Blooms from July, 2013

Our yard is going to be on our neighborhood garden tour this Saturday, June 7.  I am posting photos from last July 6, so that people can see how different the yard looks at that time.  I hope to also do a post showing August and beyond.  Most of the plants I'm showing here are native to our area, but a few are cultivars.

The Meadow rue is actually pretty tall already, but not this tall yet.

The Purple praire clovers are in bud, so maybe, they will be blooming earlier than last year.  I have both the native kind and the cultivar, 'Stephanie'.

I dug out quite a few Daylilies last fall and this spring to make more room for native plants.  The milkweeds are in bud now.  I see they were in full bloom last July.

Aren't milkweed flowers beautiful?

The Short-toothed mountain mint is not as tall this year as it has been in the past.  Here's what it looked like last July.

The pollinators love Culver's root.

The Golden alexanders seedheads stay looking pretty good all season.  The plants are taller this year, and are blocking some of the plants that were taller than them the last couple of years, including this clump of culver's root.



Some plants are behind usual this year, but others are on time or a bit early.  The Wild quinine will be blooming by Saturday, but maybe not as full as this.

It's another one that the pollinators feed on frequently.



Here's what is probably the tallest plant here, Rudbeckia maxima.  That's Wild senna on the left.  I dug up about 12 seedlings that I will be giving away at the garden tour.

I can't remember the kind of Poppy mallow this one is, but it is a taller blooming one, and not native to here.  The Gray-headed coneflowers on the right were beginning to bloom last July 7.

The Purple milkweed is in bud now, so maybe there will be some color by Saturday.

Here's a wider view, including an aster, 'Jim Crockett'.  It was named for the man whose show I used to watch, Crocket's Victory Garden.  The Purple poppy mallow plants are already blooming.

I thinned out some of the coneflowers this spring, and have moved some other things around, so this area will look a bit different this season.   I'm pretty sure the front ones are Echinacea pallida.  There are still plenty of coneflowers left, though.  I don't remember whether the white blooms are fleabane or boltonia.

Rattlesnake master is one of the bees and wasps, and my favorites. 

Here's a view I seem to like to show.  I've been cutting back the Joe Pye weed, the plant on the left, closest to the house so that it will be bushier and not flop.  I did that last year, too, yet it still got pretty tall.  I recently found the tag, which said it is 'Gateway'. 

I realized I didn't have some that I wanted to show, so these are from July 10 and 11.

I'm pretty sure this is a red admiral butterfly on some Monarda.  This may be  'Pink Delight'.

This is the area to the east of the back yard.  I've been trimming back the goldenrods and asters, so I'm thinking they won't bloom as early as they did last year.  The blue round blooms are Globe thistle.  While not native, they are loved by the bees and wasps.

This is Virginia mountain mint.  Again, the pollinators seem to love white blooms. 

This is clematis pitcheri.  The plant is doing pretty well on the trellis that looks like a bench, and one that is on the structure around the light pole is doing OK.  I keep having to pull out the potato vine that keeps coming up and is a very nasty plant.

Oh, and here is a photo of Wild senna from July 17.  I have 12 little plants to give away to the first people who want them.

We had some pretty strong storms in our area Tuesday evening, and we did not get the worst of it.  I had spent some time tying plants up so they wouldn't get blown about as much.  It must have helped, because there were some I didn't get tied, that were splayed on the ground.  I tied those up today, and they seem to be doing OK.

I hope some of you are here because you came to the tour and wanted to see what things may look like in a month.  Of course, most of our yard is visible from the street, so please drive by and wave at me if I'm out.

It Was a Butterfly Day

I went out after work to take some photos for Jean's Bloomin' Tuesday.  After a cloudy, rainy weekend, the butterflies were out in full force.  When a neighbor girl got off her school bus, she came over and enjoyed the flying flowers with me.  We were in awe of them flying around us, and at the number of butterflies on the butterfly bush.  There are still lots of flowers blooming, not realizing that their days are numbered.  I posted lots of them for GBBD, so I made myself limit the number in this post.

