Garden Bloggers Bloom Day July 2010

– Posted in: What's up/blooming
9 comments

Five days late. I considered skipping it this month. But participating in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day has allowed me to track changes in the garden, so I decided to post most tardily. Several plants that were blooming last year are done blooming already, such as cephalaria and pink foxglove. The tunic flower and perennial flax died out on me. And I have a couple of new beauties.

black pansies

Old faithful. This one pansy plant comes back every year and blooms all season.

The black pansy was just one of many pansies in a mix from Renee’s Garden, but it alone comes back (or self-sows) every year.
image of phlox and veronica in a flower border

One section of the birthday garden. Lumber to rebuild the porch in the background

New Beauties

warm pink rose

Sophy's Rose.

pink rose

Gertrude Jekyll

The roses are trial plants from David Austin Roses. I will be testing their mettle this winter.
white hydrangea blossom

Incrediball hydrangea

Invincibelle Spirit hydrangea

Invincible Spirit hydrangea with Black Negligee actaea

These two hydrangeas are trial plants from Proven Winners. They’ve already made it through one winter and are growing robustly.

Unexpected Beauty

red bolted lettuce

Bolted lettuce

Sometimes you just have to take a fresh look at a plant. We all know what lettuce is “supposed” to look like. We all know you are supposed to eat it, so we usually pull it out before it’s gone this far. But really, I think it’s pretty in a wild kind of way. Click on the photo for a larger image. What do you think? Does this vegetable foliage plant have a place in your garden?

What’s in Bloom

  • Pansies
  • Petunias
  • Malva sylvestris ex ‘Bibor Felho’
  • Hyperion daylily
  • Bright Eyes phlox
  • Cerise Queen yarrow
  • Veronica from Bedlam Gardens
  • Six Hills Giant catmint
  • Cynanchum ascyrifolium
  • white rose campion
  • pink rose campion
  • American Revolution daylily
  • two different yellow daylilies
  • coral bells
  • William Shakespeare 2000 rose
  • Shirley poppies
  • breadseed poppies
  • peony poppies
  • Tangerine Gem Spanish poppy
  • Beppie daylily
  • Red Rum daylily
  • other daylilies with forgotten names
  • some hostas
  • Apricot Delight yarrow
  • meadow rue
  • meadowsweet
  • yellow foxglove
  • Johnny-jump-ups
  • creeping bellflower
  • Sneezeweed yarrow
  • flowering tobacco
  • Lady’s mantle
  • Concord Grape spiderwort
  • Cape Diamond rose

Inspired by the words of Elizabeth Lawrence, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year,” Carol of May Dreams Gardens started Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, garden bloggers from all over the world publish what is currently blooming in their gardens, and leave a link in Mr. Linky and the comments of May Dreams Gardens.

About the Author

Kathy Purdy is a colchicum evangelist, converting unsuspecting gardeners into colchicophiles. She gardens in rural upstate NY, which used to be USDA Hardiness Zone 4 but is now Zone 5. Kathy’s been writing since 4th grade, gardening since high school, and blogging since 2002. Find her on Instagram as kopurdy.

In its own way, frost may be one of the most beautiful things to happen in your garden all year . . . Don’t miss it. Like all true beauty, it is fleeting. It will grace your garden for but a short while this morning. . . . For this moment, embrace frost as the beautiful gift that it is.

~Philip Harnden in A Gardener’s Guide to Frost: Outwit the Weather and Extend the Spring and Fall Seasons

Comments on this entry are closed.

Lisa August 15, 2010, 9:34 am

This year I added pale green sweet potato vine to the pot I had grown my lettuce in. The mix of the dark red bolting lettuce and the vine looked great. So I say yes to the kind of wild bolted letuce 🙂

elaine pollak August 12, 2010, 12:06 pm

desperately searching for lemon lillies-given some that are not lemon lillies but something with a feeble scent and a brownish heart{center}.no other alternative but to go to the mail order medium-which has never been enjoyable or satisfying-mostly disappointing.any auggestions would be very much appreciated.

how to garden better July 23, 2010, 12:43 pm

The flowers are amazing! All of them looked so vibrant and lush!

VW July 22, 2010, 10:26 pm

Well, good for you finding a way to be happy about bolted lettuce! The black pansies are fun. I have considered buying ‘sophy’s rose’ before, but by now I have so many pink english roses that I’m about done for now. I hope it works well for you.
.-= VW´s last blog ..My First Japanese Iris Blooms =-.

Helen Yoest @ Gardening With Confidence July 21, 2010, 12:52 pm

Hey CCG,

I just wanted you to know I added your blog to the soon to be launched North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association blog roll for NC Blogs!

http://www.tarheelgardening.com/wordpress/

I also wanted to make sure you received my new link for Gardening With Confidence’s blog

http://www.gardeningwithconfidence.com/blog.

Thanks!

I hope you are doing well!

H.

Lynn July 21, 2010, 8:57 am

What bounty! I still love that pansy. Wanted to let our lettuce bolt but yanked it to have room for more cilantro. Say–the meadow rue you gave me got SKY high in full sun (after a tree it was planted under was felled). I want to say 7 ft. Then it bloomed, but the stalk bent in half after a rain. Sad about that.
.-= Lynn´s last blog ..first the bad news- maybe late blight =-.

commonweeder July 21, 2010, 8:53 am

My Red Sails lettuce looks just like yours! It stands for the moment, but I am slowly working my way down the row, and pulling it out. I will be eager to hear how the David Austin roses do for you. Mary Rose and Mrs. Doreen Pike are the only two that have lasted very long in my garden.
.-= commonweeder´s last blog ..New Friends and Their Blogs =-.

Les July 21, 2010, 6:42 am

Better late than never they say. I lke the lettuce. Down here we plant a lot of ornamental cabbage and kale over the winter. The experts say to putt it out when it bolts, but I like the flowers and let them stay.

Mr. McGregor's Daughter July 20, 2010, 10:38 pm

I left my lettuce after it bolted last year, and it had pretty yellow blooms that looked good with the ruby foliage. I had thought ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ was the prettiest of the David Austin Roses, but I like ‘Sophy’s Rose’ even better.