Tina, your hanging basket might be Scaevola. Very pretty!

I have garden envy. Thank you for sharing yours.

I have nothing to share since the jasmine and azaleas are no longer in bloom.

I think Outside is correct. Looking at both links I immediately knew Mtn's plant is the Hydrangea Outside posted. The little white flowers are larger and the tiny green ball buds are identical to Mtns.

My boring orange Daylilies are in bloom. Yawn. It's the color I don't like, but I do like Daylilies.

I have a whole border on one side of our road frontage, of orange daylilies. Every year when they bloom, I contemplate a weed whacker. But even if I were so inclined, what would I put in their place?

Orange DL's are the only ones I don't like. Get someone to dig them up (make sure they dig ALL the roots/rhizomes) and plant another color, like pink or yellow.

Or start a row of something dwarf that grows well in your area that blooms this time of year or later. Buddleia (butterfly bush) has some pretty dwarf varieties, but is deciduous. You might prefer evergreen.

Hmm,, pink,, I will have to see. I am feeling a little soured on gardening ... I spent a lot of money on tulips three or 4 yrs ago and I think I am merely creating a buffet for small beady eyed animals. Why don't they like daylilies?

Outside, I think you are correct! It looked to me to have broader leaves like the Viburnum, but the newer growth has narrower ones. It's amazing how far ahead CT is in bloom time than southern Maine.

It's a climbing hydrangea anomala, a vine. I once saw one growing up a brick chimney at a B&B we stayed at on Vancouver Island. It was several feet high. I'll see if DH can find the photos in his files if you're interested.

My lupine has progressed since I last posted.

I love day lilies as they are part of my "roadside gardening" philosophy....if you've seen it growing all by itself on a roadside with no care, odds are good they'll grow well for you too. We do have issues with deer munching them down, but we stake them with ivory soap and that keeps the deer at bay.

I admit the old fashioned orange ones can get quite dull, but they do come in other nice colors and in varieties that will bloom at different times during the summer. Salmon, deep red, lemon yellow, pink and green, purples and even those with ruffles. Check them out at White Flower Farm.

One year, I planted 100 tulip bulbs. The mice/rodents got them all but one. That one lonely tulip made its way out from the ground when a deer came along and cut it to the quick. No more tulips for me.

3katz, that lupine is divine! I am not a huge fan of daylillies for some reason, but I do like seeing masses of them out in a large space. We have a nearby daylilly farm that has some beautiful selections. I absolutely do not like the orange or yellow ones LOL!!

I always have tulips. One of my favorite flowers - pink ones are my very favs. Squirrels and other animals will get them here but it's kind of hit or miss. So when they start looking bare, I add more bulbs LOL. I've also taken to using them in mixed containers - and the "critters" don't bother them there.

There was lupine blooming everywhere in Alaska! It was just beautiful seeing sweeps of deep blue along roadways, trails, etc. even mixed with plain old yellow dandelion blooms it was pretty.

Another tulip lover, but squirrels make it impossible to have them here. And their blooms are so short lived.

The rhodos, beauty bush and japanese dogwood have finished

Finally, a couple of yard shots

Have really enjoyed this thread. So much color that makes everyone happy.

Tina, I missed your picture yesterday. You have a really nice yard! Yes, the Sunpatien is still in it's plastic pot. I got the other one transplanted, but didn't get around to the other. Will do it today.

DH would kill me if I got rid of the Daylilies. He has his own row growing along his shed which faces the road. Yesterday when I got the mail I saw a few Daylilies growing near the cedar trees. Not sure how they got there, but actually it was kind of nice.

Neverbedone, WOW! I can tell you're in the mountains, is it cooler where you're at?

Is the tree with weeping flowers the Japanese Dogwood? I don't think I've ever seen one before.

I agree, this thread makes me happy. I hope it continues until our flowers die off. lol

Thank you Oakley. We work at it! I have a big clay pot (mixed plants) to go in that area beside the turn-around spot (or extra parking LOL) and I would love to put a concrete bench in front of that telephone pole. I do all my potting in the back and the pot is still around there. I can't lift it, and keep forgetting to have my hubby do it. Well I thought of it last evening but it was even heavier as it had rained.

Neverbedone, yes - gorgeous! Where are you located? An arbor will be great in that spot! We have one coming off our patio, but will be redoing the patio and not sure if we will do another arbor there or maybe a pergola in that area instead.

Tina, have you tried putting shredded bark mulch in the bottom of your big pots? I use it and then put my potted plants in the pot on top of the mulch. Then I can actually lift the pot into a cart and put them where I want them. Clay pots are heavy anyway of course but this might help you reduce the load. And the amount of potting soil you need.

I have really enjoyed this thread too. It's so nice to see things in bloom that have already finished here, and I appreciate the hard work by everyone in making your gardens so beautiful.

Thanks Out, but this is a really large glazed ceramic pot. The mulch is a good idea. We usually put a small amount of gravel around the bottom - which of course does not help with weight, but thankfully, hubby is on hand for that ;-)

I need to stay off my laptop today, crazy busy but i just had to post this:

Beautiful eggs! That kind of makes up for the dead bird I found yesterday - flew right into one of the sunroom windows. :-(

I just love bluebirds!

..? It's a robin who sits on them...

