Tag Archives: garden

What’s Blooming!

I can’t believe I haven’t posted since Sunday. I’ve kind of lost my blogging mojo a bit. Maybe it’s time to start posting food again.

Today is John’s birthday. Lucky John having a birthday on Flower Friday and all that 😀 There will be dinner tonight and then a cake party this weekend.

On to the garden! Lots of snaps:

A new flower opened up. This is an heirloom lily:

It’s actually held up by a shepherd’s crook. It’s about 5 feet tall and quite a statement plant.

I have a couple blackeyed Susan plants, one in the front and one in the back. At our old house, I had planted some and they overran the place! I was hesitant to put in more, but these have been very good.

They go nicely with the hydrangea:

Balloon flowers:

I gave them a good deadheading only I got a little carried away and snipped off a bloom.

I stuck it in the mum cluster 😀

An area that is still struggling a bit is the newest bed we put in last year. I have a several small shrubs growing. Last year I put in foxgloves and they looked good. This year, I got a ton of baby foxgloves, but now they look kind of tired and brown:

Just to show that not all of my gardens are A+ 😀 This bed will need a couple of years to get established.

More Cheyenne Spirit!

I’m going to have some baby ones of these to share in the fall, I think.

Hostas blooming in the shade bed. I did not plant these. They came with the house.

Potted plant which I cannot remember the name of now:

Lots of globe thistles going.

If you look close you can see a bee butt in there 😀

Here is a full look at them:

Behind is the Joe Pye Weed. I really like this plant, but it sure is tall. This is eye level:

The flowers haven’t quite opened up yet, but when they do, they will be covered with bees and butterflies.

Hope you have a great weekend!

What’s Blooming!

It’s hard to believe it’s almost August! Our summer has been pretty decent. Only a few days where it was really hot so far. Now we have temperatures in the 70s.

Moving around from the front of the house to the back – here is the calycanthus:

This has flowers all over it. It’s a nice shrub that blooms on and off for the whole summer.

Agastache:

There were bees on my balloon flowers today:

Yay!

Happy section of color that I love:

See the green feathery stuff? That’s cosmos that seeded itself from last year. I just let them grow. It’s getting pretty crowded here, though. I need to move my tippy pots somewhere else because you can’t see them!

Hydrangea blooming:

This hydrangea has a really interesting habit. It’s not bushy like most hydrangeas and has an open and airy appearance. I don’t think I knew that when I got it – or it could be that is just how it is responding to where I put it.

To the shade bed we go. Here is progress on the tipped pot.

I have to say I don’t care for these as much as the impatiens for this. I don’t think they are going to get much fuller.

Baby Heuchera:

These sure are taking a long time to get established. I can’t even remember now how big these are going to get. 😀

Potted heliotrope:

This is quite a large plant. I’m glad I put it in a deep pot. It smells sooooo good!

There has been a lot of critter activity in the back bed. These are milkshake coneflowers:

They are getting a little chewed up and I think it’s Japanese beetles doing the damage. It’s been so humid and moist outside that the mosquitoes are absolutely terrible. I even used OFF and they were still biting me! So, I don’t spend quite as much time out there to see what’s doing the eating.

I was so excited to get a Baby Joe pyeweed plant last year. The regular Joe is over 6 feet tall. The marker card for the baby Joe says 24-36 inches. Hmmmm…..

That’s a shorter branch, too. It’s over 5 feet tall. Guess it didn’t get the memo. Last year it was 3 feet tall. Must like this spot or something.

Bee balm:

Globe thistle:

That is quite tall as well, 4-5 feet. On the left you can just see the red stone path. On the other side of that we used to have a fence. I was planting for height with these, but now without the fence, they are a bit too tall to have here. However, globe thistles do not like to be moved as they have a tap root. Not quite sure what I’m going to do about that.

These go well with coneflowers, I think.

More bees! Lots of bees on these. There is a hummingbird that comes around these, the bee balm and the coneflowers usually around lunch time. I need to get my telephoto lens out and see if I can get some pictures.

It’s so good to see the bees. They have been absent for a lot of the summer. This is why I plant what I plant. Pollinator friendly.

What’s Blooming!

Happy Friday! Lots of stuff to report on this week. We were gone for 5 days and when we pulled into the driveway Tuesday night, I was surprised at how much the garden “plumped” up while we were away. It’s been a somewhat wet summer and that really is making things go crazy. Including weeds.

I had overwintered my passion flower indoors and brought it back outside earlier in the summer. It doesn’t seem quite as nice as last year and the blooms are different colored this year:

There was a white ring in the flowers last year. This is the only bloom on the plant so far.

