Okay, the beginning of July is a lull for me, but I have more than I thought. The veggies are starting already and they're doing pretty good so far....fingers crossed.

For some reason the colors are off - it was a dark sky late in the day....and I could be wrong, but I think those tomatoes are just starting to turn red?

I'm enjoying this pot...Cucumbers with pole string beans and Heliotrope and nasturtium in there just getting started. Already saw a couple of cuke flowers.

Butterfly weed - very bright! And surprising there is no bee on it at this minute....

For some reason the Chrysanthemums are huge this year and they've already been pinched back too....

They did the trick....I saw a hummer last night after 7pm out there visiting the Red Raspberry Monarda... That's a lily almost ready to open and a NOID spider daylily and the top of the tripod that the cuke and pole beans are starting to climb. Strange light with all the unsettled afternoon skies.

This is very early for a pepper that I could actually pick. I'm just trying this variety this year....and why didn't I try it sooner?! 'Ace' - seems to be ahead of the others so far.

This is a Jalapeno Pepper plant and I pinched the tops of the stems when I first planted it and it's become very bushy.

Jalapeno flowers and peppers starting. I had a small one in my smoothie yesterday morning....

Borage. I am planting them for the cardinals. for some reason they have an interest in Borage plants. Not sure what it is but they love to visit it once it starts flowering.

Flowers forming on 'Little Lime' Hydrangea

Nice, pm! Here's a few things from my condo tiny gardens

This was about a week ago. Jackmanii. Starting to drop tepals now. Echinicea about to pop. They will overlap for a while.

dwarf NOID monarda.

Jack #2. It overflows on deck so I can enjoy from inside. Swallowing up half a window box and I'm okay with that sacrifice! Sometimes it leans to the other side and goes over the A/C! I hope I remember this next year when guiding it.

Below Jack is Hydrangea arboresens Mini Mauvette. Blooms are still a little tight. This is year 4 or 5. Supposed to be compact 3x3.

NOID. The picture color is off. IRL it's muddy and I've been tempted to pull it. This picture does it justice.

Stachys officinalis 'Cotton Candy'. The color has started to fade a bit. I used to have 'Hummelo' (purple-magenta) but I didn't have room for both and had to choose. A very easy peasy no fuss plant. strong grower but not aggressive.

Jolyene Nichole

Only veggie growing is a cherry tomato Sungold. I didn't put it in a big enough pot and it's not growing as quickly as I would like. Last year it was so ginormous it was hard to manage.

Wendy, that jackmanii is WON - Der - ful!! Lol Wow, it’s really covered in flowers and I love the way it’s stretched out along the railing of your porch there. And you have a lot of color for a small garden. The color of your NOID daylily is very pretty. It doesn’t look muddy at all to me, and I like the markings.

I thought you moved from MA to a larger garden….is this another garden change, to a smaller garden?

PM2, what a lot of great veggies you have going there! Everything looks fantastic!

Wendy, love all your pink and purple. Those are some amazing "tiny" gardens. Love the clematis.

OK, who's got the salt?? The 'Buttered Popcorn' has started to POP! in the garden! By far my most favorite daylily of them all (and i have A LOT). Such a gorgeous color bloom that goes with ANY color of the rainbow, straight tall very strong stems that hold an enormous amount of buds. The stem and bud count are amazing on this daylily. Blooms and blooms and blooms......

Oh, that is unless the deer eat all but 1 bud off four of them in the roadside bed! GRRRRR!

Anyway, here's one in the cottage garden.

The jury is still out on if I like these plants together down in the roadside bed. I planted the coreopsis and hypericum together on purpose. Not sure if the other plants work with them. Especially the light pink monarda (that is still little, but what will it all look like together when it's big? blech.....) And I'm not a fan of the blue-purple with it.

This is a happy accident that I didn't plan, but the astilbe in the entry to cottage garden is same exact flower color as the knautia. A little hard to see in photos.

Hope everyone has a great day today!

@thyme Love the cottage garden. the warm cottagy colors are so happy. I have trouble executing them so I stick to safe pastels. Love those happy accidents when colors hit!

@pm I moved from large MA garden to tiny MA garden 11 years ago (almost to the day!). As much as I loved the large and private yard and gardens and hate the HOA-ness of condos, overall I am glad I made the move. The amount of work would not have been sustainable and I am too much of a perfectionist to let it go "natural". I feel bad for the new owner. Hope they did some major editing to keep it looking decent. At least in this condo, I can do what I want in the front and rear beds.

This is a more realistic (edited) picture of the NOID daylily. still not quite accurate. It is even duller in real life. Samsung cameras supposedly have great cameras. Why can't I get accurate color... sigh.... Brought some scapes in the house. They are more enjoyable inside than outside.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could edit the flower colors as easily outside to get it just right!

Here's inside the deck view of the overflowing jackmanii

If you look closely at the siding above the grill, you will see a plastic hook. That is holding fishing line for the clematis to hang on to. When I saw that he was heading in that direction, I added the fishing line to keep it from falling over even more.

Wow, that clematis is wonderful! I don’t have one, but, boy, your pictures make it tempting, Wendy.

Thyme, one of your big posts on HBP daylily from a few years ago inspires me to look for it when opportunity arises, but so far no go. I think I saw it online, but didn’t have anything else to order so I held back. It really does look lovely in your garden.

