldenrod is Little Lemon. I just dead headed the main flowers on some so that the side shoots will take over. Nice little filler plant that pollinators frequent. Should bloom til frost.

Fall is definitely not the best face of my garden especially without regular rain fall!

I am so very frustrated with my camera. I have been trying all summer to get a good pic of this water lily. It is orange, not bright orange and definitely orange. I have tried going out there with an umbrella to shade it so the color doesn't wash out in the sun but nothing I do seems to work.

Isn't that strange?
Everything else looks crystal clear and beautiful!

It is just that particular shade of orange that I just can't get to come through

Colors coming through, true-as they are, is my biggest issue with my camera too.
Especially blues and reds. Also NOT being able to macro anything closer
than 4" from the subject.

Maybe I will buy myself a new camera for Christmas. G.

Holly - try adjusting your white balance. If that does not work, check your camera's manual. Most digital cameras have ways to address different spectral compositions producing a color. We think of the primary colors red, green, and blue mixing to produce other colors. This is how our eyes work, having those three color receptors. Digital cameras "see" colors with different sensitivities than our eyes, resulting in the disparity between what we see and what the camera presents to us. I find my camera is problematic producing true blues that have some red in them, like some irises. The camera has some way to compensate for this with an alternative color setting, but I have never had the proper intersection of time and patience to figure it out, you may.

I wondered if white balance might be off, too- not that I am all that knowledgeable.
Gita maybe at Swap someone can check your settings.
Sometimes I get better 'closeups' by not getting SO close- get a good focused picture and crop it later on the computer.

Sally, check your camera's manual. Setting the white balance is an easy process, but you need a good white field. A sheet of white poster board works well.

I am not super familiar with cropping or photo-shopping anything.
I do have a photo program, but seldom use it.

Too much time to figure it all out....g.

Beautiful, Holly! I'd love to know how that little goldenrod does for you.
1. Harvey Koop
2. Pooh
3. Rosebud
4. Hootenanny
5. A good year for Swallowtails on buddleia seedling.

This message was edited Aug 21, 2015 10:05 AM

This is our first year for them. I planted they late last summer, just very small plugs. So far very pleased with them.

Wow, Holly, is your hardy begonia blooming already? Everything's been so late my garden.

Turtleheads finally blooming.

Rudbeckia laciniata. I have some of this to dig up and give away. About 7 feet tall.

My magically pollinated arrow wood viburnum berries.

Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost'. Such an easy annual.

I love that rudbeckia SSG but I have no clue where I'd put a 7' monster like that. Is it self supporting?

I love the dahlias Loretta :-)

Very pretty, Loretta!
awesome bunch of berries ssg!
I have the Rudbeckia, thanks, mine is getting some shade but for the tiny sprig I started with in May, it's really grown, to en eye level sturdy stem with a good set of flowers. I see my neighbor has a bunch too.

SSG, is your Viburnum dentatum a Chicago Lustre or a Blue Muffin?

Thanks guys!
SSG, I love the viburnum! Viburnum berries are hit and miss here. The euphorbia is a favorite of mine but I didn't grow any this year. I wish they were a little cheaper so I could buy a whole flat of them every year and put them all over the place.
Holly, your begonia is way ahead of mine too or maybe mine are way behind this year. My ligularias are just blooming and the begonias usually follow but this year, they are small. They were over run with vinca. Time to do something about it. I love the caladiums too. Another plant I skipped this year. Do you have any luck overwintering the bulbs?

Nice flowers all!

SSG, I have a place for any of the Rudbeckia lancinata you care to pass my way!

Loretta, are you anywhere near Jan23 in NJ? She's in Salem County near turnpike exit. If so, I can send a plant od goldenrod "Little Lemon' to you as she is coming to the Fall Swap. LMK I have several pots that haven't yet sold at my Farmers Market forrays.

Anyone, I also have unsold pots of slim leaf Ironweed 'Iron Butterfly' and Phlox 'Jeanna' Both are floriferous and dwarf! and blooming now. If any interest, Dmail me and I will set aside and bring to Swap along with starter pots of Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) and assorted fall nectar plants, I will try to list what's available on the Haves and Wants thread.

Coleup, I'd be in the market for some solidago if you have some up for grabs.

Coleup, that is very generous but I'm 2 plus hours away from Salem County on the opposite side of the state! Thank you though! That was really sweet!

Great dahlia pics, Loretta! How do you get such beautiful butterfly pics? I was out this morning trying to take a picture of a swallowtail on phlox and only succeeded in scaring it away.

Seq, the tall rubeckia is mostly self-supporting. Mine has the compost bin on one side and other tall plants surrounding it, so it's hard to tell if it's truly self-supporting, but it's not at all floppy even on the one side that isn't bordering other tall plants.

Coleup, I got you down! And I'd LOVE some dwarf Ironweed!

Seq, it's a Chicago Lustre Viburnum. It's gotten huge! It's a healthy plant, very robust grower. And the birds just love it.

SSG, I have a lens that zooms in manually so I don't have to be that close. That helps a lot. I also keep trying. I miss a lot of them too.

Speaking of butterflies, do any of you have any monarchs this year? When do they usually appear? I have a ton of milkweed and I haven't seen a single one yet. This is the first year tropical milkweed self sowed all over the place plus I started some from seed and I was hoping for some cats.

AND... I usually get black swallowtails early in the season but I haven't seen any of those either. I have fennel, dill and rue which they always liked before.

1. Tropical Milkweed finally blooming
2. Mountain Mint with unknown tiny butterfly
These hydrangea pics are a couple weeks old but the plants still look pretty much the same so why take new pics yet?
3. Bobo - first year, tiny but covered in bloom for a while now. Try to ignore the crabgrass. It isn't in a proper bed yet.
4. Snowflake
5. Unique

Loretta, check out this thread on butterflies: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1403607/

Some have found LOTS of monarch eggs on their milkweed. :)

Loretta, I have at most glimpsed one monarch. But I have today eleven quickly maturing caterpillars and three recent eggs.
Good to hear your tropical milkweed self sowed!

Loretta, I over winter caladium bulbs every year. They don't all make it but most of them do. If they are growing in a smaller pot I bring the pot inside stop watering them and just slide them under my seed starting table for the winter. It is in a warm room. If they are in a larger pot or window boxes I cut off the foliage and toss them in a brown paper box or a cardboard shoe box I put those in a closet or laundry room shelf.

ditto to Holly. Pretty good value - though it did take them a while to get going in spring.
'Gingerland' was raring to go, with emerging sprouts when the rest were still dormant.

planted clematis on a small trellis a couple months ago. Got a bloom this week. Just one. But it's a pretty one. :)

Sure is. I get a special kick out of the very first bloom of any particular plant I've planted.

Me too, Sally. I try to by plants that aren't in bloom (hard to find) so I can enjoy the first blooms.

Hey! Are we still in Mid-Summer???

How is that decided? The weather is still in FULL blast summer....
Maybe we never really had a "mid-summer"?

Hmmmmm.............

I'd say we are clearly in Late Summer. Time for a new thread ?

Cam--
AHA! You got "the message!" :o)

Late summer will not really have too many blooms to brag about.

How about-----"Mid-Atlantic Gardening--sliding into Fall" as a title?

That should cover all kinds of fall blooms and chores as well.

Just a suggestion. Your Post--Your choice.

Gita

Moved to here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1404037/