Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for August 2010.
I wrote in 2009 that August is what separates the real gardeners from the wanna-be gardeners. It’s hot and dry and who wants to be out there now?
In comparison to this year, August 2009 was actually quite pleasant but not as pleasant as August 2008 and August 2007. I hope we return to some Augusts like that next year becuase this August is not so nice.
This August the garden reminds me of the resilience of plants, how little help they actually need from us gardeners, how much they can endure and still bloom.
Above is that common as dirt daylily, ‘Stella D’Oro’. One afternoon back in the spring, I grabbed a shovel and attempt to evict all of these "stellas" from my garden. Not so easy! A few roots remained, clung to the soil, pushed up shoots, and bloomed. And they bloomed all summer long.
Where lesser plants have withered in the heat, these keep going.
So I’m going to let them stay. But just a few of them!
Elsewhere in the garden, a clematis, variety unknown/forgotten, is blooming.
The freshness of this bloom with drops of water clinging to it is deceiving. Few flowers are fresh or damp in my garden this month, except those like this clematis that I’ve been watering daily.
It’s hard to see in this picture, but this clematis is sprawling across a long container holding some 4” pots of trial plants that I’m planning to plant this fall. What makes this clematis so remarkable, so resilient, so worthy of this much attention?
In late June when the crew came to install the new patio, they told me they didn’t think they could dig this up where it was, so I told them to cut it back and shrugged it off as a loss for the greater gain of a newly designed garden. So they cut it back, and I thought no more about it until one day it was back, covering these other plants, and now it's blooming.
Out in the vegetable garden, the okra seems oblivious to the heat and can be counted on to have blooms each day.
As long as I keeping cutting off those pods, I think it will keep blooming until it is knocked back by frost.
What else is blooming in my garden? What else has the resilience to stand this heat and dryness?
Sunflowers.
This is ‘Autumn Beauty’ from Botanical Interests seeds. It's tall.
Zinnias.
These are several different varieties from several different sources. The bees and butterflies both love them.
Knockout roses, ‘Radsunny’.
They are a nice subtle buttery yellow, much nicer than that garish yellow gold of the "stella" daylilies.
Elsewere I am also enjoying, mostly from inside the house looking out into the garden, the usual marigolds, coneflowers, phlox, black-eyed susans, hostas, coreopsis, salvia, golden rod, yarrow, and hydrangeas.
They all have the resilience to bloom in hot, dry August in my garden.
What’s blooming in your garden?
We would love to have you join in for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. It’s easy to participate and all are invited!
Just post on your blog about what is blooming in your garden on the 15th of the month and put your name and the url to your post on the Mr. Linky widget below. Then leave a comment to tell us what you have waiting for us to see so we can pay you a virtual visit!
“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
(My apologies. Mr. Linky was down for maintenance so for this month I switched to "Simply Linked" to give it a try. Let me know how you like it!)
Some of you are not seeing your link on Simply Linked. Here's Mr. Linky, back in businss. Someday, I might combine these two lists. Anyway, link on whichever one you'd like and sorry for the confusion and mess!
I wrote in 2009 that August is what separates the real gardeners from the wanna-be gardeners. It’s hot and dry and who wants to be out there now?
In comparison to this year, August 2009 was actually quite pleasant but not as pleasant as August 2008 and August 2007. I hope we return to some Augusts like that next year becuase this August is not so nice.
This August the garden reminds me of the resilience of plants, how little help they actually need from us gardeners, how much they can endure and still bloom.
Above is that common as dirt daylily, ‘Stella D’Oro’. One afternoon back in the spring, I grabbed a shovel and attempt to evict all of these "stellas" from my garden. Not so easy! A few roots remained, clung to the soil, pushed up shoots, and bloomed. And they bloomed all summer long.
Where lesser plants have withered in the heat, these keep going.
So I’m going to let them stay. But just a few of them!
Elsewhere in the garden, a clematis, variety unknown/forgotten, is blooming.
The freshness of this bloom with drops of water clinging to it is deceiving. Few flowers are fresh or damp in my garden this month, except those like this clematis that I’ve been watering daily.
It’s hard to see in this picture, but this clematis is sprawling across a long container holding some 4” pots of trial plants that I’m planning to plant this fall. What makes this clematis so remarkable, so resilient, so worthy of this much attention?
In late June when the crew came to install the new patio, they told me they didn’t think they could dig this up where it was, so I told them to cut it back and shrugged it off as a loss for the greater gain of a newly designed garden. So they cut it back, and I thought no more about it until one day it was back, covering these other plants, and now it's blooming.
Out in the vegetable garden, the okra seems oblivious to the heat and can be counted on to have blooms each day.
As long as I keeping cutting off those pods, I think it will keep blooming until it is knocked back by frost.
What else is blooming in my garden? What else has the resilience to stand this heat and dryness?
Sunflowers.
This is ‘Autumn Beauty’ from Botanical Interests seeds. It's tall.
Zinnias.
These are several different varieties from several different sources. The bees and butterflies both love them.
Knockout roses, ‘Radsunny’.
They are a nice subtle buttery yellow, much nicer than that garish yellow gold of the "stella" daylilies.
Elsewere I am also enjoying, mostly from inside the house looking out into the garden, the usual marigolds, coneflowers, phlox, black-eyed susans, hostas, coreopsis, salvia, golden rod, yarrow, and hydrangeas.