PM, your veggies look great! You’re not the only one saying things are coming early. It seems to be a common comment this year. What a strange couple of summers. Last year it was the late freeze and surplus rain, and this year it’s like the clock adjusted itself. My peonies have overlapped with my echinacea (barely, but they did) and I don’t remmber that before. Maybe it did before and I didn’t notice. I do know that in prior years my peonies were too small and I finally realized last year that too much soil had been eroded away from their crowns by jumping worms. I finally added more soil early last fall, so they are FAR more healthier this year, many more eyes. One had lost too much soil, crown was too exposed, and it didn’t make it. The jumping worms are bad in that bed.

After last year’s rain (I guess) some of my hostas are HUGE. This is Sagae, a favorite. If it doesn't look big here, trust me--it's over 4 feet wide!

And a NOID that is likely Minute Man or Patriot, based on tags in the area where it originally was. It's got to be 5 feet wide:

Lemon Candy Ninebark is still an absolute favorite. It has really filled out in the last couple of years. I like its foliage AND its blooms.

Two of my favorite reseeders—Rose Campion and Feverfew. I love their beauty and dependability.

Another favorite reseeder, Sweet William Catchfly, but most of them don't have this nice rounded head like this one does. This one must be a nice mature one. But it pops up happily throughout the garden and is never a bully.

And what a wonderful hydrangea year. My hydrangeas have never even come close to looking this great before. I'm loving it!

Thyme, That is a really nice daylily. Strong stems and high bud count are not so easy to come by.

Is that butterfly weed next to your BP daylily in the cottage garden? And is that the same plant down in the roadside garden? What a mass of orange!

Wendy, For some reason I thought you moved far away. [g] I am sure it was an adjustment to go to a smaller garden from a larger one, but really, I think you are right that it gets to be so difficult to keep up with. And it sounds like you are having a lot of fun with your garden space now!

Edit: I came back to say, we walked around Rockport last week or so and I was reminded of how effective a small space garden can be. Each little shop on BearsNeck competes against the rest for the prettiest little garden around their shop. I was inspired to look at my spaces a little differently. When you have a small space, or when you concentrate on just a small space, you can make it look like a little jewel box. I saw an entry that the door was set back....I should have taken a photo....and it had a tiny picket fence w a small gate. and overhanging one side of the fence was what looked like a very pretty multitrunk small tree. It was so good looking and happy. It took me a bit to figure out what it was, the trunks were bare up to about my chin height and then it had a very full, canopy of healthy shiny leaves. I think it was a Rose of Sharon that someone had limbed up! It gave me a good laugh. I never would have thought of doing that. Of course, I could be wrong and maybe it's something else, but...inspiration is plentiful when people have to make do with what they've got. Like the old saying 'Necessity is the mother of all invention.'

Gee, that color of your daylily is very different than the first photo. I see what you are talking about. I have a Nikkon camera and it doesn’t always get the color right either.

That fishing line tip for vines was a great one!

Deanna, I got a late start with the veggies this year trying to work around the rabbits. [g] So I really wasn’t’ expecting results so soon. And I think I’ve got a new plan to grow veggies that is going to work out pretty well which I’m very happy about it, because really, vegetable gardening is my first love. I've been trying to figure out a new plan for a couple of years and I think it is starting to show some promise.

That’s interesting about your peonies and echinacea. I’m having multiple perennials blooming together rather than sequentially too. It’s odd, but I like it. I just hope I don’t run out of bloom too soon. [g]

Gee, what can you do about jumping worms? That doesn’t sound great. If you are adding soil to the garden in places, my tip is to mix in some Castine by Coast of Maine. I’m using that this year and I can’t say enough good things about it. And I’m not actually mixing it in but adding a layer on top around the root zone but away from the trunks. I am mixing it in to my pots. Of course, the caveat is that some plants want poor soil so this would be too rich for those.

Your Hostas look Great!! We had so much rain in late winter early spring, my Hostas and some of my Epimedium and Hellebores are a lot bigger than I would have expected this year. I have that Sagae and yours is fuller, how much sun are you giving it?

What kind of soil do you have? I LOVE your area with all the Rose Campion and Feverfew. Is that a slope? I’ve tried Feverfew, which I love, but, it doesn’t love my clay soil at all. That’s a beautiful natural looking planting.

And yes, everyone is mentioning the amazing year the Hydrangea are having, including my non gardening neighbors. [g] Although I have more blooms than I’ve ever had, now it’s dry here and they are once again wilting and needing to be watered. I’m hoping for more rain today.

As usual, beautiful pics everyone!

Wendy, your little garden is gorgeous - that clematis is really something! I have a jackmanii, about three years old, and it's not nearly as lovely. You are lucky the condo association lets you have that garden - some are so restrictive, I know people who have to fight to have a pot of geraniums on their front steps!

PM2, what you said about the small gardens is spot on. I remember being overwhelmed as a beginning gardener (well, actually, I still kinda am overwhelmed lol) but I firmly believe it's because of where I grew up. Spent the majority of my childhood in a rowhouse in a city. Our front yard was about 20 feet wide, the width of the house, with a sidewalk to to front door dividing it in two. An enclosed front porch/foyer where the front door was took up maybe 8x8 feet. And the yard was maybe 10 feet deep. So quite small.

My mother had a beautiful little garden. Things always looked full and lush and bountiful. Fast forward to when I bought my current house, with almost an acre of land. I didn't make delineated beds (my mom never did, she just planted around the door, the fence, the house, etc) So I went out and bought a dozen daffodil bulbs and planted them by the front steps. Which made no impact when they bloomed. I planted three hostas along the sidewalk. Which looked lost and lonely. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get the beautiful garden my mom had.

