Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - June 2010

Carol's been hosting GBBD for years over at May Dreams Garden, and now I'm a monthly participant after years of observing.  But my garden is not cooperating with the calendar.  The Siberian iris, lupine, and the Blue Mist clematis have come and gone since the last bloom day.  I am going to "cheat" and use some slightly older photos because I like them better than ones that I shot late yesterday afternoon.  My favorite trio of planters right now:

I'm especially enjoying the heuchera blooms:

This heuchera on the shady side of the house is putting on a show (thought it's hard to see in this photo).  And the baskets of impatiens hanging next to the walk are quite cheerful:

Nearby the impatiens on the stump look great too.  If you look very carefully you can see the white blooms of an astilbe in the blue pot on the right (look at the top of the fence).  It's much more striking in real life:

 

The same pot from a different angle to show you the pretty pink flowers in my neighbor's yard:

I carefully walked through the poison ivy in the back of their yard to get a closer look (in flip-flops no less...good thing I still appear not to have a reaction to it, or I just rinsed off my feet and flip-flops in cold water quickly enough to avoid a rash).  Isn't it pretty from here:

 

I looked it up and it's definitely an eutrochium or Joe-Pye weed.  The poison ivy was making me nervous though, so this is the best shot I got and I'm not sure which variety it is:

 

While that wildflower isn't precisely in my garden, this Bladder Campion is:

Of the many astilbes blooming or just about to bloom on the shady side of the house, this is my favorite:

 

Heading back around the house via the front door, the containers with the Purple Gem rhododendrons flanking the front porch have filled out quite nicely:

Strangely, this is where VPH and I spent most of our time hanging out in the garden.  Maybe it's because we have all these places to sit.  And those Adirondack chairs on the right are in one of the sunniest spots in the garden, from 10am - 12pm.  The hanging baskets of flowers are all calibrochoa:

And one of the brightest spots in my garden each day isn't even a plant that I bought!  Remember the Gerbera daisy that I brought home from a fundraiser ages ago?  I swear it's given me 10 gorgeous flowers already:

 

And the osteosperum basket that I picked up cheap from Walmart also makes me happy, though dead-heading it is already getting old:

 

I took this photo from one of those Adirondack chairs with VPH walking away (in his lawn-mowing gear) to show just how huge the Endless Summer hydrangea is this year:

It's covered in beautiful blue flowers:

And right next to it the peas still have some flowers:

 

Another older photo, but the lemon thyme in bloom is so beautiful (and fragrant):

 

The rest of the blooms in my garden are veggies in bloom, like this nasturtium in the raised veggie bed (so far only it and one other of the 20 or so nasturtiums I have are blooming): 

 

Lots of marigolds around my tomatoes for color and to ward off aphids.  Please note that this beautiful Black tomato plant that I grew from seed has flowers:

This is a flower on one of the Lilac bell peppers.  I hope it sets, the ones on the Ivory bell peppers didn't: 

This cluster of flowers on one of the Brandywine Pink tomato plants got me so excited!  I think it almost looks like a bouquet and I'm tasting those tomatoes already: 

And that's it for actual blooms in the garden, but I do have a few buds.  Like on the Royal Purple Bush beans:

The Yukon Gold potatoes: 

I'm astonished by this, but one of the containers of petunias that self sowed from last year's hanging baskets and I carefully transplanted are about to flower: 

All of the hostas are about to burst into bloom, but this one in the containers up on the big stump by the road is the closest to blooming.  I love the purples of the bud with the dark heuchera in back:

 

And probably the most highly anticipated buds in the garden are the day-lilies in the patio garden:

Let's see if they're still blooming by July 15th! 

Comments

[Jennah - MD]

Are those Royal Purple Bush Beans from the seed I shared! I love to see how that stuff is doing. So neat! :) Mine are flowering, but no beans quite yet.

[Heather's Garden]

Jennah -- They're not, they're leftover from one of last year's packages, so I'm pleased with the germination rate. You sent me Royal Burgundy Bush beans, which will be planted shortly. I'm trying to make sure we have a long bean season this year. The Black tomato is a seed from you though!

[Jan Smith]

There isn't a picture here I don't love. The rhodo with the fuchsia impatiens and chartreuse whatever is so fabulous. I too have been loving a gerbera daisy that I bought to make the house look bright before we sold it. Kind of a the orange of a California poppy. So happy. I have had a dozen blooms and the thing has been going for six weeks.
Joe-Pye weed reminds me of walks with my dad: "Oh--there's ruddy Joe-Pye weed!" (points with walking stick). Every plant was his friend.
Thanks for your beautiful blog. Something to aspire to.

[Heather's Garden]

Jan -- You're much too kind! That's creeping jenny in the container with the rhodo and the impatiens. Your story about your dad reminds me of my grandfather. Every plant was his friend too.

[Mummer]

I wonder who Joe Pye was? Anyway, it is a great butterfly-attracter so shortly you should see many colorful visitors.
Be sure to have pots of parsely, too. Swallowtails, especially, love to feed on it - they will lay their eggs (litle black dots) on the stalks, and then the hatchling caterpillars will eat it down to the ground. And then, next year, an explosion of fluttering beauties.

[Leslie]

I love your containers on the tree stump...they look perfect there!

[Heather's Garden]

Mom -- You're silly.

Leslie -- Thank you, I like to think of it as making lemonade out of lemons. Tough spot to garden with the shade, hill, and maple roots, so containers it is!

[Melody]

Your Joe Pye Weeds are further along than mine - and I wonder who Joe Pye was too:) We moms are like that - lol. I have a gerber daisy in a pot that I thought had died in the cold this winter. I bought another one and before I could replace the "dead" one, it put out new growth and has started blooming.

[Heather's Garden]

Melody -- I guess I can claim the Joe Pye Weeds as my own and say thank you, though they aren't technically in my garden and are definitely volunteers. Where do you garden? I'm pretty sure a gerbera daisy left out over the winter here would not survive.

[Melody]

I live in North Florida. I have gerbers in the ground that come back every year and some in a container. The ones in the ground came back before the one in the pot this year so I thought it was dead. We had winter temps down in the low teens several nights in a row this year.

[Heather's Garden]

Melody -- That makes sense...the part about you gardening in North FL. Like you I would have thought the container gerbera daisy was dead.