Balloon flowers needing deadheading:

I should have taken a picture after I cleaned them up because they look nice LOL. The white ones are finally showing up:

In thinking about it, I think I have been calling them white even though they really are pink.

I don’t know if these are spreading or just getting bigger. There were originally 3 plants for all that growth above.

I love letting self-seeding plants grow and will then move them somewhere else. I was taking care of what I thought was a cardinal flower, but it’s this:

Not cardinal flower. I don’t know what it is and just pulled it up. Sometimes I end up cultivating weeds 😀

Here is one of my shrubs that is in year three and leaping:

It’s a hydrangea called strawberry sundae or shortcake. Something like that anyway. The flowers are supposed to turn pink as they mature.

I have another hydrangea that is in its second year. It was a tiny little stem last year and I was pretty surprised to see some blooms on it this year:

It’s called Annabelle. This is about 4 times the size it was last year at this time. It will end up around 5 feet tall when it is fully grown. The flowers are huge and it has sturdy stems so they aren’t supposed to flop over in the rain. We’ll see.

Liatris plus garden ornament:

In front of the liatris are the agastache, which filled out a lot in the last week:

That black thing is a solar spot light. It works great, I have to say. It will pretty much last to dawn if it gets good sun.

On the other side of that light are my mini penstemon:

And of course another shot of the happy Cheyenne Spirit!

There are daylilies all over the place on the sides and back of the house:

One little foxglove sent out some flowers:

The Lysmichia are still standing at attention:

The bee balm popped open while we were gone:

This plant is a good 4+ feet tall. I saw a hummingbird flitting around it the last couple of days, too. Yay!!

Unfortunately, it is getting some powdery mildew on it. I started a daily organic neem oil spray on this and my peonies and hopefully that will stop it from spreading.

It’s like a mop head. Then the flowers will start to lose the petals in the middle and look like a monk 😀

If you crush the leaves of this plant, it smells like oregano.

Still more flowers to come that are getting ready to open!

This weekend we should be getting in a cupcake ride. Finally, jeez! Hope you all have a great weekend!

What’s Blooming!

Friday Fun Day! Lot s of blooms today.

I try to carefully plan to make sure that I have at least some sort of blooms all of the time. One way I do this is to go to Bluestone Perennials website – or pretty much any online flower seller – and narrow the selection down to plants that fit in my zone. Then I choose the bloom time I want to fill and choose plants I like that fit the conditions I have. Sometimes that is tough, particularly in dry shade.

That works pretty well most of the time, although plants don’t always cooperate with what they are supposed to do. Even though I’m in Zone 5, it is on the colder end, so things tend to bloom a bit later than they might lower in the same zone. Of course, you can always fill in with annuals, which bloom all summer long.

Here is my agastache, which I’m likely to start treating as an annual.

I haven’t ever seen hummingbirds in my front yard, only the back, but the bees like this one, too.

Supreme Cantaloupe is getting its ruffed center:

My balloon flowers are cooking along:

These bloom for a long time. The white ones still aren’t open yet. Slowpokes.

There is one Black-eyed Susan sitting behind these balloon flowers:

This one doesn’t seem to self seed as much as ones I have had in the past, which is actually good. Different variety, different results.

I am so loving the Cheyenne Spirit coneflowers:

This is a cluster of 3 plants. They just seem so happy and cheerful. Makes me smile when I go out the front door.

Fair Bianca is just about done with its first flush of blooms:

It’s like Cerberus only nicer. 🙂

This will send out a few more smaller flushes of blooms through fall. I love the reblooming roses.

In the back the gooseneck loosestrife are going gangbusters. They can be kind of invasive and spread pretty rapidly, which I agree with since I moved about 5 plants over here last year:

There are more on each side, too. Don’t you love how their heads all point in the same direction? Like little soldiers.

I might move some of these over to my shade bed and see what happens. It’s good ground cover at any rate.

And lastly, the drumstick Allium fully bloomed:

They are all drooped over because of some heavy rain overnight. They’ll perk up. These are maybe about 2-1/2 to 3 feet tall and sway in the wind like little pompoms. Very cute. I’m going to divide this clump in the fall and plant them all around.

Hope you enjoyed!

What’s Blooming!

Okay, back to the USA for this post 😀

We had one freeze overnight earlier this week, but most of my plants survived it and it has been relatively warm for the rest of the week.

We bought some pumpkins to be carved later, but now they are outside.

Those are some of the gourds we grew on accident. They keep rolling around or something rolls them around.