Then I realized it's all about scale. In some ways, my mom had it easier with the small yard. I'm sure she always wished for more land, but here I was panicked, wondering how on earth I would ever make my yard look like hers! And so that's when I realized I had to make beds, plan them out, etc. And honestly, even when you go to large houses with lots of land and spectacular beds, it is sometimes those tiny little gardens which make the most impact. At least in my opinion. Because they do so much with so little. Like Wendy has done so nicely with her space.

deanna, your photos are lovely - loving your Sagae. I have one that was given to me and I was just looking at it the other day. It's in a shady bed where the soil is constantly, constantly choked by small little brown roots. LOL I can't quite figure out where those roots are coming from! This bed is about ten feet from my house, and the closest tree is about 25 feet away. That tree could be the culprit, but oddly I garden right under that tree, at it's base, and the soil isn't so choked with roots there. I guess maybe these are all little feeder roots at the end of the big roots? Anyway, I was looking at the Sagae because it, like everything in this bed, needs rejuvenation. The roots, the dry soil, which doesn't get watered as much as my other beds - it need an overhaul, and my Sagae is the impetus because I do love this hosta and it has sentimental value to me as well. Seeing your lovely specimen has redoubled my initiative to get out there and redo this bed! Well, as soon as the humidity breaks lol.

I just mentioned to someone about my feverfew taking over my beds, and how I hated that it was crowding out other stuff, but so loved it because of it's hardiness and beauty - and they told me that they had read that it repels bees!! WHAT??!! How could any bloom repel bees. So I googled, lol. And sure enough, the one or two search results I skimmed said that bees don't like the smell. So just passing this along....

In my garden right now, the daylilies are the stars. I think they are even stealing the spotlight from the great hydrangea year we are having, but then I've always been a daylily lover. I was thinking I may have planted too many but now that they are all in bloom I'm loving it. A few poor, not-doing-justice photos:

Darn, thought I had a photo of one of my favorites - a large apricot colored one - growing amongst some reseeded purpler larkspur. A happy coincidence, but I can't find the photo. Also have some oranges (Primal Scream being one of my fave oranges), some yellows (thought I had Buttered Popcorn but now think it might be Glory), some whites, and some smaller reds, which aren't really my favorite but they're still nice.

Oh, and deanna, I've been looking into that Lemon Candy ninebark as well. It's on my list!

:)

Dee

LOL I just realized I posted the exact same photo of Primal Scream - you're probably thinking whaatt??

So here are the two daylilies for real this time. And I do think it's the same plant. I must have divided it and moved it, even if I have absolutely no recollection of doing so with this one!

Primal Scream where I originally planted it

The other orange daylily at the other end of the bed that looks suspiciously like Primal Scream lol

:)

Dee

Who promises NOT to be the next poster on this thread lol. Three in a row is enough!

Dee,

What a delightful garden interlude on this hot and humid indoor day!!! Great daylily collection and I love your writing! Primal Scream is gorgeous! The unknown hydrangea flowers are reminiscent of Quickfire's. L'il Quickfire?

Deanna, Lemon Candy is superb ! I am partial to chartreuse foliage. Wish I had a spot for one

I hope you all are cutting flowers to enjoy indoors. It is perfect time of year for that!

(off topic: I think this platform downgrades the picture resolution too much in thumbnails. Its worth it to take the time to click them open. Much better quality and can appreciate the flowers more)

Stay cool!

Cimicifuga will always be Cimicifuga!!

Dee, I like the 2nd photo of the ‘other orange’ daylily. Such an interesting form, color and markings.

I’m barely stepping foot out of the house in this heat and humidity. Just enough to try to water as much as I can. I managed to get my whole front bed watered last night but it was after 7p before the sun was entirely off it. I hand watered it to use less water and avoid runoff and get all the plants a deep watering. It doesn’t last though, I haven’t got enough mulch down to withstand all this heat and a lot dries out again quickly. And it's too hot to be laying mulch! I’m watering even large pots every day and I’ve moved a couple into a little more shade.

I can’t take a photo when it is humid like this because my camera fogs up….lol. And in this heat, I’m not keeping up enough with the maintenance and things are starting to look messy out there.

Dee, you are not wrong! Even last year, the weather forecast talked about how many weekends we had bad weather. Hard to get your yard work done when all the time you have is the weekend and it’s raining again.

I have Hyperion and it is yellow and has fragrance. I really like white daylilies. Joan Senior is one I’ve almost bought a couple of times. Your 'ice Carnival' reminds me of it.

White Dome Hydrangea sounds like an all around garden worthy plant! Very pretty! And your Dahlias are already that big?! and again.....so lucky that your daughter lives close and gardens!!!

I didn’t realize you had solid rock on your property. And in your full sun area?! That’s awful!

I still call Cimicifuga, Cimicifuga….and yes, the name is more fun. [g] Actually, I never make the effort to learn new names of plants. What ever I originally thought it to be, is what it remains. Who doesn't think that we grow attached to the names of plants? Like Mums...Chrysanthemums. 60 years of calling them Mums....I couldn't even tell you what their new name is supposed to be.

I always found George’s posts interesting. I wonder how he is doing? He had so many different hydrangeas and kept his garden pristine. That’s a nice Ligularia. I really need to get out and water today. They keep forecasting rain, but we had about 30m of rain over the past few days and everything is still dry.

