Larkspur ‘Sublime Dark Blue’
Ah, yes, Garden Bloggers Bloom Day has rolled around again. I always seem to have trouble finishing these bloom day posts on time. Even though I take photos for days ahead, the actual middle day of the month always seems to be a busy time. I should probably make it short and sweet, but making anything with words short seems to be difficult for me. I wanted to start off with larkspur, just to astonish all those Austin bloggers who seem to think it is a spring blooming plant. Are you kidding? Mine hadn’t even germinated for the April bloom report. Johnny’s is one of the few seed merchants that sells larkspur by color, and I always get this dark blue-purple to sow in the peony bed along with peony-flowered poppies, so there will be some color here after the peonies are done blooming. That’s the plan, anyway. Germination of both poppy and larkspur is always sporadic, and the poppies often look spindly. Maybe the peonies are just too much competition. Or those dratted Canada thistles.
The biggest, bestest feverfew I ever grew
Feverfew always sows itself moderately around my garden, and the plants function like fillers in a bouquet, poking out between perennials with a spray of miniature daisies. I don’t know what this particular feverfew found so much to its liking, but boy, is it one happy plant. I included the child’s wagon to give you an idea of its scale. Feverfew has seeded itself there before, but it’s never been so spectacular.
Also Blooming Now
- Daylilies–this is the first week they’ve been blooming, except for Stella
- My one and only Asiatic lily
- various mallows
- Heliopsis ‘Summer Sun’ (or descendants thereof)
- Roving bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides)
- Unidentified thalictrum
- lady’s mantle
- unidentified single rose
- hollyhocks
- cephalaria
- one bright red zonal geranium that someone gave my neighbor and she didn’t want it
- flowering tobacco
- two kinds of foxglove
- ‘Concord Grape’ spiderwort
- tall meadowrue
- catmint
- tunic flower
I have pictures of all of them, so please let me know if you are unfamiliar with something, and I will do a separate post on it. And always, stop by May Dreams Gardens for a list of everyone who joined in the fun.
About Kathy Purdy
Kathy Purdy discovered the joys of writing in fourth grade, when she started corresponding with a former classmate. She's been writing letters ever since, first on looseleaf, then electronically, and now as weblog entries. That makes you, the blog reader, her pen pal. Her first independent (though frustrating) attempts at gardening were made in high school, though the gardening bug didn't bite hard until her mid-thirties, when she found herself mistress of a rural home on 15 acres. • USDA Hardiness Zone:4 • AHS Heat Zone: 3 • Location: rural; Southern Tier of NY • Geographic type: foothills of Appalachian Mountains • Soil Type: acid clay • Experience level: intermediate • Particular interests: colchicums, narcissus, cottage gardening, NY native plants, gardening with/for children
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m with you Kathy on the dark purple larkspur I just love that color. Something about it. Maybe that is why the color purple is the color of royalty because it is so beautiful.
Twitter: @ZanthanGardens
The larkspur in summer made my eyes pop, too. But I’m still catching up in my blog reading…that’s why this comment is so late.
“Wish I could claim it as skill, but no.”
Sometimes good gardening is a happy accident.
I will be talking more about flowering tobacco and tunic flower in upcoming posts. Any other requests?
Marie Suzanne, Carol started Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day and you can find more information about it there. Look in the comments of the post I linked to for all the gardeners who participated.
I did not know about “GardenBloggerBlooms day” great idea!
I will make sure to submit my pictures.
Love your blog, great read! Sincerely Marie Suzanne
Tunic flower? You got me on that one.
I’m pleased that Pam pointed out your featured column in “High Ground” in Horticulture magazine. Good going! I feel like I know a celebrity!
–Robin (Bumblebee)
I like the larrkspur blue. Actually, I dont know most of the flowers on your list,an neither would many tropical gardeners!
The feverfew is gorgeous!
I would love to see what your Flowering Tobacco looks like. Sounds interesting.
Twitter: @layanee1
Kathy: Let me leave my congrats also on your article in Horticulture! I enjoyed it immensely. Also, that feverfew is exceptional!
Digital Flower, if a professional gardener like you thinks it’s a huge feverfew, then it must be so. Wish I could claim it as skill, but no. I did try to make that area particularly well-draining for my typically clay soil, but that was so the lamb’s ears wouldn’t rot out. Which they did, anyway.
Pam Shorey, fellow garden blog pioneer, thanks for stopping by. Canterbury bells is a biennial. Same genus, different species.
Thank you for humoring me, Pam of Digging. I was trying hard to get some Texas gardener’s goat, and no one was rising to the bait. Most of my larkspur hasn’t started blooming yet, as a matter of fact.
I love the photo of the meadowy-looking feverfew with the rustic wagon. Also enjoyed your “good, bad, and ugly” post.
And, what!, you have larkspur blooming in the middle of summer??!
That is a huge Feverfew! Good idea to include the wagon for scale.
Kathy, I just stopped by your site to say how happy I was to see a piece by you in Horticulture Magazine about rampant campanulas.
Nice job!
Funny, I am in my second summer of trying to create a garden on very little money, and when I saw your mention of a plant that spreads easily, thought”Ah! just the thing for me!”
But maybe, upon reading further, not…………
The plant you’re talking about isn’t the same as Canterbury Bells, is it?
Best regards,
After reading through your list I realized I didn’t include lady’s mantle on my list, even though it has blooms on it here, too. I just never think of those as blooms for some reason.
And I see you listed your roving campanula, the one you wrote about in your piece featured in High Ground on page 88 of this month’s (August-September 2007) issue of Horticulture magazine. I figured you might not tell us all about your published work, but now that I’ve mentioned it in a comment, you should post about it!
Thanks for participating in Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day!
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
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