Oooh, my knees hurt from falling in love with that Clematis!! Love the palette in this pic, the blue Clem, red Pel, chartreuse, and almost pewter color Alliums.

Pretty, Beesandblues! Are those Cosmos in your 2nd pic?

It is a coreopsis called show stopper. And the fist pic is coreopsis Zagreb, veronica giles van hees and veronica moody blues sky

OK, thank you. : )

Wine Cups....one if my favorites. Pictures dont show the true beauty.

Thank you @Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL :).

Wonderful coreopisis @beesandblues88_z7a. I had Cosmic Eye for a few years (among others) but I had difficulty keeping them going :(.

Love your Wine...cups @GardenHo_MI_Z5. I gotta look up that one to see more details.

My pleasure!

So far the July highlight is a nice secondary summer bloom on the Chinese wisteria. Last year we didn't have any at all - due I think to the fairly hard pruning we did to cut it back from being able to reach the dwarf lilac. It can take them a year or two to reestablish flowering wood - and we had virtually no spring bloom on it this year :-( So it looks like it is back to normal again. We really like the Chinese wisteria - it can do a very showy spring bloom; a decent secondary summer bloom when gently pruned; and in over twenty years growing here it has only produced a couple of root suckers (which were promptly dug out/removed....) The Japanese wisteria is much more vigorous about suckering from the roots but has never done the secondary summer bloom for me. I would not recommend that one but the Chinese one has been a good addition to the garden.

Next up - hydrangeas - just starting to bloom, hardy hibiscuses, clematises - some in bloom now.... Lots of deadheading needed out there now!

Hey 'woody', there is a local business on our towns main street that has a very vigorous stand of wisteria. It had a gorgeous display of blooms in the spring of 2021. For some reason I wasnt able to see what happened this past spring.

(Is it easy to distinguish between Chinese and Japanese W?)

Madame Julia Correvon:

rouge your Clematis are exquisite!

Just lovely beesandblues.

GardenHo love those Wine Cups. I clearly need them!

woody I always enjoy seeing your Wisteria.

Clematis Niobe

Iris s. Blue Butterfly is a late bloomer.

Penstemon Husker Red

Alchemilla mollis

Campanula Pritchard's Variety

Foxglove and yes I got the thistle out.

Lysimachia punctata

Salvia 'Schneehugel

GardenHo love those Wine Cups. I clearly need them!

Me too!

@peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada, that's a large stand of Alchemilla mollis!

Peren beautiful fox glove...and seeing your PV reminded me of my forgotten ones...they fizzled out to nothing : (

I have to say, im surprised you dont have any wine cups lol.

rouge I am awfully fond of them, so frothy. I have them in other spots too.

GardenHo thank you. Funny story. I had Foxglove in that corner well over a decade ago. I redid parts of the bed and disturbed the seed bank. I was quite pleased to see them but they almost buried a young Hosta.

My PV is not nearly as full as before. They need to be divided often for rejuvenation. I hope you find a seedling or two.

Yes why don't I have WC lol! I will have to remedy that. We all want everything don't we? Have you stuck to your guns about no new perennials, shrubs only?

Lol youre too cute! Worried about a little ole hosta when up popped all that beauty!! (id personally take the foxgloves over a hosta anyday : )

No such luck on any PV seedlings...theyve been gone a few years now unfortunately.

...and yes I have...no perennials!! I’m proud to say this season ive only bought a JM, another Golden Full Moon. It was just perfect and I couldnt pass it up.

Very cool story on this perfect little tree. I bought it to replace a different JM I had planted in memory of my Mother. The grafted top slowly died but the rootstock continued to sprout.....so of course I wanted to replace it. A few days after planting the new one I was primping on it when a discovered inside....a hummingbird nest!!!! I almost cried....it was my Mothers favorite bird. I knew right then...it was much more than the perfect tree! ❤️

Ha, too true but it is a really nice little Deja Blu! You have a will of iron lol!