Dee, we moved around when I was a kid but we did live for a time in a 3 decker in a crowded neighborhood where every house had a yard about the size your Mom gardened. Only one person in the neighborhood tried to grow anything. An older Italian man who had a grape arbor. The many kids in the neighborhood would take some of his grapes and he was always yelling at them. And he was justified, but I just think of how fascinated those city kids were with someone growing something and the only one in the whole neighborhood.

You are so lucky that your Mom had a garden. And yes, a large garden is a lot harder. Noone in my immediate family gardened and I didn’t start gardening until my 30s. Later I found out I had 2 aunts that had gardens and some distant cousins that I didn’t see more than once a decade, were into gardening too. Makes me think it is genetic. [g]

And not only is your garden larger, but you have solid rock to garden on….lol. I’m sure that is something your Mom didn’t have to work with. I am sure she would be thrilled that you garden and would love your garden! And the fact you still remember her garden. 😀

Sorry to hear you can’t make Thyme’s Open House. She has such a big daylily collection!

Yes I would love to be able to make the trip up to NH but can't right now. Perhaps if she does it again next year and I have more notice. She has such a lovely garden!

I think in my childhood neighborhood we had a few gardeners, but nothing really overboard or unusual - that I know of lol. After all I was a kid and didn't pay too much attention to that. My immediate neighbor had roses, and she was always yelling at us kids when our ball would go in the her yard - but we had nowhere to play but the street and her roses were 6 feet from the curb so what can you do lol?

Actually my most vivid memory of flowers is mostly from the alleys behind our rowhouses. There grew ditch lilies, spiderwort, and honeysuckle, all considered invasives mostly (or at least agressive weeds) and all some of my favorites lol - along with QAL. The back alley is where I first saw QAL. There was also a giant lilac shrub. Huge - I lived on a hill and there was an open lot on the other side of the alley, where we used to go "sled" riding - more like "garbage can top" or "cardboard" riding lol, and many a kid plowed right into that lilac shrub in the winter, lol. Also in those alleys were cornflowers (I think) and something my mom called Butter and Eggs - kind of a snapdragon type bloom.

You know? I did at one time have Hyperion daylily, which is why I thought at first those white daylilies were it, but I wonder what the heck happened to it? Usually daylilies are tough enough to endure my neglect lol.

My daughter lives close but SHE doesn't garden lol. She has a gardener - me! Haha. Hopefully she will get more interested in actual gardenING. She loves and appreciates the beds I've planted so maybe she'll get more involved eventually.

I often wonder about George. He was such a great gardener and so generous. I have so much stuff from his garden in my own, so it's nice because I always think of him.

You are a trooper PM2 for getting out there to water. It's just too darn hot for me. I will be out tomorrow early and will be home by 6:30am so I will water then. We have swifts living in our chimney and they didn't even leave the house today lol. I posted this elsewhere today but here are a few smart critters staying cool on my patio this afternoon:

Four of them enjoying the pool!

:)

Dee

I have a deficient imagination;what is QAL, Dee?

Queen Anne's Lace.

Hot hot morning! The weather forecast is for a heat index of 96 - 100F today. Had to put the LR A/C on as soon as we got up. All the window shades down. Already been out trying to add a little more mulch in places where it was drying out too fast, caught a darn Red Lily Leaf Beetle- only saw one, dispatched about 10 Oriental beetles and deadheaded a few roses, took your cuttings from Mums, Marie, but not going to remember which was which. Sorry [g] And I'm moving the sprinkler around the back. Too hot to sit out there hand watering. So I'm just about done outside for the day @ 9a. Have 3 oscilating standing fans and a ceiling fan going along w the A/C and we should be all set.

Hope everyone puts in extra effort to stay cool today!

Orania Lily smelling up the place...

I will look for a photo of what this Sagae Hosta looked like a couple of weeks ago, but this is what it looked like this morning. I assume the rabbits are pulling all the leaves off it. But they aren't really eating them, they're laying on the ground. *sigh* I know, I know....Liquid Fence.

Ugh, at least if the critters were actually eating them it might not be so bad - after all, they need to eat too lol. But when an animal does that it's just maddening. This year I've had a terrible problem with something digging up newly-planted plants. I find them laying neatly next to a hole where I planted them. Some of them were dug up three days in a row! The same plant! I'd replant it and something would dig it up again! Is it the darn 2 cats of the neighbor's? Her chickens? Perhaps a skunk? Whoever it is, they work very neatly lol. But it's still frustrating!

:)

Dee

Dee, that's kind of crazy. I used to have a lot of trouble with squirrels I had new Iris I bought in small 4.5" pots just delivered and not thinking, I just left them on the back steps to plant the next day and the squirrels got into it. Dug them all out and ran off with the tubers and I found one far off with teeth marks in it. Since I stopped feeding the birds, I hardly have a squirrel in the yard. I don't know about digging up newly planted though....although once they ripped out sunflower seedlings I planted. Unless you have one of those cameras in the yard, I doubt you're going to find out except by accident. [g] I had some thing snapping off echinacea blooms once, every day for 3 weeks, and I made it my mission to catch them. Guess who it turned out was doing it? The MAILMAN.....lol. Every day on the way to the front door, he'd distractedly snap off buds. Not really thinking about it. I caught him in the act. lol

What I would do is cover over your newly planted plants. At least for the first week. I think someone said that squirrels are attracted by disturbed soil. I have a half dozen milk crates and I use those turned upside down to cover things for lots of reasons. The plant gets a little sun and rain and shade and protection. With this heat, it's just as well.

