The Seasonal Page: JULY 1998... Floral Fireworks!

We've had our hottest weather for the summer toward the end of the month (it was 97 degrees yesterday) and the colors on the daylilies are noticeably brighter when the nights and days are warmer. Flowers that have golden or orange centers really glow and flowers that are supposed to frost or become paler and pinker do just that, instead of all being the same peachy tone. It's been interesting. 

The picture above is of Inula orientalis...a shorter relative of some of the taller Inulas. It only reaches about a foot and a half in bloom. Aren't the fuzzy buds neat? It is one of the many daisy-like flowers that come to the fore from July to September (Compositae family).

The Daylilies are slowing down, but there are still some I've not shown yet. This beauty is Daylily 'Prairie Belle' ... another of the "Prairie" series by James Marsh. I think it is pictured on the garden tour page with a frog resting inside (something we have yet to see this year, although we've had several show up INSIDE the house...hopping across the living room floor at night, for instance! We carefully catch them and put them outside. I love tree frogs. Might be another good reason to get the eaves finished!)
	This Daylily was probably quite the showpiece in its day. It's an older variety called 'Master Touch.' What a wonderful blend of mauve and peach with a nice contrasting throat. These flowers are fairly good sized and have a nice ruffled edge...nothing compared to some of the new varieties, but attractive, nonetheless!
'Noah's Ark' is one of the earlier hybridizing efforts of Brother Charles Reckamp. He got into tetraploids and has many beautiful varieties to his name. I'm not certain why he chose that name, but the flower is quite HUGE! This year its stems arched to the ground and this flower appears to be bowing to an imaginary audience. The foliage nearby belongs to a California poppy and you can see the outline to your left of a leaf from Geranium renardii.
I was hoping to capture the color of this Crocosmia and this comes pretty close. It sprang up in a planting of C. 'Lucifer' I had by the driveway and I don't know if it was a different variety that got mixed in or a seedling (suspect the latter, since it didn't show up for several years), but it has beautiful large flowers with pinkish overtones that makes the whole thing look iridescent! Not sure if I like it with purple, but I've seen worse color combinations!

	This was taken in the bed by the driveway that has the large cherry tree. Probably one of the most dependable and "upright" Veronicas... V. 'Sunny Border Blue.' It has much to recommend it, including a long bloom season. I usually trim the primary spikes off after they fade and it will put out some side buds that add more color. By the way, can you find the bumblebee?
This picture of Daylily 'Ruffled Apricot' was taken a few years ago (The bits of color in the background were a Crocosmia 'Solfatare' that has disappeared...probably eaten by mice. It was wonderful, but a bit on the tender side). This daylily has blossoms this season that play to a host of neighboring grass stems! It's in the sad part of the garden. I wanted you to see how pretty the flower is so used this photo from the "archives."
	A close relative to the popular 'Moonbeam,' Coreopsis 'Zagreb' is a lot BRIGHTER and seems to be a hardier plant. There's no way you can miss this in bloom! Shortly after this photo, I hand watered the ash bed, so those poor wilted leaves in the background look much happier now!
MORE Crocosmia! I wouldn't have included another shot of this, except for the wonderful little spheres on the Echinops ritro that are growing through its flopping stems. The Echinops hasn't started showing color just yet, but the form still attracts attention. I will have a photo later on of how they look when the little blue-violet flowers open.

These are the Leycesteria formosa flowers shown at closer range. If you really look, you can see the berries that are forming at the tops of the clusters. It is actually the bracts that provide most of the color. I think there's also a better shot of these on the tour page somewhere.
	Wish I'd pulled back more on this photo. Polygonum affine 'Dimity' makes a nice small scale groundcover. It does spread like the other Polygonums, but doesn't seem to cause problems in this bed and is easily managed. The flowering spikes will darken a bit with age and the green leaves turn a russet color in the fall that is rather showy.
Next to the Knotweed (Polygonum) in this bed is a rescued piece of Daisy 'Wirral Supreme' that used to grow in the oak bed. After digging it all out, some has sprouted back again! The contrast on the photo makes it hard to distinguish the lacy quality of these flowers, but they are quite pretty. Its height can be a problem if the weather turns nasty and it would probably benefit from staking in such instances. This one will be taller next season after getting established. The tiny white flowers n the background are Feverfew.
	Just what a tired gardener needs at the end of the day is a beautiful sunset! This is looking toward the trees next door (to the South). This summer there has been a lot of Bald Eagle activity in these trees as a baby is stationed there waiting to be fed. Seeing one of the adult birds fly over the yard is breathtaking!

This is the part of the rose frontal bed that I showed earlier in the month, but now you can see Larkspur to the left of the Dahlias, along with the first flowers of Aster frickartii 'Monch' to the right and in the center front, Ruta 'Blue Mound' and the bluish-silver flopping sprays from the Eryngium planum. That blank area where you see bark in the lower left corner is where the Dorycnium hirsutum was earlier in the summer. I cut it completely back and am waiting to see if it sends out new growth. If not, there are seedlings to replace it.
	This doesn't do it justice, but I wanted to acknowledge one of my favorite workhorse perennials...Aster frickartii 'Monch' (which I've misspelled at other times on this site!). These are its first flowers and it will have color until the autumn. Unlike many Asters, this one is clump forming and doesn't need to be divided often. It's a joy for its long season of bloom and easy care...not to mention a color that makes almost every scheme look a bit better.
I just love the foliage and neat habit of this Rue...Ruta graveolens 'Blue Mound.' There's only one drawback and that's its tendency to create rashes in sensitive people...of which I am one. You can brush up against those leaves while working around the plant and not notice a thing until the blisters show up the next day. Seems that the chemical in the oils from the plant is photosynthetic and causes a rash in some people in response to sun exposure. I actually have a couple of scars from previous rashes...especially if you injure the spot before it gets healed (like whacking it against a doorknob!). I am very careful with the plant now and haven't had any more problems. It is really beautiful with so many colors. In another bed, I have a small plant near an apricot colored mum...Chrysanthemum 'Mary Stoker.'

