This is that awkward time in my beds. Not enough color for a show and the early summer bloomers are looking a little seedy (no pun intended). I have a few bright spots. Pink lycoris are giving the best show since I moved them down here, and lilium 'Black Beauty' has opened its first flowers. However, mostly I am reduced to looking at autumn clematis and formosa lilies and muttering, "let's see some buds, already!"
So, what is blooming for you guys?
Beth
What is blooming for you today?
I still have daylilies blooming. Most are just finishing but Happy Returns and Moontraveller are gearing up again for another modest showing. The agastaches are a-feather, the new little "Cambridge scarlet" monarda opened today. Not scarlet. More of a raspberry wine color. Nice, but not for the red-white-blue garden so it will get moved...roses are re-blooming again, late phlox, I have a late blooming cerise colored yarrow, kalimeris, lavender joy lilies, "Mulberry Jam" salvia is now blooming, a perennial red salvia, some perennial rudbeckias... a very pale purple almost white monarda... and there is plenty more.
Why not try some russian sage, and if you have space, mexican petunias or boltonia. They booth move fairly fast but are great for hot summer bloom!
I still have several daylilies, orientals, tigers..Also wild sunflowers, roses, salvia, clerodendrum,crinums,butterfly weed, hibiscus, lots of annuals,hyacinth bean vines, butterfly vine, red honeysuckle, blackberry lily, and lots more if I'd get out in this 3 digit heat to see..lol
Larkie
What's blooming still for me are: several varieties of zinnias, cosmos, columbine ( one bloom left as of 11:00am), strawflowers, wave petunias, mandevilla shrubs and vines, gaura, angel face, argyranthemum (second flush after shearing), hibiscus, daylilies, marigolds, delphinium and larkspur, ( finally started), lantana, butterfly bush, gazania, pentas, red sunflowers, spider flowers, crocosmia (thanks to you, Beth the Turtle), four o'clocks, cannas, yarrow, salvia ( it's shaded by the zinnias that I didn't know would "branch-out-of-the-county"). This is actually my first true gardening experience.
I've had some disappointments and I'm sure I'll be digging some up and moving them to different places. Some grew taller than the info on their pot tags. I've also got watering issues with drought tolerants mixed in with ones that need more moist soil. Oh, well, live and learn.
One thing I have learned is never again will cosmos be in my butterfly garden! Wow, they look like a weed and grew taller than 4 ft and leaning. It just started to bloom but it still looks too weedy compared to the other plants around it.
I started growing most of these from seeds in Feb. I'll do it again this winter but instead of the kitchen counters, I'll move the lab to the workshop.
I 'm learning alot from reading this forum. Some of you are a hoot! Maybe I'll get a chance to meet ya'll at a trade show or the like.
Deborah
Hi Deborah- I agree with you on the Cosmos - a real dissapointment! Zinnias and maybe Dianthus will be planted in their stead next year. For your first gardening experience, it sounds like you have a great variety! This is my first concerted effort as well, but I am afraid I don't have the selection you do, (just give me time.) I plan to construct a greenhouse this fall and start lots more from seed and cuttings!!
I'm guessing from your username that you're a GA fan. My baby's at UGA, a rising senior. Sure do miss him, but at least he's not far away, and there is a great little nursery on the way to Athens from Thomson, so I don't mind the drive at all!!
I agree, this forum is a delight, and I have learned so much from all the great folks here!
Guardians, keep us posted on your greenhouse construction efforts this fall. I have thought about trying to rig something up in the workshop but haven't a clue how to begin. Some of the folks here on the forum have either a full-fledge greenhouse to a lean-to. Both styles work for them well. As for mine right now, it's saran wrap covering dirt over formica.
Glad to hear you are a close drive away from your son. The classic city
on a Saturday afternoon holds alot of fond memories for me and my family. I'm sure it will with you and your family as well.
I use my hubby's code name off the GA Dog vent, or whatever you call that football chatroom. He wasn't happy with my choice of a gardening name. His ties with GA goes back to his class of '68, way way back in the Dooley days.
Deborah
3 different colors of hardy hibiscus are in bloom.
Butterfly bushs
Morning glories
couple of rose of sharon's just started blooming
Crepe mrytles just kicked in
4 different kinds of roses in bloom
Couple lilies still going
Saligna Eucalyptus has yellow flowers all over the place
think that's it right now.