Wendy, Safe pastels are always gorgeous and welcome in any garden. I'm actually not a "hot color" gardener except in the cottage garden where there is a mix and the daylily bed. I'm trying to remember, was it you that had the daylily/peony bed by a picket fence? Did you have that in your old yard? I took the idea for my daylily bed from someone on GW and for some reason I feel as if it was you all those years ago!

Love that you added fishing line for the clematis. It truly is gorgeous.

Deanna, if you can get your hands on buttered popcorn try to. If you ever make it down here, I can give you some! It is soooo worth it.

OK, so I am a "don't keep track of names" for any plants I buy, except for a few. I feel as if I have Sagae, but not sure where I put it and now I'm scared it might be wrong plant in the wrong place. I'll have to search around......Your hostas are huge.

Lemon Candy is going on my list for sure! Is yours in full sun? Does it ever get any mildew? Some years my physocarpos get it.

Love all your reseeders!

PM2, Yes to the butterfly weed! I have many, many planted throughout the yard. I have a local nursery that sells nice size pots for $12.95 so I go nearly every year to buy a few. They have gotten huge this year.

It's interesting about the "small spaces" in the garden. I have been noticing little vignettes in my garden beds that I've really been enjoying. More than the whole space sometimes.

Sorry your rabbits are still at it. You need my cat for a weekend or so.......We don't have them yet here (they're close I hear), but I think she'll make quick work of them if they do show up. She's a vicious hunter!

That lily out front is magnificent!

Dee, so funny about having a new garden, planting bulbs, no impact. Haven't we all been through that? I remember my first batch of tulips. Oh, how I thought it would look like Holland here and yet it was not at all as impactful as my mind thought it would be!

Feverfew.......Fever-eeeew! It does have a gross smell IMO. I can see why bees are repelled by it. Never really thought about it, but I don't think I ever have seen bees on it.

Your daylilies are gorgeous. They are incredible this year. And EARLY. Primal Scream is an outstanding daylily for sure. I think your first picture is probably primal scream. but that second picture with the slight spider form is unbelievable! whatever it is, I want it! LOL!

That QAL is insane! WOW! what a specimen!

And yes, it will always and forever be cimicifuga.

George was such a wonderful person. He let me visit his garden when I was driving home from a NY visit even though he wouldn't be home. I so wish I could have met him, but we emailed a bit and I was so happy to be able to see his incredible garden. It was such a treat.

Hip Hip Hooray for lax ID practices! I have "collections" of so many different plants and I have little to no idea of what they're all called. I have lists of the vast majority of my daylilies and I've tried to pair them up to photos, but alas I never know in the garden who's who. They're all beautiful.

Would love to have you up for a visit some time!

Here are some pics from this morning.

2nd batch from this morning

I just came in after finishing watering the front and shuting off the water in the back. We had some winds gusting and it was welcome but still like pushing hot air around. I keep chipping away at the watering and every morning and evening I have to get some areas done. I’ve kept my full sun bed from burning up but the poor hydrangea, some of the blooms are scorched and I’m going to need to deadhead some of them. My Oakleaf Hydrangea is probably going to have brown blooms sooner than usual.

Thyme….looks like you are ready for your Open House. Tell DH he did a great job on the edging!! And there’s not a weed in sight…lol. A lot of work.

The butterfly weed is such a nice plant. I enjoy mine in three places and it’s nice in every season of it. Really stands up to heat and has a long bloom. Mine are large this year too.

You have a lot of nice vignettes. I like that last photo of the pot next to the picket fence with the Sedum in front and the dayliles around it.

I really think you all did a great job on those steps. Your Dad and DH helped you install those, didn’t they? I like the Japanese Maple and at the top of the stairs, I think that is a Hydrangea at the curve? Nice decision.

The daylily bed is really amazing it’s so FULL of flowers!! I think that was a great decision to make the bed so large and full. It’s like a meadow…and what is that tree in the distance in that photo?

In the second batch of photos….there is a nice little vignette in the last photo….that blue flowering shrub - Hydrangea? - and the white Hydrangea behind it and the white picket fence. SO pretty! Which Hydrangea is that?

That is the new bed along the street in photo#2? What is the lavender color flower?

How do you keep the slope watered? Doesn’t the water run off?

Your shade bed has really filled in.

Thyme that blue/purple hydrangea in the last photo is absolutely gorgeous! What is it? I must know! Reminds me a of Blue Billow but more purple.

So, so beautiful! Not just the hydrangea but the whole garden!

:)

Dee

Hi PM2, it was windy out there….just no rain! Bah!!

at the top of the steps is a dwarf oakleaf hydrangea. lets see how dwarf it winds up being!

We had a professional do all the brick steps with the very large rocks that were unearthed when the foundation was dug out.

I think 2 years ago we expanded the daylily bed by about twice as wide. That was an awesome decision as it gave me so much more room to stuff them in! There must be at minimum 80 daylilies in there. Each year I threaten to move some around/swap spots, and every year I never get to it!

The lavender flower at the road bed it a stokes aster. I dont know the name of that one in particular….if there was a ”popular” one years ago, it is that one. But, blooming a little bit later is one called ’Peachy’s Pick’ and I love it. It is smaller, doesnt flop (all the big ones are staked) and the flowers are a bit brighter. It is nice though that the two varieties bloom after one another so that blue bloom color lasts for a long time.

