Wednesday 18 July 2018

Still a Few Flowers in this Crunchy Summer

I don't water my perennial beds, just my small vegetable garden. We have been fortunate enough to have a little bit of rain (enough to fill my buckets under my downspouts, but not more). Despite these arid conditions, I do have a few things which have managed to bloom. Perhaps you have also had these same blooms in your gardens.

Delphiniums which usually get beaten down by the rain have stood tall for a greater length of time this July.

I love how iridescent they are. They remind me of carnival glass.

This dark wine, almost "black" daylily is one of my favourites. I don't get many blooms from it, but it is thick and meaty, unlike my other rather spindly daylilies.

Very dependable snowball bush which just seems to thrive on either neglect, or severe cutting back. It doesn't wilt like my little decorative pink hydrangeas.

My trumpet vine took forever to become established enough to bloom. This year it is doing very well and the hummingbirds are enjoying it. It is difficult to tell from the picture, but it is covering a wooden arbour attached to rail fences.

I'm not totally certain what this flower is, some sort of coreopsis, I think. It is tall and big and doing very well. I don't even remember its origins, whether I purchased it as a plant from a garden center, or whether it was gifted to me from someone's home garden. Regardless, it provides nice, bright colour right now.

My hollyhocks have been dwindling over the years. I had so many that were gorgeous dark pinks, light pinks, and a whole variety of other colours. Now many of them are washed out shades and too solitary to make much of an impact. I'm considering whether I should renew my supplies, or do away with them altogether.

You simply cannot go wrong with limelight hydrangeas. It would be the one I would recommend to anyone in any setting.

A traditional daylily. I have others which are more orange in colour, as well as a pure lemon yellow. Even though daylilies tend to be pretty bomb proof, mine are suffering in this drought and aren't putting on much of a show.

Of course, I don't feature my sad, dry, lifeless plants, or the strangulating bind weed which threatens to take them down, or the grasses that grow amongst all of them. I did pick a cucumber this morning and I have eaten three tiny tomatoes - candyland is what that variety is called- smaller than cherry tomatoes.

How doth your gardens grow?

22 comments:

  1. Your flowers are amazing! Not much of anything growing here. I've been washing dishes in a dishpan and tossing it off the back porch with hopes of reviving the snowball bushes. They got off to such a good start this spring but not doing very well at all in the drought.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Jenn...
    That big yellow flower, is called Heliopsis...I have a huge clump at my cottage...
    Your Day Lilies are fabulous...I only have the orange ones, and they were not as prolific this year...next comes the hideous task of cleaning up all the dead leaves, when flowering stops!
    enjoy your Summer...and thanks for your lovely comments over at mine!
    Cheers!
    Linda :o)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh thanks for the name! Fall clean up is deadly, but I always congratulate myself on whatever clean up I can do, so that when spring rolls around it isn't as bad.

      Delete
  3. You have lots of bloom....about the only thing that managed a flower or two were the hosta.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's kind of funny, because I clip off my hosta blooms - I prefer them just for the foliage.

      Delete
  4. What lovely flowers! We had a trumpet vine in the back yard of the last house we had in Illinois. The elderly lady we bought the house from said she believed it was 75 years old! Could that be??

    I love delphiniums and hollyhocks. I used to have a few delphiniums but had to move them (they didn't survive) when we constructed the deck. They always got blown over by wind and rain even though I tried to support them in any way I could. That deep purple you pictured is gorgeous!
    s

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your garden is spectacular! I especially love the delphiniums.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Isn't it wonderful, how someone out there always knows the answer. They have to tell me over and over, because I don't remember. On the other hand, maybe I'm here to keep people o their toes. Your flowers are wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beautiful flowers
    My snowball bush only blooms once a year, usually around Easter.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow! Those delphiniums are amazing! My daylilies are pathetic because of the heat and dryness. I'm not a huge fan of them, but maybe I need to look into some variety. I envy your trumpet vine - it's what I really wanted up my deck but made the fatal error of putting in a hops vine 'temporarily'.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I don't grow delphiniums but they are a lovely blue. I like Karen have been collecting kitchen water and chucking it on some of the shrubs that are wilting.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Gorgeous colours! Enjoy your garden.

    ReplyDelete
  11. You have some gorgeous flowers even with the drought.
    Our garden turns into brown stalks and dust if it doesn't get water every day. Not really worth having a vegetarian garden. Cheaper to buy local

    ReplyDelete
  12. A lovely stroll through your garden. Daylilies are one of my favourite summer flowers & your "meaty" one is quite spectacular. My delphiniums also had a longer standing time with the rain storms.
    ... Mary-Lou =^..^=

    ReplyDelete
  13. Such gorgeous flowers! I really love the delphiniums. The colour is pretty spectacular.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Jenn, I loved seeing your flowers. So pretty. I really want one of those snowball bushes. Our lawn was getting crispy, thankful for an inch of rain on Monday. More rain is headed our way hopefully not bringing hail, wind and severe storms. But rain yes...the crops need it and so does our lawn. :)
    Stat cool. Blessings, xoxo, Susie

    ReplyDelete
  15. Jenn, your garden looks great. mine is suffering from lack of rain but my Hydrangea(limelight) is looking very good.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wowwww beautiful !!....enjoy summer love Ria x ☀️

    ReplyDelete
  17. Beautiful blue and wow all your garden looks fresh and green, we here in Suffolk UK, are watching our garden dry up with the lack of rain.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Of course, why would you show lifeless plants, Jenn, as we have all had those including the strangulation ones. The ones in this post are lovely and we had many of the same at our former VA home. The orange dayblillies and trumpet vine were invasive there.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I had to laugh when you said the snowballs thrive on neglect.I have one of those two. It's under the eaves and rarely gets rain; on the side of the house where there is no hose so very month or two I throw a bucket of water on it when I remember -- and it gives the best blooms ever!

    Your garden looks great. The delphinium, especially are stunning. And I love the hollyhocks. I hope they come back or you add to them. I think that pink is pretty, though pale. A little different from the darks. I'd say you are looking good!

    ReplyDelete