Oh peace lilies in bloom.
Since the drought not much to say! But I did get a few hydrangeas and only two of myGladiolas. My Gourds are blooming does that count????
My two Glads
Ooops iforgot thedaylilies!
You know this would count too! This was my first attempt at growing a Gloxinia from a corm!
Deborah,
DH plans to build/have built a small shed/garage/workshop thingy in the back yard this fall. I told him to hurry up because I will be attaching a greenhouse to it as soon as the walls are up!! Not sure exactly how to proceed, but I 'll be researching it over the next few months and sharpening up my girly power tools.
Here's what's blooming for me today. My no-name hibiscus is blooming away!!
I don't know the names of many (if any) of my plants. I'll try to do better next year. Sharpies don't last in the GA sun, I have discovered. Lavender something Dahlia, after the hungry worms ate holes in the leaves.
Guardians,
I have a hibiscus in a pot on my patio. Do you know, or any reader know, if it would live year around in my zone if I planted it in the ground?
Yours is beautiful! So many blooms!
Deborah
Deborah, I'm not sure. I would guess that it would depend on whether on not it is a "hardy" hibiscus, from what I am told. I am told this is a swamp hibiscus, but I planted it last year in July (was just a seedling) and forgot about it (actually thought it died) until it started leafing out all of a sudden in May. Now it's 5' tall and double branched! Looks like two plants!! I have got to learn more about these beautiful plants. Maybe you could take a picture of your potted hib and post it on the Hibiscus forum for the experts to identify and give some advice. I am now hooked, and want a lot more of these beautiful flowers in my yard!!
Susan
Hibiscus are pretty hardy once they get some good roots on them. If they die back from front, cut them back and they should sprout new shoots in the spring. I don't have any now but did have some in the Valdosta area.. you aren't that far north of there. Good luck. sr
Hi..
The hardy ones do well here for me, but the tropicals get killed all the way down and once in awhile I have one to make it thru a mild winter if it is mulched...But....then it takes them almost the whole season to come back fully..If a favorite I take them inside or at least onto the porch or garage..I have two tropicals that came back from last year and they are only about a foot high now.. I'll be lucky to get blooms..I had bought some rooted liners in pots from Wal-Mart a couple of months ago and they are growing and blooming like weeds.
Larkie
Susan, could your hibiscus be "Rose of Sharon"?
Deborah
I'll take a pic of mine just as soon as I figure out how to work our new camera. I'm in the gnat belt between Perry and Tifton. If they did come back in the Valdosta area, mine may have a chance. I'll mulch really heavy before the first frost.
I still have several daylilies, orientals (stargazer and a white one), tiger lily, Blue salvia, red salvia, purple salvia and black and blue salvia, short pale pink hibiscus, shrub lantana budding, impatiens, red honeysuckle, blackberry lily, candy lily, pineapple lily, white phlox, purple phlox, monarda, crocosmia, rose of sharon, several butterfly bushes, sweet laura alstroemeria, ruby penstemon, sour grapes penstemon, some hosta, one toad lily (amethysina - sp), gooseneck something, several hydrangeas, and I'm probably forgetting something.
Brenda
Deborah,
Don't have any idea what it is, but when I posted on the hibiscus forum I got a couple of responses that it was a swamp hibiscus, and I don't know if there are more than one type of those. I do have something that is supposed to be Rose of Sharon, and my neighbor has a whole line of them next to our fence, and they look nothing like this plant. The leaves on my hibiscus are large and all these Rose of Sharon's have small leaves and small flowers. That is, the ones that have bloomed. Mine is about 2 ft tall and her's are all small trees, about 5-9' tall. But there are probably different varieties, right?
Susan
I was one of the people on the Hibiscus board, you have a swamp mallow hardy hibiscus. http://davesgarden.com/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=hardy+hibiscus&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=both&Search=Search
Sorry about the huge link but check those out I'm sure you'll find a match to yours.
The hardy hibiscus die off and come back strong the next year, just trim them to the ground and your all set. A rose of sharon has bark and looks like a tree, don't think it's actually a tree though?? you don't prune down a rose of sharon and it won't die off durning the winter.