Water does not really run off the slope. It gets sprinklered with the lawn and front bed.

I was just out there this evening being a nanny goat while I weeded and deadheaded all the roses. Was a beautiful breezy evening.

In the cottage garden the blue hydrangea is ’Tuff Stuff’. It is 6 1/2’ wide x 4’ high. Behind it is a ’Bobo’.

I was just mentioning to Mike that I am so glad I have planted so many hydrangeas (probably about 25 not including climbing if I have to guess) throughout the garden. Love the white foil to the colors.

I’m up and just let the dog out and it’s still windy and actually pretty pleasant out there, though still humid not quite as bad.

80Daylilies, I believe it! I really do hope I can make it to the Open House because I’d love to see them in person.

I’m unfamiliar with Stoke’s Aster. I just looked it up, it has cute feathery petals. I always think of asters as fall plants.

How does water not run off your slope? You have a magic garden….lol.

You have 25 Hydrangea? I believe it. I just counted mine earlier today and was surprised I have 10. And I was thinking I really shouldn’t have, because they are dry and wilting half of the summer. Although the paniculatas have been game changers, I really should replace the mop heads. They just don’t bloom often, this year being the exception and they require a lot of watering when we have weather like this. I was just talking about someone’s dried up Hydrangea on another thread and describing my property and the location of the trees around it and Heruga replied…’your property is literally roots and roots…lol’. And I thought, you just hit the nail on the head….lol!!

I wonder since you are zone 5 there, your weather may be just a little cooler there but you have as many trees as I do, maybe just not the same kind of trees. It is amazing how different all our gardens are. But then I’d think you might have hardiness issues with some hydrangea. Do you have many mopheads? That ‘Bobo’ is gorgeous!

You were out there weeding again? LoL It really is a nice night for it. And the wind keeps the bugs away.

THAT'S a Tuff Stuff? Geez I should have known that since I've been considering buying one for at least four years lol. I think I've been distracted by the new Tuff Stuff Aha and - gee, what is the other new Tuff Stuff variety? I can't think of the name at the moment. Tiny Tuff Stuff?? But they do seem to have varying colors from the OG Tuff Stuff, and then there's the whole soil-affects-the-color thing, so who knows what you'll really get, and then I keep changing my mind on placement, which affects the variety (size) I get - ah, I'm a classic case of analysis paralysis lol!

Hydrangeas are gorgeous this year. I'm amazed on my drive home on how many beautiful purple hydrangeas I see - I don't remember seeing them and I've lived on this street for almost 30 years lol. I LOVE that deep purple. I've actually been considering knocking on a few doors to ask if I can take cuttings lol. And one house has some that are a kind of really deep magenta - just stunning. I wonder if whatever it is that is making such a great season for hydrangeas is also affecting color? The colors just seem so deep and vivid this year.

thyme it's funny you mention that second orange daylily of mine and it's form - I keep wavering back and forth as to whether these two plantings are the same daylily (Primal Scream) but there is just something about that second one that I keep noticing, about it's form, that makes me think it's different. It's not a huge difference, but just slight enough that it makes me keep changing my mind. I did see a bit of a tag sticking out of the ground last time I was watering so I may dig the tag out next time, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the tag was from something planted years ago and long dead lol.

thyme I'm also interested in your (beautiful) daylily bed. I do sooo love my daylily blooms, but honestly I'm not a fan of the foliage. So I've been mulling over a dedicated daylily bed, and while I know you can extend the season with planting early to late season bloomers, I've always been concerned with what the bed looks like the rest of the season. Can you tell me your experience and thoughts on this?

Lol, btw my neighbor has about *20* cats, not 2! I wouldn't complain about two cats, but her cat situation is getting out of control. And yes, I am exaggerating when I say 20, but I am not when I say there are probably at least ten of them. And my garden beds apparently look like litter boxes to them.

We got some nice, somewhat prolonged gentle rain today, which was needed. Of course it came on my day off, lol, so no garden work for me this morning. It is clearing up but, as usual, is hot and humid so no garden work for me this afternoon either lol.

:)

Dee

Today I drove by a beautiful Liatris and I recalled I used to have one. I went looking for a picture of it and found a bunch of JULY pictures that you might enjoy from prior years I think the Liatris is next to the birdbath

THIS IS 2004 "the picket fence garden"

Here is JULY 2006. I don't see liatris but I added some astilbe that loved it in that garden. moist poor draining soil mostly full sun.

My sweet Penny, RIP. Had to get her in there. This area got morning sun. Good for begonias, caladium and coleus

back of the garage garden 2007

2007 Rear Center garden. William Baffin and Clematis Huldine. Clematis Polish Spirit scrambling over stone wall on left. Salvia May Night going by

2008 Rear Foundation Garden.. Hosta Frances Williams.. Jap Maple Tamukeyama (sp)

2009 Back of Garage Garden

Picket Fence garden again. 2009 Purple d'Oro daylilies

2008 FRONT SHADE GARDEN

Hope I didn't wreck the July thread vibe!

Speaking of rain, I've been blessed with 3.5" rain early last week over a couple of days. And 1/2" Friday. Haven't had to water. woo-hoo! I'm watering for 2 neighbors on vacation so that's extra nice!