The Fair Bianca has buds on it. I thought these might have gotten nipped with the freeze, but maybe they are okay:

The big one should open, but the 2 others probably don’t have enough time before more frost. I love how this rose has the pink buds and opens to white flowers.

The geraniums sent out some fresh blooms:

The mums in the ground are just starting to open.

For the life of me, I can’t remember what color the one on the left is. Guess we should find out soon! Close up of the purple.

I went to get some more potted mums to decorate with and the nursery was having a clearance sale. Clearance sale, people! How could I resist? The perennials were $2 and $3 and I found some that I was going to put in anyway next year.

Ladies Mantle. I got a couple of those and some white astilbe, all for the shade garden. With the warm days, these plants should get a good root system on them. I like planting in the fall because it gives the plants a head start for spring.

These are the marigolds that I direct sowed in the spring.

I couldn’t even get a bloom in the whole growing season and it is now mid October. I’m surprised these haven’t died yet, but another really cold night and they probably will. Please open!!

Look at all my zinnias!

Those dark patches are the old flower heads from my baby Joe Pye. I ended up getting some more zinnia seeds for next year since these were such a success.

I just need to be patient enough to wait for them.

More foxgloves:

I am letting all of the seed pods from these plants fall to the ground.

Lastly, more of the Enchanted Evening rose:

I love this rose. It smells wonderful. It would be nice if it got bushier next year. Third year is the charm for baby perennials, so my fingers are crossed.

Garden cleanup to do this weekend. That’s always a bit sad when you cut away the foliage for the season. I’m already thinking about next year!

What’s Blooming!

Back to my own garden again. I took lots of flower pictures in Ireland, which I am going to be putting on my garden blog as I edit them. We have had a pretty warm fall so far and no frost, so I still have a lot of flowers in bloom.

It’s also bulb planting time!

Ummm.. this might be my third shipment of bulbs. 😀 I planted all the tulips and this order is all alliums. The rabbits/squirrels eat my tulips in the back yard, so I will only plant alliums back there since they don’t eat those. I don’t know why they don’t come to the front yard, but I’m fine with that.

The snapdragons have stragglers blooming still:

Since I put down a bunch of mulch this year, I’m not sure how many will self seed. That will be the fun part next year to see what I get and where!

Asters:

The little toad lily put out a bunch of blooms this week.

This is actually a small plant, about 6 inches high. I have to check and see if it will get taller because it’s more towards the center of the shade bed and if it doesn’t, I will move it next year closer to the edge.

When you order plants from online nurseries, sometimes they throw in a free plant as a bonus. This one is a chrysanthemum of some kind, but I don’t know what. I took the picture now because I’m afraid the rabbits will eat it before it comes open fully.

I don’t even know if this is a hardy mum. Guess I’ll find out next spring!

The Autumn Joy have turned a rusty color:

And the hydrangeas are turning pink. This is the big one in the back yard.

My zinnias are still a poppin’!

Loads of blooms. I have to say I am pretty impressed with these. My Joe Pye is completely obscured by the zinnia. There are a lot of different colors mixed in as well.

I might try to collect seeds from these or I might just buy a new packet next year 😛

The foxgloves have sent out short little spikes of blooms. This is the lavender one.

Foxgloves are such a cottage garden plant and that is the look I am aiming for overall.

Last, but not least, the Enchanted Evening buds have opened up. I thought I might miss them when we were in Ireland, but they opened up this week.

There’s a cluster of 5 all together, which I couldn’t get a good shot of for some reason. This rose smells heavenly, too!

We’re having an Ireland picture party tomorrow because what is more fun that looking at slide shows of someone else’s vacation?? LOL I’m just trying to organize photos into smaller, more maneagable sets for viewing. We’ll see if the rain holds off for biking. Have a great weekend!

What’s Blooming!

We have had that spell of warm weather, which has really extended the bloom time for the plants.

Impatiens:

Even with all the fall leaves around them, they are looking great for late September!

The Enchanted Evening rose has sent up a bunch of buds.

Too bad I will probably miss these when they bloom, but maybe not. Guess we’ll see in a week.

The fall favorite – Autumn Joy Sedum:

My potted million bells just keep going.

The plant is getting a little leggy, but I’ll just leave it as is since it is so late in the season.

Raspberry daquiri agastache:

Please live through the winter little plants! I don’t want to hope for a lot of snow, but I think the reason all the agastache died was because there was no snow cover to blanket them. Some would be nice.

One last Razzmatazz coneflower.

I thought this plant was a goner early in the season because bunnies chewed it down to nubs, but it survived. It’s been around for about 13 years with me, so I shouldn’t have doubted it.

