I haven't posted since my gardenia exploded with more super fragrant blooms than I've ever seen ...
Then, of course it poured and wilted them all. But it sure was a gorgeous, wonderful smelling week or so out there!
The interesting little green fellow at the bottom was a another player in the "are you a weed or are you flowers?" game. I placed my bets on flowers aaaaaand.....
For once I win!!!
This lovely tower appears to be a type of Delphinium and I am so pleased with myself for leaving it in place!
Although it must have come from one of the wildflower seed variety packets I've sprinkled over the years, I don't remember seeing it in previous years. Sure is pretty!
The other gamble was this one who was rather weed-like, but making a nice little bush, so I left it...
And it did get these cute little yellow cone-flowers, however, they were small and didn't last long, so I think he's going in the yank category for next year. Welp, I'm learning little by little!
And another fun surprise of these purple guys I had forgotten about.
I thought they'd all be the beautiful crimson flowers I found in pictures from last year, but here they are deep purple! (And actually, I have some in pink and kind of a peachy color I never remember seeing before either!)
That's the wonderful thing about having such a terrible brain: every year is brand new surprises because you can't remember what you had!!
Then these adorable, teeny blue flowers sneaked up. Well yay!
Uh oh....they better not be...
[get closer to inspect]
Yup, does appear to be the briars on the Chinese Forget-me-Nots that I tried so hard to purge from the garden due to the evils of weeding around briars!
Oh well...I'm pulling up most before the briars get full-blown so hopefully they'll stay in something of a manageable fashion.
Aaaaaand.....drumroll....
The Clematis bloomed!
First the Jackmani went a few weeks ago...just two flowers this first year, but so pretty and giving high hopes for next year.
Both clematises are doing very well (as in...I haven't killed them yet!) and we've been having some high heat days again.
And in the peak of heat while it's climbing at around 5' high right now, the Earnest Markham just popped its first flower too!!
Once the daylilies came out it had some extra wonderful color...
A few weeks ago the Hydrangeas were still looking gorgeous and then even better with the daisies in bloom!!
The little red guys are the gorgeous crimson flowers I've been hoping would come back! |
However, the biggest surprise of all was when I noticed on my foxglove...
Wait, what?!!
Ok, here's the thing, foxglove are biennial, right?
Which means you plant the seeds, the next year the greens come up and the year after that you get blossoms.
So I've been so pleased seeing the greens: it means that the beautiful stalks I had last year seeded themselves, took root and next year I'll have blossoms, right?!
Uh....or this year!!
I'm just amazed and so happy!! Perhaps these are specially bred ones to bloom every year...? Orrr...just another example of my little accidentals working out well when I had absolutely no part!
I actually have multiple stalks shooting out now! Incredible!
We were out of town for a few days and came back to find the Black-Eyed Susans starting to open!!
They're pretty spindly, but I figure it's their first year and boy were they wilted to almost nothing when we planted them during a heat wave in May. So the fact that they're still alive, let alone blooming has husband amazed. (oh ye of little faith.....in flowers, not in me! Little faith in me is totally founded!)
Even after heat and pouring rain, the hydrangea blooms had perked back up...and quite possibly put out new blossoms...?!
I'm just loving all the flowers lasting for quite awhile! (Well, the lilies seem to be really short.) It's just a beautiful medley of happiness! I typically think of perennials as pretty short-bloomed, but am finding some that are just delightful and long and varied. Maybe, just maybe I will create the wildflower border of my dreams!!
But a moment of silence:
When we got back from our trip, my beautiful pink Gaura was completely gone!
[tears and sadness and horror!!!]
I had wondered why it wasn't flowering nearly as much as past years, but somehow really missed the fact that it was starting to brown a little...? The photo on the left was taken when it was looking pretty sad, but I figured it needed watering and maybe some fertilizer.
We got back and it was 100% brown...from the base to the tips. :-(
The only thing I can figure is that husband got a new type of insecticide to help with the mealybugs and this particular plant did NOT like that! So sad!
Everything else did fine with it, so I don't understand!
Aaaaaand of course genius over here forgot to take a picture of it all brown before cutting it down to its base yesterday. [sigh]
Really hoping it's ok underneath and will come back next year!!
(Instead of a topical one, this insecticide gets absorbed by the plant through the roots so that when the insects bite it, they...uh...expire. However, I'm guessing some plants obviously aren't ok with that arrangement and this is one of them...hope the roots are permanently damaged all the way down. :-( )
But, that accident aside, all in all I am very pleased with the progress!
So Much Color!!!
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