What a wonderful story. Sometimes everything aligns perfectly and brings us to that sad/happy place that we know is meant to happen. I would like to think your Mother was smiling! Hugs to you!

Woodyoak, I too would like to know if there is a way to distuinguish chinese and Japanese wisteria. Have an invasive colony along my driveway that bloomed in May and was curious.

Here is my lysimachia clethroides. In summer of 2020 I took tiny 1-2 inch root cuttings off the plant from work, stuck them in pots, and they grew a bit, overwintered without going dormant and planted them 2021 Spring. They seem to have exploded since then.

Then there goes my achillea sibirica subsp. camtschatica ’love parade’. 4th year from cuttings.

Peren...Thank you ❤️

Heruga - the direction the vines twine and when they flower are two key parts of distinguishing between the basic types of wisterias. Both the Chinese wisteria and the native American wisterias twine in a counterclockwise direction (stems grow from lower left to upper right) while the Japanese type twines clockwise (stems grow from lower right to upper left). The Chinese ones do most of the spring bloom early - before the leaves emerge, although the leaves start emerging as the flowers are finishing. The Japanese ones flowers as or after the leaves emerge, so they bloom as the Chinese one is finishing. Our Chinese one usually does a decent secondary summer bloom if we keep the new whippy growth pruned. Our Japanese one has never done the second bloom, although some people say theirs do that... One of the reasons we have both the Chinese and Japanese types is that, in good years, the Chinese one blooms in late May, the Japanese one starts blooming as the Chinese one finishes, then from July to the end of summer the Chinese one will produce secondary blooms whenever it is pruned and, since we grow both as 'trees', we prune basically weekly all summer. It is important to also remove any seed pods that form as they will open explosively as soon as they warm up the following spring, firing seeds around! The Chinese one produced summer blooms for several years before it had enough flowering wood to do the first 'naked' spring bloom. It also rarely produces root suckers now while the Japanese one produces them constantly...!

Here are two pictures that show their very different spring blooms:

Chinese:

Japanese (after some foliage pruned off to display the flowers better....)

The two showing overlap in bloom:

They are beautiful plants - BUT you should never plant one unless you are prepared to do the work required to control them and display them.

I was kind of surprised by the size of this lily. I don't remember the name, unfortunately.

Shasta Daisy BECKY with Blue Paradise Phlox:

Texas sage shrub.

Rouge your blue paradise always lioks so nice...mine have never done well sigh.

My other phlox do well though...go figure.

First ever daylily...’buttered popcorn’

Balloon flower with more Phlox

Hostas

Many hydrangeas getting ready to bloom also....

Beautiful inspiring photos everyone !!

GardenHo, I've never before have heard of Wine Cups, okay probably did see it listed, but just skipped over it .... dang, now must give it a try next year, I have a large sloping bed it could be used to good effect within! :)

FB you will love them in your sloped bed...I have them in mine, although they are not as happy as the ones pictured.

I really should stop looking at these GW posts: every single time I add plantd to my must-have list! :)

My garden looks very messy, but here are a few pics:

Maz I’m right there with you. I renamed my gardens...’the messy jungle’.

This year Ive been cleaning house....Ripping and digging out left and right! I’m close to 8 full garbage cans...so far. The beds are starting to look better.

No more under performers, no more heavy reseeders, no more thirsty plants etc....out they go!!

.....and it feels good : )

@GardenHo_MI_Z5: that’s a good strategy! I’m curious, which plants did you get rid of?

Oh so many, but here is what I can think of now......Veronica, Phlox, geranium, grasses, Stokesia, junipers, coral bells, lilies, stachys, rose campion, sedum, daisy, and more black walnut saplings than I can count...thanks to the squirrels!

I still have several beds to go thru but I’ve been working lots of OT so it makes it a slow process...