The foxgloves. This is the same plant with 2 different colored stalks.

I am letting these all go to seed any hopefully I will have more next year.

The zinnias have been a poppin’!

I made fun of them earlier this year, but they showed me and some are now almost 5 feet tall!

I should have lots of blooms still until we get an overnight frost. My mums haven’t even bloomed yet.

Have a great weekend!

What’s Blooming!

I am sooo glad this Friday is finally here. Now for the first day off in 2 weeks. There are fall blooms a plenty now and the garden is actually a study in white.

I did move my big butterfly bush Tuesday evening and it was not too happy with me.

It’s kind of wilty, even with plenty of water. I hope it makes it. Maybe I should have cut it back a lot. There is plenty of time for the root system to get established, so hopefully it will survive.

Fall aster:

I only have one little aster plant. John likes this flower, so I put one in.

Last gasp of the tippy pots.

I am going to change the tippy pots out to mums. I’m debating doing it this week or waiting until we get back from Ireland so they don’t dry out. I don’t want to ask my folks to water the plants on top of taking care of our house and Pixie.

Cosmos:

I got another butterfly bush a month or so ago. Darn sales… This one is supposed to only get to about 3 feet high, so it will fit in the front better:

Pretty:

In thinking about it, I have had more luck than I realized with seeds this year. Moonflowers are about as easy as it gets. I just stuck the seeds in the ground and got 9 vines! Unfortunately, I didn’t trellis them, so they are running along the ground and up a couple of poles I put up. I love the buds:

You have to check each day for the blooms to catch them. They only last a day and when the daytime sun hits them, they wilt.

I’m definitely doing these again next year. Note to self – get trellises.

More plant moving this weekend now that I have a free weekend! Yay! Bulb orders should be arriving soon as well, probably while we are gone LOL.

What’s Blooming!

There are things blooming in the garden, but I haven’t been able to get out there much other than to water this week. Thank goodness it rained last night so I didn’t have to go out there.

I just got a couple pictures.

Impatiens.

These grew great this year. The right spot and good amended soil. Amazing what that will do LOL!

The butterfly bush:

This is still pretty short. Only about 3 feet high. It was taller last year. This is going to get moved about 3 feet forward in the garden bed. If I ever get time!!

My 100-pound rose has put up a couple blossoms:

Still going 6 years later despite being moved to a different house!

Next week will be a much better blooming post and I’ll be updating Bloom Crazy as well.

What’s Blooming!

One thing I try to do with my garden is to always have something in bloom. This is the easier part of the year to design that. It’s mid spring that is the hard part. Lots of plants still blooming now, even though some are looking tired.

I have one of these Black-Eyed Susans in front and one in back. I am hoping they will give me baby plants. I had 2 last year and they didn’t give me any, but I got a different cultivar this time.

Mushroom peeking out!

I leave the liatris for some interest right now. I’ll cut it down when the foliage starts to look bad.

I was very surprised to see another bloom pop out on the balloon flowers:

I had cut the tops back after the blooms were gone. Not sure if there will be others, but that would be nice. The blue is such a beautiful color.

Snapdragons everywhere.

I’ve always loved the snapdragons. It’s surprising to me how many seedlings I get from these even though I mulch. I’m okay with that, though.

In the back the potted plants are looking a little tired. I think the Black Satin really could use a hair cut.

It’s getting quite leggy. I just hate cutting off the blooms, even though I know it will come back and look better.

The hydrangea tree out back really flopped over with the last rain because the blooms are enormous.

I apologized to my neighbor the other night because some of the branches have flopped into her coneflowers, but she said she really likes how it looks and people think they are hers LOL.

See how big the blooms are?

This has to weigh almost a pound, especially when it’s wet.

Zinnias and Baby Joe Pye Weed:

I would probably do zinnias from seed again. Not starting them indoors, but just putting them in the soil. They were pretty easy.

The bees love the Baby Joe.

There was another surprise in the back this week. One of my columbines bloomed again!

The others that I have kind of died back to the ground and this one just shot up some stalks. It’s such a unique flower.

It’s almost time to start moving plants around. The end of summer comes so fast.

It should be good riding weather this weekend and I have a hankering for a cupcake! It’s been a while. Have a great one!

Finding Radiance

Trying to live a fit life loving food, cycling, gardening and everything in between!

Tag Archives: garden

What’s Blooming!

What’s Blooming!

What’s Blooming!

What’s Blooming!

What’s Blooming!

What’s Blooming!

What’s Blooming!

What’s Blooming!

What’s Blooming!

What’s Blooming!