Today in the Gardens 5/19/12

The mop head hydrangeas are really starting to come into their own. 

 The smaller blue flowers at foot of the hydrangea are balloon flowers, aka Chinese bellflower (Platycodon). They start out as a small greyish ball on the end of the stem, then they blow up just like a balloon. They turn blue/purple and open up into the flower. They are available in blue, purple, pink and white. And I have some that are doubles. Some stay smaller and some get as tall as knee high. The taller ones tend to fall over (you can see them falling into the walkway in the picture below. The ones in the walk are white doubles that haven't started to bloom yet.) They are easy to grow from seed, and will self seed in your gardens. If you dead head them, you will get a second bloom in the late summer.

 The August Beauty gardenias have started to bloom and the air is full of their scent. They will give a lighter second bloom in late summer, but mine need a good pruning, and so I'll need to cut off my second bloom to get the plants. For me, these shrubs tend to get too heavy with blooms after 3 to 4 years, and they splay out from the center. After cutting them back rather severely, they come back much stronger than before and the bush looks far neater.

 Bambi and friends have found some of my daylilies. ARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

 It is that time of year that the asian lilies start to bloom. Here I have a darker one in front of some yarrow, and an kaleidoscope abelia.

The holliehocks are blooming as well. This year they managed to beat the Japanese beetles. Most years the JBs get the better part of the blooms. I did see the first JB of the season this week. I have given up on any sort of battle against JBs. They just eat what they eat, and I try to keep my plants as healthy as possible so that they can weather the storm.

One of my favorite plants is this Husker Red husker red penstemon. It has pretty flowers that resemble snap dragon blooms. After the bloom ends I deadhead them and enjoy their beautiful foliage. 

The canna make a nice backdrop for this daylilly.