Sunday, July 5, 2009

Some Beauty and Ugly In The Garden






I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend.
Although I know those who work in retail seldom
have holidays off.
It has been a cool and cloudy weekend for the most
part here. We were able to sneak in a cookout yesterday
before the sprinkles started again. We certainly need the
the rain though.



The Elderberry blooms are so pretty down by the
woods. The deer will no doubt have them before long.



The Clustered Purple Bellflowers are just about
through blooming now and will need cut back, but
the wild phlox is into their second bloom now since I
cut them back a few weeks back. The blooms are sparse
now and not as big.



The coneflower in the picture is missing some petals.
My conflowers are not doing so well this year for
some reason. In fact flowers are doing some mighty
strange things around here this year and it is not just
the yellow roses changing to red. I will share the newest
oddity this week in another posting.



Razzmatazz is doing better than the other varieties
of coneflowers that I have. The 'Double Delights'
do not even look like they are going to be double
blooming but look like the regular Magnus coneflowers.






The Astilbe's that I have are finishing up their
blooms now. They were so wonderful this year
and I had a few that had grown to four feet which
has never happened before.



This year my sweetpeas are not even blooming
as well as they generally do. The vines appear
deformed in the middle part, the picture below
does not show the problem very well, but you can
see that it is not blooming like it should.
I love taking pictures of the few blooms
that they do have. The are so fascinating to look at.



The Deer and the Japanese beetles have been into
the Hollyhocks and even the color of the blooms
on it are not as pink and vibrant.



In fact I think it
is down right ugly this year and that is not counting
the chewed holes in the leaves from the beetles.



The new 'Double Delight' rose makes up for
some of the ugly in the beds. I am trying to
keep the beetles away from it.



I am noticing now that as the blooms age they are
starting to change color and turning a rosy red all
over but it is beautiful when the blooms just open up.



There is just a few of the beauties and the ugliness
from this years garden.


Happy Gardening Everyone !



12 comments:

Connie said...

It all looks beautiful to me! I love the subtle coloring of that Hollyhock. Mine get mildew and are eaten by bugs, but I still enjoy the flowers.
In my experience, the double coneflowers take 2 or 3 years to develop their double qualities, so don't give up on them.

Jesikarena said...

I love the the Razzmatazz coneflower!beautiful!

Tootsie said...

I have looked and looked and LOOKED....I just can't find any ugly!!! it is all beautiful girl!

Pat said...

Where the heck is the ugly ? lol
All I see are lots of pretty blooms. Looks like you're near the peak of the season.
Can't wait myself.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

I love the softness of all of your flowers color. So pretty! Razzmatazz is really pretty. Someone told me that it can take a couple of years to get doubles, so maybe next year you'll get the doubles. My Sweet Peas were a bust this year, I have one :( I'll just have to try again next year.

Phoenix C. said...

Lovely blooms! I love Elderflowers, and their fragrance also. They are lining the lanes here. I've not seen any Astilbe where I've been recently - yours look glorious!

CiNdEe's GaRdEn said...

Sorry about your holly hocks. I have the yellow finches eating my sunflower leaves so they look terrible. Might as well of not planted any this year. Oh well guess thats the price to pay for loving birds(-: Your other blooms look beautiful(-: Just don't look at the ones that are not(-:

Anonymous said...

I've got plenty of ugly in my garden about now! Those darned Japanese beetles are eating everything in sight, despite my daily vigilance with a cup of soapy water. I had heard that if you get rid of the first few, the others won't follow. Ha! I found a couple at the start, and promptly drowned them. But now all their friends have shown up. ARGH! Your garden looks lovely though, you can barely tell.

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

Hi Lona! The blooms are pretty anyway. I have a BIG problem with deers this year. They just destroyed my roses and perennial phlox.

Dirt Princess said...

There is nothing on this post ugly! My hollyhocks didnt do a thing!!! I LOVE the coneflowers!

vuejardin said...

We have deer and the Japanese beetles problem too, I think the beetles problem is over, but the deers keep coming back in the middle of the night.

Darla said...

I can't find the ugly either!!