Dog days of summer

The heat is here with a vengeance. We had several days over 100 degrees this weekend and it felt like an oven outside. If not for the swimming pool, I would not have ventured outside at all. But I do some gardening in my swim trunks and when I get too hot, I dive right in the pool. Most of my work was in the veggie garden, pulling some weeds, harvesting tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and peppers. I pulled up what was left of the beans. The deer had eaten the biggest part of them and I decided to pull the rest up and prepare the bed for some late season tomatoes.

 I made three batches of salsa this weekend, one on Friday, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Each batch makes 10 pint jars. I use the recipe from the Ball canning book for Fiesta Salsa but I add a tablespoon of chili powder and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. I had a quart of tomatoes left over and put them up as well. I'll use them to make chili at some future date.


Here is the hydrangea after having been dead headed. I filled an entire wheelbarrow with faded blooms from just one bush. I expect to have a small rebloom on this bush later this summer.

These two still have the fading blooms on them. 

This is my angel wing begonia. These plants are easy to grow and easier to propagate.

Out in the gardens, the coreopsis is blooming.

This Diane hibiscus is having it's best year ever for me. For some reason the JBs are leaving it alone this year (relatively speaking of course). It has pure white blooms and is nice because it is sterile and won't self seed itself everywhere like some hibiscus will.

Here you see the Becky Shasta daisies blooming. I have these planted all around the house. My DW loves to bring these in to the house as cut flowers. They last a long time.

The black eyed susans have started to bloom as well.

And despite having been deadheaded twice this spring the mums have started to bloom. I plan on shearing these back after the bloom and maybe I'll get a fall bloom as well.

The Oriental lillies are blooming out front.

And the Lucifer crocosmia is blooming as well. The hummingbirds love this flower!

Here you can see the liatris (purple blooms) and the obedient plant (white blooms) and if you look closely you'll spot the crinum blooming in the back. 

 These are close ups of the Crinum lillies. I have three different varieties but I've long since lost the name tags for them.

I still have this one daylilly blooming. The deer have gotten the rest.

This is Plox David.

I have lots of Dahlias blooming as well.

And here is White Swan echinacea.

More echinacea.

Blooms forming on hydrangea paniculata.

Torenia in bloom.

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.

First Hemerocallis of the season

Well, the early daylilies have started to bloom. Stella De'Oro are usually the first bloomers of the year. I only have one clump of Stella De'Oro here in my gardens  and while mine are not yet in bloom because they are getting too much shade, most of my neighbors' are. Here are a few of my other day lilies that have started to bloom:

If you happened to see the pictures I posted earlier, of my Jackmanii Clematis, here is another picture of the clematis on my fence and you can see how many more blooms it has now, over when the last picture was taken back in April.

This is some Victoria Blue salvia that I have growing by the koi pond.  It is a carefree plant and it's flowers are long lasting.

I took a brief walk through what used to be my shady side garden. That was three large dead trees ago. I have had the dead trees removed, and for now the garden gets more sun than it was intended. Most of the plants are capable of adapting. The 'Bloodgood' and 'Coral Bark' Japanese maples do well in the shade or sun. As do the osmanthus, the camelia sasanqua & japonica, iteas, 'Encore' azaleas, and many of the other plants in this garden. Even the hostas look nice in spring, but in a few months the sun will take its toll on them and they will start looking worse for the wear.

I have allowed some Tulip poplar seedlings to grow int this garden, and they should grow quickly to bring shade back to this garden. And they serve as a host plant to butterflies.

The Virginia Sweetspire (Itea) is in full bloom now. This is a truly wonderful plant that can serve many purposes. It can be planted in wet areas, sun, shade and will perform well.