Oh and comment on hydrangeas in the area this year... Agree unbelievable ones seen around the area. In my travels lately I've seen the most incredible cobalt blue everywhere. Burlington to Leominster to Nashua and in between! I can understand more flowers due to a mild winter, but I don't understand all the deep vibrant colors. I've also thought the flowers are a bit smaller than typical but jam packed full on the plant.

Color is supposedly controlled by soil and that doesn't really change. Most soils around MA produce blends of blue/purple/pink flowers unless specially amending the soil for hydrangeas -- which i am sure all these people are not doing.

I know it was a mild winter because I did not have to put the heating pad on a particular water pipe in the basement that can freeze with any below zero temps and wind on a north wall. Apparently, builders missed some insulation behind the wall. Usually I have to do that once or twice each winter.

So those two orange daylilies have been bugging me lol. I'm out poking around in that bed and I see a tag on the ground - oddly, not next to either of them lol. I see it says hemerocallis Rocket City. The light bulb went off! The oranges one in the first picture are Rocket City. The slightly spider-form ones are Primal Scream. I wish all tags would miraculously appear that easily - and jog my memory that easily lol.

A few more pics from this morning (or yesterday morning)

Daylily Scene Stealer. Really like this deep salmon-ey color!

A water-logged unknown yellow with some liatris just starting to bloom

A lovely soft pink that the asiatics love as much as I do - one down in the center of the bloom as well. Guess he can't sit at the cool kid table with the rest of them.

Another forgotten name - also a bit beat down by the rain

Helenium Mardi Gras. I just can't seem to have great success with this plant. Have tried several different helenium and none of them throve. Mardi Gras has barely held on for this, it's third season.

Although I did find more of it hidden amongst that rudbeckia that has taken over. The rudbeckia is just about to bloom so I hope to get an ID. Although sadly that huge stand of it (at least 6 feet tall) was either knocked over by an animal or by the rain. I'm guessing an animal.

Daisies with phlox just starting to bloom. That big of reddish orange is a clump of daylilies that needs to be moved. Some yellow ones in back too. Oh, and I see a bit of pink daylily showing through near the bottom lol

Phlox. I have to learn how to use this better in the garden. Mine always seem kind of boring. I do like the fragrance though.

My hot mess of an old cutting garden. Mostly reseeders, some glads that inexplicably keep coming back - I guess no one told them they're not hardy here lol - and some daylilies that I plunked in last fall because I didn't have a permanent spot in mind yet. I guess this is turning from a cutting garden to a holding bed lol. I ripped out a ton of nigella but you can see a bunch of seed heads waiting to release next year's crop.

Just a little color combination I liked in this mess.

Lastly, some new beetle I've never seen. Sigh....

:)

Dee

For several years, I've been fighting the rabbits eating my phlox in spring. It grows back but never has bloomed until now.

I think this is Bright Eyes. I have a variegated one right next to it (Nora something?) that has not bloomed ever, but I really bought it for the foliage.

Here's my 3 Little Quickfires. I think there's some reversion going on. Looks like two different plants - one with no blooms and more upright. Ugh. Science. blech. This is a stretch of common land I "adopted". We had 3 Builders Special Plum Tree along the whole island, with one right in the middle of the hydrangeas but they all 3 died this year. Condo won't replace them so neighbor and I are considering a shared Jap Maple to take its place.

This is another public island that I adopted a piece of. I did this same combo last year and it was awesome. I loved it so much that I repeated it this year exactly the same, but it's taking its sweet time to really pop. These are Zahara doubles.

Wow, Wendy - That is your old garden? What a beauty! It is so BIG! In that first photo, I love the slope and the backdrop of trees!

Penny looks like a very sweet dog! And she certainly seemed very cooperative posing for her photos! [g] We don’t get to keep them long enough! Sorry you lost her.

I love your back of the garage garden….I remember that garden too! Didn’t you have a Lipstick Lily or something like that? Loved them.! And the trio of trellis was a really interesting design choice. I haven’t seen that before and it was very effective. You make your beds nice and deep too, which I think makes a big difference.

No, you didn’t ‘wreck’ the July thread….you made it more wonderful…great idea to add the past year of July photos. I loved seeing your old garden again.

You’re so lucky to have gotten all that rain. The only rain we’ve had was yesterday and we got 1/2 inch, that was it, but at least today I took the day off from watering. And yes, very good timing not to have to water THREE gardens…lol.

I don’t understand the difference in colors in the Hydrangea this year either. I do agree the flowers are smaller but abundant.

I LOVE ‘Bright Eyes’ Phlox. I really wanted to add it to my garden. Mine have been a favorite of the rabbits, except for my variegated one. ‘Nora Leigh’. ‘Nora Leigh’ blooms pink. If I find a photo I’ll post it.

I had trouble with ‘Little Lime’ Hydrangea. I bought two, one stayed pretty small, the other was larger and kept shooting up long stems the middle. And they really droop when the flowers are full. But I tried something different this year and I’m waiting to see how it works. So far it is looking good. No stems shooting up so far.

Dee, I LOVE 'Scene Stealer' and I want one! lol Beautful color and form. And I like your other Dayliy with NOID that is almost the same color as SS. Very pretty Daisies! I don't have any of those either. Just Coreopsis, if that counts.

Wendy we posted at the same time so I missed your post. What a lovely garden, and your condo garden is just as nice. I love the "back of the garage" garden - those trellises on the wall are eye-catching and make a nice backdrop!

Love the hot colors on the zinnias too. What a POP! I keep meaning to try Zaharas. Do you start them from seed or buy them in spring as plants?