@GardenHo_MI_Z5: wow, that’s quite the list!! I planted a lot of perennials in the past 3-4 years, to see which ones would do well and that I'd like to keep. I will have to purge my garden in the coming years, just like you're doing now. I'm already eyeing the lupines :)

Marie, your penstemons really are something else, I lost my small plants a few years ago when there wasn't much snow cover. You really have quite the extensive plantings, sure is a tremendous amount of upkeep with weeding and mulching and never mind the planning and planting! I bit off more than I can chew and it shows in many of the neglected beds that am slowly revamping one plant at a time, am getting there, maybe, lol, only wish I could give a few beds away! Up until now, the weather has been predominantly cool and moist allowing for digging and dividing well beyond the normal spring season, now though turning warmer and drier and things of course becoming pretty far advanced in development, didn't stop me though from moving some heliopsis in bloom, just get as large of a root ball as possible, fertilize and water in well!

GardenHo, climate and soil sure do make a difference in what thrives where, veronica, phlox, geraniums, lilies, daisies (Shasta) all are very good performers here, but yes, the rose campion goes overboard nuisance seedling, though I have variegated form am trying to build my numbers of. I STILL require more perennials and shrubs to fill some beds, I need to do more drift plantings instead of single specimens and always struggling to match these up with complimentary partners.

Peren.all, your iris 'Blue Butterfly' is a unique beauty, and who doesn't love foxglove! 'Pink Panther' is heavy and long flowering, unfortunately a sterile hybrid that doesn't continue to spread itself around, though more than nice enough to bother starting more, 'Foxy' always does well and finally am trying 'Excelsior Mix' with its long spikes and extensive color range.

Thanks @FrozeBudd_z3/4: I do love these purple leaf penstemons, they look good with everything!

I also need to do more drift plantings, I planted too many singles over the years, and there's a lack of repetition that makes me look at it and think blah.

I'm sure I'm not the only one having this issue: I love too many plants, but don't have enough space to grow drifts for all of them! I will have some serious editing to do in the next few years! It's a fun process, though, isn't it?

@GardenHo_MI_Z5: I was surprised to see veronica, geranium, sedum, daisies and phlox in the list of things that you removed, because they do so great here. Is it because they were overgrown and you thinned them out?

Maz yes mostly overgrown, and others I just grew tired of, which I failed to mention.

Phlox which I love and never imagined ripping out has been a big culprit of self seeding. Its one that came from my Mothers garden so its here to stay but will need constant thinning.

Geranium ’Bill Wallis’ reseeded ALL over the place. Funny as I had a hard time keeping them alive to start and figured they wouldnt return...but oh boy did they ever!! Such a cute liitle geranium so I had to keep a few...yes im a sucker for punishment...and purple flowers : )

Those were the worst of them all. I did sell many perennials in the spring, just not as many as I would have liked to...so out they went.

Here are a few more pics!

Evolvulus continues to put on a great show.

Maz your clematis are beautiful. Mine did terrible this year with the exception of this new one planted last year. Very surprised how well it did....

(June pic)

Culvers root- these are so hard to photograph.

Little Gold Star Rudbeckia:

Curcuma

Brugmansia (angel trumpets)

Almost forgot 4'o'clocks. This plant is over 6 feet tall.

Incredible @Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL!

Surely this 'monster' o'clock has support? I love these plants but invariably I had to stake them.

It does not have support unless it's leaning on the tomato cage and I haven't noticed. It looks like the top of it might be leaning on the cover over my potting area, to the right. That plant is almost 30 yrs old, started from seed at the time, brought here from OH in 2005 and moved a couple of times, then moved to the current spot around 3-4 yrs ago. I did dump a large load of organic matter there around late February, while it was still dormant. Been thinking that is at least partly why it is so energetic this year. It's usually half as big. It has rained regularly this summer, for the first time in what seems like a decade. I think that is also a big factor.

Lilium lancifolium in its 4th year I grew from seed/bulbils whatever you call it, flowering for the first time.

Sanguisorba officinalis

Platycodon gradiflorus second year seed grown

Do clematis naturally have leaves that are lighter green in color? I can’t figure out if my clematis is chlorotic or the leaves are just that color

Seed grown Globe Thistle

Culvers Root alittle past its prime

Phlox now blooming

More in a gaudy mix