Okay are we warmed up already???
We had so many days of rain early on that the flowers did not even have their brilliant colors as they should have but I was afraid to complain for fear we would go straight into drought mode. LOL!
But now it has went right into scorched earth mode into the 90’s F. and the heat is on, so now I am going to complain at little.
The garden is loving the heat and sun for now. Maybe my spindly, sad looking cucumber and tomato plants will do better now.
Asarina antirrhiniflora Vining Snapdragons
I have over wintered this basket of of Vining Snapdragons in the basement for the last two years and they are ding well this summer.
Campanula Pink Chips Pink is paler in color this summer but it did come back after I thought it was going to be a no show.
The Nikko Blue hydrangea has much smaller blooms this summer from previous years. I think my whole garden needs some supplements added or the weather may be effecting things more than I thought.
Lucky Star Echinacea
I lost several fancy Echinacea plants over the winter and it really saddens me because the bees and butterflies love them so.
The ones that are really thriving are the native Echinacea in the woodland bed where I throw the seed heads and packets of wildflower seeds. This tells me that they are much hardier than the new fancy introductions so I have started transplanting them all around the yard into various flowerbeds for long lasting color and for the pollinators.
I think I should stick more to the native plants and stop wasting money. LOL!
But several from my big collection did make it through the winter:
Pow Wow Wildberry Echinacea
Raspberry Truffle Echinacea
Summer Sky Echinacea
Milk Shake Echinacea is just stating to open up and it has a visitor.
Those nasty Japanese Beetles were late this year so most of the rose garden escaped them but they are busy munching on other flowers into tatters especially my hibiscus leaves.
Mariesii Blue Lace Cap Hydrangea
The many colors of the Alpen Glow hydrangea
Summer Beauty Hydrangea
And a few more lilies have opened up:
Gordon Biggs Hemerocallis. This is its first year to bloom.
Chicago Apache hemerocallis
Frans Hals hemerocallis look pretty with Hot Papaya Echinacea.
Red Skin Dahlia grown from seed.
So there are a few blooms in the garden to keep this gardener happy but not as much as in previous years.
Everyone try to stay cool and safe and…
Happy Gardening,
Lona
9 comments:
We are in that hot ,little rain weather. We have been holding our breath that the grasshoppers are not going to come in late this year. So for so good.
Has your blackberry lily bloomed yet? I found out their not a true lily but a member of the Iris family.
Wow you have blooms. It certainly is toasty. I'm impressed you've overwintered that basket of flowers so well. Nice to have plants work like that.
Wow ~ everything looks lush and beautiful. I love your varieties of Echinacea and hydrangea.
Have a lovely weekend ~ FlowerLady
Our weather has been really scorching also. Your coneflowers look great, but some of my older Magnus have really faded this year.
Eileen
I don't have luck with any of those fancy echinacea either. I just have the one common pink one. Yours are all so pretty. My hydrangeas have less blooms than yours. I thought with all the rain we have had things would be blooming better.
Your pictures are lovely! Thanks for sharing. I believe the plant you are calling "Campanula Pink Chips Pink" is actually a balloon flower. And, yes balloon flowers are very slow to show in the spring.
You still have some beautiful echinaceas Lona, it's such a pity they don't thrive in my garden. Only one or two years and then they are gone again. I do not try them anymore.
Hope it will be a bit cooler in the meantime on your side, here we have a heatwave too, very unusual for the Netherlands.
Wouldn't you know that the only dry week we had was also a mega heat wave while I was on vacation? Lost some of my best annual pots, even with a friend to water them. Now we are on to beautiful, perfect weather, and the garden has loved all the rain. I've never had such a good garden year!
I never knew you could overwinter those vining snaps! I have some this year and I might try my luck now. Thanks Lona!
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