The rain's back, but hopefully not to stay. At least it's much warmer than June was, even on an overcast, rainy, cloudy day the thermometer's at about 75 right now. These photos range from 1 week ago to today, but give a decent view of what's developing in the garden. First up -- zucchini flowers! Not likely that we'll be grilling our own zucchini on the 4th of July as we have years past, but at least they're flowering at last:
Beans! I'm hoping it stays warm and dry enough to get the rest of my beans in this weekend, but all the bush beans that survived the rains are flowering:
And the vining bean varieties are growing (and yes that's still the new shed under a tarp, hopefully this next week will see the shed project get underway):
I can't for the life of me remember what kind of bush my friend said this was. Can anyone tell from the flower (it's about 3 inches long)? It smells rather honeysuckle like and wafting in through the living room window reminds me of my childhood:
I was pretty excited to see hosta leaves at long last from one of the bareroot hostas I planted this spring:
The beautiful blooming lamium that I can see from the living room (and I don't care if it is practically a weed in your garden...it's pretty in this container!):
VPH has since raked this area, but I'm too lazy to go out and take a new photo:
And then today in the middle of the rain showers another daylily (this looks orangey on my monitor, but it's almost burgundy in real life):
And the first plum tomatoes:
The first Parkland Glow dahlia, but it's a much darker red in real life:
The eggplants are flowering!!! VPH was very happy:
I wanted to get out into the garden today but it's so cloudy that the mosquitoes are out in force and I just can't do it. Tomorrow, even if it is supposed to be "humid" according to the weatherman, will be better than spending days scratching bites.
I just got a couple small dahlias (my mom tells my they are dahlias) at and end-of-season sale. Are they annuals? Do they overwinter (z7). Yours are so big! It seemed every plant they had one different - I chose two that are pink with pretty orange highlights (but both with differently shaped flowers). I'd love to have them come back if possible.
Posted by: Jennah - MD | July 01, 2009 at 09:37 PM
Jennah -- Dahlias will not overwinter if you have a hard freeze and I know zone 7 has hard freezes. Last year I grew mine in containers so I just move the containers into the basement after the first frost. This year I am growing some in the ground, so I have to decide if I'm going to dig them up in the fall or not. There's a guy (Dave who gave me my first dahlias) down the street who grows something like 100 varieties and enters competitions. Not my thing, but his garden is stunning.
Posted by: Heather's Garden | July 01, 2009 at 10:21 PM
Your 'mystery' bush reminds me of a mock orange. Is it very rapid growing - and does it have little spiney thorns?
Posted by: Mummer | July 02, 2009 at 09:53 AM
Mom -- Nope, don't think it's a mock orange. Pretty rapid growing, but no spiney thorns. It's used all over the neighborhood as hedges. You can cut it down to the ground and it comes back. I'll have to post a photo of the whole bush.
Posted by: Heather's Garden | July 02, 2009 at 09:58 AM
Alas, I have no basement! I'll have to figure out what to do. hmm. Seems a shame - they're such pretty and unique flowers!
Posted by: Jennah - MD | July 02, 2009 at 05:07 PM
Jennah -- A heated garage would work too. You just want someplace that they won't freeze. You could do the whole dig up and dust off the tubers thing too. I have a friend who does that, throws them in a plastic bag, labels it, and hangs them up in her basement, but you could use a pantry or the like instead.
Posted by: Heather's Garden | July 02, 2009 at 05:25 PM