I showed this earlier, but wanted you to see how much different the color is when the days and nights are hot. This is Daylily 'Fairy Tale Pink' and it really does look pink here.	Another daylily that needs sun to really frost is 'Edna Spalding.' She's still pretty in cool weather, but not quite as pink.
	Sure hope you are enjoying all these daylilies. If you don't like them, I do have a couple of non-daylily pictures coming along! This one was purchased from Wild's of Missouri and is a variety they hybridized called 'Cool Streams.'
Across the path in the Alley Bed from 'Cool Streams' is another Wild's plant...'Cape Cod.' It is a later blooming cultivar and has only had flowers for about a week at the time of this writing (28 July). The hotter the weather, the more orangey toned those throats become.
	When I saw the catalog picture of 'Mateus' and its reasonable price, I wanted it! The real flower doesn't have quite this much pink but this is close. Today with our 95 degree weather, the throat just glowed with a golden orange shade. In case you didn't recognize it, that trunk in the background belongs to the Oak tree in the back and this plant is toward the south edge of the Oak Bed. (And those orange blotches are...you got it...Crocosmia!) :-)

In case you were wondering how our little guys were doing above the porch...here they are the day before they fledged. They bailed out just in time before the 90 degree-plus temperatures. I was grateful not to have to drag the fan out onto the porch anymore! There is a third bird in the nest. They spend their afternoons roosting on the trusses of the carport when they are not out testing their wings. We'll now need to clean up the mess!

Aren't these stunning? This is a lovely annual called Convolvulus 'Blue Ensign' (in the Morning Glory family) and I've gotten hooked on having it somewhere in the deck planters since the year I first tried it. The flowers close at night. You can also get this Convolvulus in mixed colors (white, pink, lavender, blue), but nothing is as beautiful to me as this striking combination of royal blue with the white and yellow markings in the throat.

This is our driveway in the middle of July. Certainly looks different than in the spring (you can see that on the garden tour page). You should be able to recognize Crocosmia from any angle by now (!) and that's a clump to your left.
This little charmer is a small Daylily called 'Barbary Corsair.' (I think I spelled the name wrong on the JPEG file name...oops!) It's a bit hard to make out, but I loved the way the backlighting lit up the greenish throats. This flower has a great shape and smooth purplish color. I actually like it better than 'Little Grapette.'	This is a closer look at a single flower on 'Barbary Corsair.'
	Almost got rid of this pretty plant and am glad I didn't (clashed where I first had it because of the surrounding colors). It's a very popular older variety named 'Hortensia.' The flowers are wide and shallow with a nice bit of ruffling on the edges of the petals. This is one of those varieties that is distinctive enough, you could recognize it once you've become acquainted with it. Notice the little prickly flowerhead from the Echinops nearby. They are seeding themselves all over this area and I have to weed many of them out.
Don't know for sure what the variety of this Gladiola is, but it looks a lot like 'Wine and Roses. I was shocked when this bloomed because I completely forgot that it was planted here. It was moved from the oak bed a couple of seasons ago and afterward buried in a sea of weeds. When I weeded around it this summer I wondered how that Crocosmia seeded itself so far away! What a shock when it flowered. The blue behind is Agapanthus 'Headbourne Hybrids.' I haven't used very many Gladiola in the perennial beds because they are so large and ungainly, but have to admit that this was beautiful here. Some of the G. nanus types are very nice and much shorter, allowing them to blend in better in a mixed border setting.

I called this photo "Lotsa Larkspur." There's also a sprig of Sea Holly (Eryngium) in front. These poor things volunteered after the rose frontal was weeded (at least half of it was) and I never got around to thinning them. Larkspur is such a carefree annual and is so beautiful in so many settings. If you want that Delphinium shade of blue in your yard, they allow it without all the fussing and pampering that Delphiniums like (I know...they are not nearly so spectacular...no one is perfect!).
	The form of Rosa 'Peter Frankenfeld' is exquisite at this stage...it's almost enough to distract you from the holes in the unsprayed foliage! Never did get around to spraying the roses this year. Since this photo was taken, the Lychnis coronaria to the right has been pulled up.
Can't tell you for sure what the cultivar on this lily is...It could be Lilium speciosum 'Uchida.' At any rate...it still blooms despite my neglect and looks rather pretty with the Liatris. This little vignette is in the back yard near the Mt. Atlas Cedar and you have to walk into the bed a ways to even see it. Transplanting is probably in the future.

Can you believe it? July is finally over! It got kind of long, but next month might not be so great. I've already said that August is my least favorite month in the garden. The things that do bloom, I'll put up and the web page will probably look nicer than the garden at large. To be fair, there is still lots of color in the yard, but the plants in general look a bit battle weary and lots of grooming is in order to give the garden a tidy fresh appearance in the fall. Some years I succeed in doing that, and sometimes I'm too busy with canning and/or avoiding the heat! Stay tuned...

This page last updated on August 6, 1998.

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