:)

Dee

Thanks PM. wasn't me with lipstick lily. But it sounds delightful!

Yeah, a lot of the paniculatas droop. Quickfire and Little Quickfire fortunately don't. It has strong stems. I have another paniculata that flops badly. I think it is from pruning in its early years. The new stems aren't strong enough. last year's discussion on this topic:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6395647/flopping-paniculatas

Dee, check out last year's zinna posting

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6395898/new-fan-of-zinnia-zahara

Dee, those trellises on the back of the garage were to accomodate my clematis addiction, but it turned out challenging to get multiple clematis blooming and looking good at the same time.

I installed them with hinges on the bottom so they fold down in case of house painting or something.

Here's more clematis homes on the other side of the garage wall. (no fold-down hinges but removes from brackets easily if needed)

This was JULY 2009 so okay to post here - :)

This is what 'Little Lime' looked like on July 2nd.

Here it is today, the 19th of July.

Here it is with a large Sedum in front and seed heads from earlier blooming Penstemon, Cleome 'Violet Queen' lower R corner, and upper L is Milk Weed that popped up on it's own that I am leaving to bloom in front of Monarda 'Raspberry Wine' that is still blooming.

Here's the other side of the bed with a 2nd Little Lime that's not as far along as the other one. Another large Sedum in front of it, Pennisetum 'Hamelin' in the foreground and more Lilies just opening...'Black Beauty''s first bloom opened this morning which is early. They usually bloom in August and Casa Blanca is ready to pop any day now. There is a Hibiscus 'Berry Awesome' behind the lilies and I just started seeing the red color showing on the buds yesterday.

Borage July 2nd

Borage July 21st

'Casa Blanca' Lilies with 'Black Beauty' And the stalks of 'Orania' Lily that have gone by. Hibiscus 'Berry Awesome' in the background.

'Berry Awesome' Hibiscus just started blooming yesterday....

'Champion' Tomato, haven't even tasted one yet...they do look good! [g] Pretty early for ripe tomatoes.....for me anyway. Happy about that, I'll have a longer harvest than some years.

This is all in the same bed as the 'Little Lime' below.

Everything looks so good, PM2! Yes, it does seem early for tomatoes - lucky you! I've got a few green ones but only a few cherry tomatoes have actually ripened. Nice looking lilies too.

Here's one of my Orania lilies from a week or so ago. Thrilled to have a few (maybe half a dozen) blooms with no or little beetle damage (you can see the damage on the leaves). Of course the plants are terribly stunted - these used to look me in the eye and now they are only about two feet tall. And the blooms aren't quite as vibrant or substantial but I'm still glad I got these few this year. First time in years I have blooms with no damage.

My first Fleurel dahlia bloom. LOVE this dahlia - although I see in the photo some black spots, and I believe I now see an earwig trying to hide. Guess it's always something!

Speaking of black spots, once again I'm having an issue with my calycanthus. It blooms earlier in the season and I thought I had bypassed the issue this year, but here is a late bloom, maybe last week (rain-drenched)

And here is the same bloom this week. Almost every year the blooms and IIRC, the leaves as well, get these black spots. I'm guessing it's a fungal thing. I did send pictures to the Ag station in 2020, and they couldn't identify. Asked for samples. I didn't bother that year (pandemic) and haven't since either - kind of still trying to figure out how they ask you to mail plant material (that's been cut) to study. It's almost 90 degrees - any cuttings would not last in the mail for a day, never mind longer. But, whatever it is it doesn't seem to affect the health of the shrub at all.

A just-opening Frans Hal, early in the morning

Think these might be Chicago Apache, but they don't seem as "wow" as when I first purchased them (they stopped me dead in my tracks in the parking lot at the supermarket of all places - and I don't even really like red! So I had to buy them!) and they also seem shorter. Plus the camera doesn't capture their true beautiful red

Early morning phlox. Every time I walk by my phlox, the fragrance reminds me why I grow it!

I have reseeded larkspur everywhere and I love the color. Tried to get some photos with nice combinations but my camera isn't really cooperating in my wild mess of a cutting garden

Daylily Big Blue? Blue something lol

Cosmos Cupcakes. Or wait... perhaps Purity? So delicate and airy!

LOL gardens don't look half bad from a distance!

One of my part-shade beds

Middle lfar eft, a ligularia that I may need to move, as the late afternoon sun wilts it daily. The hosta in front is an Ivory Queen - usually prefer green/chartruese variegation but LOVE the way this white pops! To upper right of ligularia is a 2-year-old symphocarpos which has grown nicely this year and I'm looking forward to some nice berrying this fall. The puny shrub to the right of the ligularia is a callicarpa Pearl Glam which is living on borrowed time lol. Three years old and not doing much of anything. Should have gone with an Early Amethyst - my experience with them includes MUCH faster growth and gorgeous berries. This Pearl Glam is starting to tick me off. And it's not just this plant, as I have two others in differing situations and they are similarly runt-y. The white hydrangea is a NOID, gotten at a swap. Potted dahlia to fill space where I ripped out reseeded feverfew, and a new small azalea in front of it. Just behind the pot I have a new Lyda Rose which is doing well, and then a way-too-big possible Limelight. It was plopped there years ago without planning and now is too big to move so I'm living with it lol. But I'm hoping the planing I've done since the plopping of the hydrangeas will come to fruition - if Pearl Glam cooperates lol!

:)

Dee