I included this photo first, because I'm not sure if I've posted photos of the nicotiana and lobelia growing by the front porch, even though they've been blooming most of the season.

The switchgrass, 'Prairie Wind' was a couple inches tall and wide when I planted it this summer.

I had to include this poor bedraggled Mexican sunflower with the beetle under the monarch.

I don't get tired of taking photos of butterflies.  They sure are enjoying the dahlias.

I decided to tie the love lies bleeding to the butterfly stake to prevent it from falling down in the wind.  The blooms on the kiss me over the garden gate on the left are lighter weight, but I did tie up the ones in the east bed in front.

This has been a great year for the lisianthus plants.

The zebrina mallow volunteers have been small for a couple years, but are now large enough to bloom.

These are volunteer salvias, I think, from the stems I laid down from a flower bed at church a few years ago.  That's a silver spotted skipper on one of the blooms.

Here's another skipper.

This red admiral was one of the butterflies thrilling the neighbor girl and me on the butterfly bush.

We counted at least 5 monarchs.  Can you see there are 2 in this photo?

I planted this zigzag goldenrod last year.  It didn't get big enough to bloom, but did this year.  The insects seem to be enjoying it.

The asters are starting to bloom.  I am determined to enjoy fall, even though I dread the season that comes next.

The rigid goldenrod is almost finished blooming.

I thought the sweet autumn clematis in this spot had died last year, but it is back, looking fine.

I hope you are having a good week, and are able to be out in your gardens.

East Side of the Back Yard for Bloomin' Tuesday

We had more rainy than sunny days in June, and have had some rain this month, too.  It was raining when I first got up this morning, but as soon as it lightened up, I went out to the back yard to take photos of some back yard blooms for Jean's Bloomin' Tuesday.  Many of the hostas are blooming.  Nothing grows well under the dryer vent, but the hostas around it are doing OK.  There is insect, probably slug damage on the leaves, but some of the holes may be hail damage.

The monarda was flopped down from the rain this morning, so, when I noticed it wasn't as much this evening, I went out and took more photos.  I decided to show more of the yard that is to the east of the deck.  The row of hostas is against the north side of the house.

The clematis soon will be joined by lots of morning glory blooms.  There are a few so far, but I forgot to include that photo.

The clematis is doing well in this pot in this spot.  This is probably the last year for the pot, though, because the bottom is rusted out.  There is a portulaca growing on the bottom left of it.

We still have lots of items blocking the plants to prevent Heidi from digging.

The closest hosta to the edge of the house shows on the right side of the photo, next to the monarda.  The picket over the chain link is to prevent Heidi from jumping over the fence and running through the neighborhood.  The pots of lavender are in hopes of having something pleasant to smell, since the gravel area is where Heidi goes after she eats.

The monarda is 'Jacob Cline'.  I like it with the echinacea, 'Magnus', gray headed coneflower and lavender.

I've clipped back the asters a time or two.  The stiff goldenrod has mildew or something on the bottom leaves, but the newer growth has been green awhile.  I'd thought about cutting it back, but maybe I should just take some of the lower leaves off.

I need to look to see when the goldenrods and such bloomed last year.  It looks like the stiff goldenrod will be blooming soon.  That's false sunflower on the other side of the fence.

More gray-headed coneflower, 'Magnus', and aster are along the fence.  The area along the shed is an area Heidi has dug in a lot.  She has dug out several coneflowers.  For some reason, I have a black-eyed Susan behind the pot with the snapdragons in it.

I forgot to point out the volunteer holyhock next to the gray-headed coneflower on the edge of the shed.

The variegated false sunflowers are filling in nicely, after having been eaten to the ground by rabbits this spring.

Here's the view looking back to the driveway, with the deck on the left.

On the other side of the hose stand, some morning glories are growing with wild petunias at their feet.

Head on over to Jean's blog to see what else people have blooming for Tuesday, or go take some photos and show what's blooming your way.