I have some peach colored daylillies and some double purple and white angel trumpet, purple passion flowers, yellow and white callas, several fragrant roses, mexican petunias, red hibiscus, moss rose, and I am sure I missed some. I am a plant nut, I guess. I have been starting sagos from seed and also amaryllis. This is the first time I have started those. I have a lot of African violets and gloxinias that I have been starting from leaf cuttings for years. I love flowers !!
First flowers on the toad lilies today - lovely little stars with pale amethyst tips. Also blooming L. Black Beauty, tuberose, four different daylilies, Phlox David and Starfire, Salvia Indigo spires, soapwort,bee balm, hosta, crocosmia, liatris, lantana Am. red, purple coneflower, and chaste tree.
It sounds like such a lot, but of course it is scattered through several beds so, to me, the yard looks mostly green. I really do know that the gardening books are full of pictures taken where the seasons are shorter and cooler and are therefore a bit misleading for southerners, yet deep in my heart I want those mid summer beds filled with color and variety.
Beth
Wow, you guys have so many flowering plants. We feel lucky to have green stuff, with all the shade and wildlife. Previous owners planted daylillies, which the deer just decimate. One pale chartreuse, one maroon and one golden double flower (no names, obviously). DH has had it with the deer eating them--it kills him almost as much as the hostas do me. He says he's taking them up in the fall, and I can give them away at the plant swap. The golden one is giving it one last try: it's blooming far down within the plant. No stalk at all to speak of. So far the deer haven't spotted the blossoms. Heard of dandelions which are mowed doing this, but not daylillies! Any of you want the no-names at the swap?
Just mark the color and watch the feeding frenzy! Kidding aside, for me color is more important than name. It also sounds like a rebloomer which is good to have when the main color show is past.
We need to look for some deer proof plants for you. There must be some that the beasties find unpalatable.
Beth
hey itmeejw.....do you happen to have a picture of your double purple and white angel trumpet? good gardening - jon
NOT AT THE MOMENT. BUT I WANT TO TAKE A PIC WITH MY DIGITAL AND POST IT ON HERE. KEEP LOOKING. I WILL TRY TO DO IT TOMORROW, IF I GET A CHANCE. I HAVE BEEN KEPT BUSY LATELY TAKING MY SON BACK AND FORTH FROM HERE TO H IS PLACE TO PICK HIM UP AND THEN TO HIS WORK. AND THEN DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN WHEN HE GETS OFF WORK. HIS VEHICLE BROKE DOWN AND HE IS HAVING PROBLEMS GETTING IT REPAIRED. I LIVE IN KINGSLAND, HE LIVES IN WOODBINE AND HE WORKS IN BRUNSWICK. WHEWWWW !! BUT I WILL TRY TO GET IT DONE. :O)
Turtle - Never fear, I already have a copy of the deer resistant plant list for Georgia! The trouble is cross referencing it with the shade list leaves very few blooming plants. We like to have bloomers on the deck and front porch, so we're not completely colorless! This year, we lost a big pine to lightning, and we had taken out a sweet gum last fall, so I'm having to adapt to a "high shade" situation rather than deep shade. Always something new to learn in the garden! Now, is there a date for that fall plant swap yet? Sheila
Oops, I wonder if I should tell my neighbor nix on pruning the ROS?? They were moved en masse from another yard where the lady was thinning out her shrubs, and they definitely pruned them back this spring. Maybe that's why only one bloomed? Or maybe they need more sunlight... I think that's what's wrong with mine. It's just a baby, so I will give it some more time before I move it.
This is my purple/white angel trumpet. It is the only one open today.
I have a million other buds but wouldn't you know it, the day I wanted
to take a pic, there would only be one open. And this one has more white than purple, usually it is the other way around. I will post a better
pic when I have more open. I don't blame them for wanted to stay closed, it is soooooooo humid here today.
today i have tall red cannas, dwarf salmon cannas, white gara, native verbena, two colors of buddleias, purple spiderwort, white and purple durunta, white serissa, abelia, red/orange honeysuckle, pale yellow knockout roses, a pink hosta bloom, and a ubiquitous purple flower that my neighbor gave me a clump last week (sorry i have to ask its name). dooley worth, saint simons island, ga.
itmeejw, that is a Datura not a Brugmansia (Angel's Trumpet). Datura flowers face up while Angel's Trumpets hang down and are normally 10-18" or more, long.