They all have the resilience to bloom in hot, dry August in my garden.
What’s blooming in your garden?
We would love to have you join in for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. It’s easy to participate and all are invited!
Just post on your blog about what is blooming in your garden on the 15th of the month and put your name and the url to your post on the Mr. Linky widget below. Then leave a comment to tell us what you have waiting for us to see so we can pay you a virtual visit!
“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
(My apologies. Mr. Linky was down for maintenance so for this month I switched to "Simply Linked" to give it a try. Let me know how you like it!)
Some of you are not seeing your link on Simply Linked. Here's Mr. Linky, back in businss. Someday, I might combine these two lists. Anyway, link on whichever one you'd like and sorry for the confusion and mess!
Comments
Yay for the resilient Clematis!! I've found Clematis I thought I'd killed dead come sprouting back from total neglect after a year or two (i.e., I neglected to dig out what I thought was a dead root ball). Neglect can be good in the garden of resilient plants.
I really like your okra flowers!
Thanks for GBBD :)
David at Tropical Texana in Hot, Humid Houston :-)
The okra has a beautiful flower, and your zinnias look much happier than mine. Happy GBBD!
It's definitely been a tough garden year in my area of VA. Very hot & dry. You find out which plants are the toughest in these conditions.
Thanks for hosting!
I love it when plants that you think are dead come back to life! So glad it happened with your pretty unknown Clem.
Luckily my thick dose of mulch last Autumn has kept my garden blooming :)
Happy 'Blooms Day' everyone!
http://vegplotting.blogspot.com/2010/08/gbbd-drowsling-august.html
We've had virtually no hot sunny days here in Scotland for weeks - constant showers with July breaking all rainfall records. Despite this the garden is blooming well..... weeds too - but my neighbour decided to use her sun parasol for something much more useful which you'll see on my blog.
Anyway here is my link as I don't see Mr Linky up yet.
http://leavesnbloom.blogspot.com/2010/08/august-garden-bloggers-bloom-day-at.html
http://giardinoumbro.blogspot.com/2010/08/gbbd-august-2010.html
Yvonne
See http://theupsidedowngarden.blogspot.com/2010/08/bloggers-bloom-day-august-2010.html
Mr. Linky is apparently under the weather so I will post the link here and will check back later when he is out of bed. Thanks for hosting Bloom Day.
Bloom Day - August Survivors and Thrivers
happy to be back on the GBBD, and enjoy so many gardens from all over the world thanks to Carol's brilliant ideas and her intriguing posts.
http://ceanothus.blogspot.com/
p.s. - I like Mr. Linky better, since the link shows up right away. There's a bit of a delay with Simply Linked. Nice though, that there are alternatives for those times when Mr. Linky is down.
I love your sunflower photo! Thanks for hosting bloom day.
Can't wait to see the finished product when your garden design transition phase is done!
http://auntieksgarden.blogspot.com/
From Iowa,
Mr. Subjunctive
Apologies for the linked Grow It Eat It post because it is more about a lack of (bean) flowers than actual photos of flowers! Thanks so much for hosting and posting!
Hey, just a note to say that I submitted my link about 20 minutes ago and it hasn't popped up yet. I wonder if anyone else is having trouble.
I like the Mr. Linky site better.
Thanks again for having this wonderful monthly event.
David at Tropical Texana /Houston
Wish I had some.
Salix at Windywillow
http://windywillow.blogspot.com/
(just in case my link doesn't show up)
I tried t o post my link, http://www.joenesgarden.com, but don't see it on the list of contributors. Wonder if others are having problems?
Haven't gone through the links yet, but I'm ready to be dazzled!
Stella's will always have a place in my heart. They were my 1st 'bullet proof' flower - that gave me hope someday I could be a successful gardener! -Shyrlene
I enjoyed visiting your garden, I'll be back http://myhesperidesgarden.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/august-bloomday/
I love okra flowers! Your clematis is lovely, too.
Kathy
Thanks Carol, for hosting Bloom Day.
Thanks again for hosting, Carol!
http://gardenersgazette.blogspot.com/2010/08/garden-bloggers-bloom-day.html
Well it has been hot, like 85 degrees consistently for high temps. Hot enough for me to possibly obtain for the first time ever a full sized melon.
I was actually pleased to see that I was not alone in my sufferings for this August. I'm quite ready to move on to a rainy (I hope) September. It was really an effort to find flowers worth mentioning this month. Thanks again for hosting.
Thank you for hosting!
August has been brutal here, but a few survivors! Thanks for hosting another fun Bloom Day!
That's one tough Clematis! Pretty too.
I like that subtle buttery yellow of the "Radsunny" Knockouts.
I can hear you hollering "Stella!" when she reappeared :)
Gotta love a girl as tough as that!
Frances
ps, I like Mr. Linky better, seeing the link immediately.
Happy GBBD
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
The verification word is "rudist"... is that someone who takes off their clothes when other people don't want to see a naked body?
Thank you for hosting this. It is wonderful to see all the different gardens and blooms.
happy day!
cheryl m www.gardenintheburrow.com
I love your Stella D'Oro story. They are such hardy things. Last year I ordered some for fillers in my garden. One was so tiny that I thought it would not survive in the hot sun and even died back. Now, there it is with lots of new growth. I certainly wish that I could grow okra here. The evenings are too cool for okra to do well. Everything else is just lovely as usual.
Yael from Home Garden Diggers