Thanks Oakley and Tina. I'm in the Pacific North West so approx. zone 6-7. The dogwood, also known as Kousa dogwood is behind the red rhodo on the left. The flowers are smaller but it's loaded with flowers. The pink trailing shrub is the Beauty Bush (Kolkwitzia)

I thought Robin eggs were white with blue spec's, but they also come in all blue. Here's a fun article about Robins.

Robins

Oh, my mistake....in our neck of the woods, bluebird eggs look like that and also their nests are almost always built with pine straw. I'll take a photo of the one they are nesting in tonight if I have time. Second nesting this season in this box. I seldom see the Robin's nests though.

That is where the term "Robin's Egg Blue" comes from...

According to the link Oakley shared there may be one more before she starts to incubate. Is the nest in a shrub?

Well I missed getting a photo of the eggs and got this today instead. There are 4 hungry baby bluebirds.

What a treat, Outside! Where is the nest, it doesn't look to be in a bush. Living in the country surrounded by fields, we don't get many colorful birds.

Oakley, I have bluebird nest boxes. This is the second nesting this year in this one. We often get at least 3 nestings and a couple of times we have had a family nest a fourth time. Usually not as many eggs in the later nests but you never know.

The nest Is on top of the light fixture. We have several of these lights around the exterior of our home… Maybe 12… And they often nest on them. I guess it's a nice little protected surface, but I worry what would happen if we left these lights on for an extended period of time… Which we rarely do.

We have 2 nests now. One built on top of our garage door opener. The other flew into the garage, found an open box of hefty trash bags on a set of back shelves, and built the nest INSIDE of the box.

DH and I decided we are not closing the garage door until the babies are born. We would have taken down the nests if there weren't eggs in there yet, but there are eggs so alas the garage will be a bird incubator for however long it takes.

Now I'm itching to get my Audubon Bird books of N. America out. We've seen blue birds, maybe once a year.

Do you all get wasp in the birdhouses? Years ago I set up a bird feeder on a tall pole, and when I went to check it one day there was a yellow jacket nest in it. I have a phobia with wasps.

When the arborist was here the other day to look at the trees, he spotted a nest on the limb that is outside our front door.

Well, our lettuce was pretty much done---it had gotten bitter and was ready to bolt, then the deer got in and ate it all. They did eat some of the tomato plants, but luckily not too bad. I've bought pepper spray and then we will look into fencing similar to what Beagles has. Unfortunately, it's really too hot here to grow more lettuce until late August. We were going to try to save the seeds, but now they're gone. Today I dug up what was left of the lettuce.

gsciencechicrk

My fence is from Lowes, in case you are interested in that particular fence (they also have similar models as well). It is sold as a No Dig fence. We have horrific rocky clay soil w/ massive rocks (did I mention the rocks) and it was relatively easy to install, although you definitely need 2 people.

I would recommend it, it has held up nicely through its first winter, seems to be keeping animals out, and we are very not handy and still were able to install it ourselves.

The gate is stupidly designed, and I would recommend just modifying a fence piece if you have the ability to do so.

Thanks, Beagles! LOL, we are also not very handy, and the no-dig sounds great.

Robin eggs are always the blue as in Mtn's photo.

Cyn, some have specks on them. Here are some pictures. Robin eggs

We have so many bluebirds this year! Seems like more than usual. We have huge oaks in the front and I'm pretty sure they are nesting there. We had a blue bird house but something got the babies every time. We apparently need to move it to a metal pole. Hubby saw something on our local news the other day where you can also make a winter house for them.

These gardens and photos are wonderful!

I was just checking on some things after yesterday's rain and saw these foxglove.... decided they were photo-worthy so took a phone pic. :) I'm beginning to love foxglove.

I love foxgloves too, but down here they're annuals and the bloom period isn't very long so I stopped planting them.

few years ago:

Foxglove are pretty, also poisonous.

Fabulous gardens and flowers.

Yours too, tina....but what I really loved is that beautiful shade of deep blue onnthat door?

Do you remember the name and brand, by chance?

Oakley, American Robin eggs are blue, according to every book and website I have ever seen. There are other types of robins-could those be what you are referring to? The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says this:. "Egg Description: Sky blue or blue-green and unmarked." The Audubon Society agrees: "Usually 4, sometimes 3-7. Pale blue or 'robin's-egg blue.'"

eta:. Sites like your link with the photos are not always accurate in their identifications.

eta 2: love all the pictures and really, really want a couple of goats!

I'm bumping this in case anyone wants to add more pictures, and also a picture I took yesterday afternoon. It's unusually hot here for this time of the year, today the heat index will be around 110-115 F.

These impatiens weren't growing like the others, so I put them on the edge of the porch so they'd get more sun for the time being, and two toads are living in the planter! They jumped out when I watered, and jumped back in when I finished.

ModernTropicalGlam, so sorry I just saw your remarks. The door is actually a dark green! It does look rather blue in my picture.

Thanks, tina!

Was really just curious. I already have MY favorite deep teal blue....still, I'm always drawn to them.

I posted this in another thread. Last weekend DH had to go buy 8' stakes for some of the tomatoes. In one week the plants are now up to the top of the stake. Some of the tomatoes are starting to ripen. The Silvery Fir Tree is the smaller determinate one that is ripening. We've gotten a few of the sun sugar cherry that are on the really tall plant. There are more to come.

There are few things that are better than a homegrown tomato sandwich in the summer!