Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - July 2008

Early morning, mid-summer at May Dreams Gardens.

It's been an unusually wet summer, with abundant rain just when we needed it, and no really hot days so far.

The foxglove are starting to bloom on new plants purchased this spring. The little spots on the inside of the flowers are fairy foot prints, indicating a lot of fairy activity in the garden this year.

The shasta daisies dominate wherever they are.

I took this picture in the early morning, just as the sun was coming up on a beautiful day.

There are also nice clumps of coneflowers here and there.I'm showing these with the shrub clematis, which has been blooming non-stop for quite awhile. Those bell shaped flowers are attracting bees and garden fairies galore.

Out in front, these 'Eenie Meenie' daylilies are just starting to bloom.They are supposed to be rebloomers, but didn't do much reblooming last year, perhaps because it was so dry? We'll see what happens this year.

Another daylily blooming now is 'Strawberry Candy'.I found the tag earlier when I started my project to catalog all the plants in my garden, and thought I no longer had this one. But it has been blooming quite a bit to show me it's still here in the garden.

These 'Endless Summer' hydrangeas love all this rain!Now, that's pink!

I'm also seeing pink in the Zinnias, started from seed in late May.I should also see several shades of purple, white and my favorite, green, zinnia flowers.

Did I mention the garden fairy activity in the garden? I wonder if they are responsible for these double-white columbine?These should not be blooming now, but they are. They are like ghost flowers, reminding me of spring time in the garden.

Finally for those of you who looked at that picture of Shasta Daisies and immediately thought, "she needs to deadhead those spent blooms", I did just that.

I like how my garden is right now. I can tell you it is better to have a lot of rain than to have too little rain.

Comparing notes with last year, I don't have too many new flowers, at least that are blooming this time of year, but I'm happy with what I have, because there are more of them.

But there are a few flowers that were blooming last year, like False Sunflower and Four O'Clocks, that aren't blooming this year because I pulled them out for "conduct unbecoming a well-kept garden".

Here's a more complete list of blooms:

Currently in Bloom
Aquilegia - Double White Columbine
Coreopsis rosea – Pink Thresdleaf Coreopsis
Coreopsis verticillata – Threadleaf Coreopsis
Thalictrum kiusianum - Dwarf Meadow Rue
Echinacea purpurea – Coneflowers
Helianthus helianthoides 'Loraine Sunshine'
Hemerocallis – Daylilies, several varieties
Hosta – un-named varieties, purple flowers
Hosta ‘Pandora’s Box’
Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’
Leucanthemum x superbum – Shasta daisies
Lilium – un-named oriental lilies
Nasturtims - several varieties
Phlox paniculata – Purple, White, and Pink
Platycodon grandiflora - Balloon Flower
Rudbeckia hirta - Black-eyed Susan’s
Tagetes – Marigolds
Zinnia – Purple, pink, white, and my favorite, green

Blooms in the vegetable garden

Corn
Cucumbers
Green Beans
Peppers
Spaghetti squash
Tomatoes
Zucchini squash

Blooms hanging on from previous months

Clematis integrifolia ‘Alba’
Clematis 'Comtesse de Bouchard'
Potentilla fruticosa 'Alba'
Rose – White Flower Carpet
Spirea japonica ‘Limemound’
Lychnis coronaria - Rose campion
Tradescantia sp. – Spiderwort
Various ground cover sedums
Lamium

In bud
Pardancanda - Candy Lily
Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’

There are also many blooms in container plantings which I'm too lazy to list, as it would be the same list all summer.

Do you have a garden full of blooms? Join us for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of each month by posting on your blog what’s blooming in your garden, and then leave a comment here so we can find you and visit to see all your pretty flowers.

If you don’t have a blog, feel free to list your blooms in a comment below.

If you have too many blooms to list or not enough time, just go with your top 10 list and join us anyway. And botanical names are strictly optional! All are welcome!

“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence