August in the Garden ~ GBBD for August 15, 2011

Well, here we are, a day late but definitely not short of blooms for the August edition of the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. The summer has flown by, but even at the height of the dog days of summer, every bed is awash with late summer color, and unexpected "re-bloomers" continue to delight us.

Our rose gardens have been a source of rich color all summer long - except for this past weekend when the New England Rose Society met here for the summer meeting. But a day after we hoped for a wonderful showing, buds opened in every bed in a kaleidoscope of color.

Top Row L-R: Memorial Day, Sir John Betjeman, Rosa rugosa “Rubra”, Cupcake; Middle Row L-R: New Dawn, New Dawn, Passionate Kisses, Double Pink Knock Out; Bottom Row L-R: Blushing Knock Out, Sea Foam, Pretty Lady

Top Row L-R: Teasing Georgia, Julia Child, What a Peach;  Middle Row L-R: Rio Samba, Tropicana, Rio Samba (showing color evolution); Bottom Row L-R: Unknown, Bella Roma, What a Peach, Hotel California

Clockwise from top left: John F. Kennedy, Drop Dead Red, Munstead Wood, Unidentified blush, Double Red Knock Out

The marginal plants and lilies in the water garden have also provided sporadic bursts of color, although we've had to spend a fair amount of time reining in the water mint.

Last summer we acquired the cattail reeds from a local river while we were canoeing, and we were delighted that they survived the winter and developed into graceful plants this summer. The marsh marigolds are still blooming as is the houttuynia. The lavender mint blossoms and pink obedient blooms make a lovely combination along the edge of the pond.

Although they started blooming six weeks ago, the daylilies (hemerocallis) are still a dramatic presence.

And along with the daylilies, the clematis have also been solid performers throughout the summer. I love the contrast between the deep purple and the light green of the lemon balm. "Betty Corning" has outdone herself this summer, however. The bell shaped blossoms have covered the vine since early June.

 

The butterfly garden seemed to sprout overnight  After heavy pruning in spring, the shrubs seemed to languish and then almost overnight, they burst forth with six foot canes topped with lavender, magenta, deep purple, and white flower spikes. Hummingbird clear-wing moths and monarch butterflies have been visiting daily.

The butterfly garden is next to hte gazebo, behind the rose beds. The purple spikes of "Dark Knight" make a striking statement.

We have a rainbow of butterfly shrubs circling behind the dark purple shrubs.

 In the perennial beds, coneflowers, tall phlox,  rudbeckia, Japanese anemones, and sage are taking center stage. The cransebill are still blooming, but starting to wind down.

Balloon flowers and the last of the Montauk daisies

The tall phlox are gorgeous this year

 

The second round of foxglove spikes timed themselves perfectly with the coneflowers.

The coneflowers have provided cut flowers for the house for weeks. In the back is ligularia, which shouldn't thrive in this sunny bed, but it does. Barely visible in the back are daylilies.

 

In the herb garden, the tarragon, oregano and hyssop make a bold border. We've been harvesting mint, oregano, parsley, thyme, and sage for weeks. Cooking with fresh herbs has become our new favorite thing to do..

 

 

In New England, the stars of the August garden are the mallows and hibiscus. Malva sylvestris “Zebrinba” and the more common pale pink mallows self sow freely and can become a bit of a nuisance, but in the spring, I transplant dozens into the perennial beds alongside the lupines and peonies for some color later in the summer.

Rose of  Sharon shrubs Hibiscus syriacus are one of our favorite flowering shrubs.  We have both single and double varieties,  

 

The hardy hibiscus, Hibiscus moscheutos, bring the feel of the tropics to our New England gardens just as paradoxically, the days are becoming shorter and the nights are becoming cooler.

 

The shade gardens have really come into their own over the summer, with brilliant foliage and unexpected pops of color.

In the tree grove a carpet of wood violets contrasts with hostas. This has been a favorite place to spend time during the recent heat wave. Stepping under the canopy of the trees, there was a dramatic difference in temperature.

The hosta blooms are fading but the striking foliage lends its own textural interest to the shade beds.

Hyssop in the background does well in this shady area and contrasts nicely with ajuga (left foreground) and the bright chartreuse hosta.

 

 We plant few annuals, but torenia and impatiens are two that we routinely plant in the shadiest areas. They contrast beautifully with hostas and add color where none is extpected.

A few additional late summer blooms have added color here and there. Hydrangeas and windflowers, obedient plants, chrysanthemums, and some annuals that we've tucked into pots will carry the beds into September:

The windlowers just started blooming within the past week and will bloom for another month or more. The delicate pink petals open a medium pink and then fade to a pale pink blush. The white counterpart to this prolific bloomer blooms in the spring.

The blooms of the hydrangea tree in the deck open with a pink tint that fades to white, opposite that of the pee gee (shown below), which opens white and develops a lovely pinkish hue over time.

 

Reading Nancy Ondra's books has taught me to appreciate and embrace seed pods. These, of my favorite columbine, are ready to be harvested for seeds. In the background are ruby colored chrysanthemum, a staple of the late summer and fall garden.

This summer we have enjoyed a much more enthusiastic blooming season, in part because the weather gave us extremely hot weather alternating with adequate rain. Although the humidity has caused powdery mildew to flourish, the garden as a whole continues to thrive

Thanks so much for joining us again for this month's stroll through the garden beds.  Be sure to check out the other amazing gardens that participate in May Dreams' Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

Forced Magnolia Blossoms - Our First Ever!

After seeing branches of magnolia blossoms mingled with forsythia, both of which had been forced for blooming at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Flower Show this year, I went outside and snipped a few branches and brought them in.Forcing forsythia is nothing new; I've done it almost every year since I was a young a child. But I must admit that I had a certain amount of skepticism with regard to the magnolia blossoms, so I'm pleased to be able to share this photograph of the first magnolia bloom I have ever forced indoors in spring. On the tree, the petals are much larger and while they are the same creamy color, they have burgundy tinting along the edges and  and a deep burgundy throat,  and the blooms are at least three times the size of this blossom. I'm not sure if adding a small amount of dilute fertilizer would improve the size and quality of the forced blooms or not, but since our two Elizabeth magnolias and our star magnolia are also budded, I am going to experiment and see if it makes a difference.

Still a mystery to us is the identity of  what appears to be a June flowering magnolia that sets buds and blooms after the tree is fully leafed out. The blooms are a homogenous rich ivory color and have the classic saucer magnolia shape and petal arrangement. At left is a photograph of a leaf cluster and the seed pod taken last summer after it finished blooming.

We purchased the tree at a local family owned garden center. It was one of three trees that we got at the end of the season. The trees had been discounted by 70% and although we didn't realize it at the time, all three had been mislabeled so all were complete surprises when they bloomed the following spring

The magnolia had been tagged as a dogwood but comparing the leaves and the arrangement of the leaves on the branches and twigs, there was no similarity to our other dogwoods. When the blossoms appeared at the end of June, we were stunned to see saucer shaped magnolia blossoms. If anyone knows the particular variety of this magnolia, we'd love to identify it. I'll try to post a picture of the blossom later this summer.

A bargain priced white dogwood was actually a brilliant, carmine-blooming red Chinese dogwood. In the photograph at left, it is situated in the middle of the picture, just to the left of the Japanese maple and behind the deep rose azalea.

What makes the fact that we got this tree so unusual is that I had wanted a red dogwood but was told by the nursery manager that they were expensive and didn't sell well, so they didn't carry them. This tree looked like a dogwood and I had no reason to suspect it was anything but the white dogwood I expected until it bloomed the next spring. When we went to the garden center the following year for spring purchases, I told them about the tree and they told me it was "impossible". When the blossoms first open, it is the same color as the azalea - a striking image behind the waterfall.

Rose of Sharon grown as a standard

A tree labeled "Japanese snowberry" (which, incidentally, looks nothing like a true Japanese snowberry), is actually a Rose of Sharon grown as a standard - something else we don't know what to do with, since the leafed and blooming branches are too heavy to remain erect on the trunk.

The first couple of years, it wasn't an issue as the branches were short. Now that the tree is maturing, the top is taking on the conformation of a shrub and the trunk isn't able to support the growth. We've talked about pruning it back into a round shape or weighting the branches and pulling them down around the tree in an umbrella fashion. Once they are leafed out and blooming, the branches naturally tend to lean and bend down toward one side, causing the tree to tilt awkwardly. By tieing the branches together, we've been able to keep it upright.

Our thought was that since they naturally seem to want to bend anyway, why not train them to bend and cascade down in a more balanced way? We were initially discourage from even attempting this, but at this point, our only other option is to either seriously bob the tree and keep it pruned, or dig it out and replace it. We'll keep you all posted?