I live in the Atlanta area, and this is what's showing for me:
Dahlia (Lauren Michelle, after my youngest daughter)
Daylily (Stella D'Oro, blooming close to the ground, but none of the other 4 varieties)
Echinacea
Rudbeckia
3 hostas
1 heuchera
4 of 6 of our lobelia
1 oriental lily
1 of 2 dianthus
We don't have much occasion to worry about deer, but the rabbits are driving me crazy!
John
Yes, ya know.........I was just thinking that today. I thought mine did hang down, but I noticed they are more upward or horizontal than downward. I stand corrected, Violabird. Thanks for reassuring me. I took more pics today of a lot of my flowers, my crape myrtle, moss rose and passion flower. Everything is doing so well, despite the lack of rain. Some places nearby got rain today, but not here. :o( Here is a pic of one of my passion flowers.
I have been gon for three days to visit my mother. This evening, as soon as I got the van unloaded, I took a quick walk through the garden. I can count the formosa buds now, there are three new scapes on the pink crinum, and the clematis buds are swelling. How quickly things develop in the heat (and how quickly they fade from that same condition).
Beth
I finally got RAIN!!! (and feel like a gardener again) 20 minutes gave me a good half inch at least, and how good it smells!
Beth, would you believe my Milk and WIne Criniums are still going? 2 more opened today, I've lost count--think it's 10 or 12 scapes since May! And had another Mrs. James Hendry that I enjoyed for a week in a vase.
I still have some late daylilies, plumbago going great, giant blue salvia, a rosy-red re-seeding annual salvia, old fashioned petunias, mexican petunias in pink & purple, dianthus,Taylor red verbena, candy lilies, and 2 different clematis. My confederate jasmine, Hall's honeysuckle and Donna's Monster Brug are competing to fill the yard with scent, and the corkscrew vine is setting buds--can't wait to smell it for the first time--I hear it smells of grape jelly!
One of my favorite plants is beginning to unfurl its buds, the Peanut Butter Shrub! From a 6" seedling 3 years ago it's now looking like a tree at 5'. Everyone needs one of these in their yard, especially if you have kids or grandkids. This year I hope it reseeds or spreads so I share. Has anyone had luck growing it from seed?
Adding: Phlox David, crocosmia Lucifer, 4 O'clocks, lamiums White Nancy & Pink Pewter, a few sweet william, purple heart, spiderwort, geranium "Claridege Druice or Wargrave Pink" (I think--blooms are sure small) my butterfly bushes.rose of sharon and a pink Vitex.
Roses: Belinda's Dream, Seattle Scentsation & Norwich Sweetheart.
This message was edited Jul 14, 2006 11:05 AM
Vi, I've never heard of a Peanut Butter Shrub. Not to mention some of your other plants. I bet your yard is a gardner's paradise. I'm learning so much from you and Bugme and others. Keep posting Barnesville Folks.
Some of my favorite people live in your neck of the woods. My two boys especially. One teaches/ coaches and the younger son attends Gordon. Love your beautiful down-town area. Wish the city fathers here would fix up some of our dilapidated buildings.
Beth, I planted all of those bulbs, as you advised me to; those that I purchased from WalMart. Can you believe it, the daffidils (ms) are blooming!
Keep Blooming! - Deborah
Hi there everyone. I would love to have a starting of some kind of that peanut butter shrub if anyone has any. Seeds, or whatever I can get to get one or 2 started. We have no trees in our yard here, except for a small rose of sharon 2 years old, a hydrangea tree, 2 yrs. old and a 1 yr. old northern magnolia tree. I would love to have a peanut butter shrub though. Someone let me know how I can get one or two. Thanks. This is a pic of my alligator ( not real ) next to my small sago.
Emma
Vi, do you have your PB shrub in full sun? I was lucky enough to receive a good sized one at the swap and it is really healthy now but I'm unsure of where to plant it. They get pretty large don't they?
Sharon
p.s. lucky you to get rain last night!!
Vi, do you know which crinum your milk and wine is? It sounds like a wonderfully prolific bloomer.
The beds are so dry here. Neither my husband nor my son watered anything while I was gone and there was no rain. I didn't have the heart to go plant buying in Birmingham due to the heat and drought. Just as well as I have plants coming from 3 co-ops and I am not sure where they are going.
There is a huge toad sitting and calling on the back porch. Both dogs and both cats are sitting at the patio doors staring at him.
Beth