A crispy September Bloom Day

I'm excited to see these Sky Blue Asters (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense) finally blooming in it's second year.

Unfortunately it's crispy here as in dry, not the temperature. Our drought has worsened to an extreme drought. Luckily there aren't water restrictions in our city, but there are some restrictions and burn bans south of here, where the drought is even worse.

I am still watering, but not as much as I have been and only the newly planted and flowering annuals.

One of the newer plants is this 'Firefly Fuschia' Yarrow. I just love it.

I'm also loving the Shooting Stars dahlias grown from seeds from Floret Flower Farm. This pink beauty is my favorite.

This one is eye-catchingly moody.

This dahlia that I planted last year was labeled Penhill Watermelon, which it certainly isn't. Perhaps it's Penhill Dark Monarch? Regardless, I love it. This color is one I probably wouldn't have picked out but compliments my other dahlias nicely, especially Otto's Thrill. 

'Otto's Thrill' dahlia

The 'Apricotta' cosmos are blooming consistently despite the drought and pests.

The zinnias are still blooming like crazy and the 'Senorita' zinnias have been especially gorgeous this year. I'll definitely be saving seeds from this one.

Here is a nice moment in the front flower bed featuring a variety of zinnias, a peek of salvia farinacea and my volunteer tomato patch in the background.

This has probably been my best year ever for nasturtium and I have several varieties in bloom, but I think these are the prettiest.

I'm also really loving this serendipitous combination of Brown-Eyed Susans and purple basil.

That's about it for what is blooming in my garden in September, but you can visit May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming in other gardens around the globe.

Let's hear it for the volunteers!

This patch of entirely volunteer tomatoes has been one of the most fascinating things in my garden this season. This bed in front of the house was empty this spring after we pulled out some overgrown boxwood hedges with issues last fall that had grown far too close to the house, which we plan on painting.

I filled in low spots with my homemade compost, which obviously does not get hot enough to kill seeds, because a bunch of cherry tomatoes sprouted. Out of curiosity, I let them grow and am now enjoying regular, sungold, black and yellow pear cherry tomatoes. 

volunteer cherry tomatoes with direct-sowed poppies

While the deer have definitely chomped these plants, especially early in the season, they haven't bothered them as much as the purchased plants I'm growing in Earthbox containers in the back yard. The volunteers are also producing larger fruit for the most part and are producing well now, while the purchased planted are shriveling up. 

I'm not entirely sure why that is. The seeds are certainly different. The volunteers might get more a little more sun. But I also water them much less, at least directly, although I water the zinnias planted around them and maybe that's enough. There is also clay soil in the front beds, which is likely beneficial this year since we've been in a moderate drought since June.

tonight's volunteer harvest

In fact, without these volunteer plants, my tomato harvest this year would have been quite the disappointment. But with them, I have all I can eat for salads and snacking. Now I have a conundrum, because although a tomato patch in front of the house isn't quite the look I was going for, they have produced so well that I'm tempted to grow more here next year. 

Have you had volunteer vegetables produce better than purposefully planted ones? And is a tomato patch in the front of the house tacky or tasty? I'm also considering incorporating more food into my landscaping and would love to see any pics of that in practice!

Bloom Day: August

 

Dawn Creek pastels Zinnia from Floret

Unfortunately last month's moderate drought has continued and my central Ohio zone 6b garden is looking rather crispy and the deer pressure continues to be high. But I still have some blooms, primarily the late summer stars like dahlias and zinnias.

Dawn Creek pastels Zinnia from Floret

Queen Lime Red Zinnia

Otto's Thrill dahlia 

This is the first year the deer have eaten my dahlias. They've been especially hard on the single dahlias, but seeing this Otto's Thrill dahlia finally bloom this week cheered me up.

A Floret Shooting Stars dahlia

This is my first Floret Shooting Stars dahlia grown from seed to bloom. It's also the only one to bloom so far thanks in large part to the insatiable deer. It's cute, but not quite a stunner like some I've seen.

I also grew some Cleome from seed and I absolutely love them. These ones planted in the ground are larger and more robust than the ones I grew in a pot, but they also get more sun.

Agastache Blue Fortune

The deer, and possibly other critters have been especially hard on my plants in the back, particularly the natives like rudbeckia, monarda, Great Blue lobelia and agastache. I'm not the biggest fan of yellow flowers in my garden, but I make an exception for rudbeckia. It's so cheerful and I hope to expand this patch much more next year.

That's it for my belated Garden Blogger's Bloom Day post this month, but you can visit May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming in other gardens around the globe.

Bloom Day: July

zinnia patch

Summer has arrived in my central Ohio, zone 6b garden. In fact it's felt like summer even before the solstice. 

The weather has been hot, humid and very dry. We're in a moderate drought and the garden is definitely showing some stress, but doesn't look too bad for now. Let's look around, shall we?

The zinnias as a definite bright spot in the garden. I grew a mix of senorita, Cut and come again and a few Dawn Creek Pastels from Floret and I love them.

(clockwise from top left) Burpee Cut and Come Again, Baker Creek Senorita Zinna,
Burpee Cut and Come Again and Dawn Creek Pastels zinnia from Floret.

The coneflowers are also putting on a show (with tall purple larkspur in the background). I think these flowers love my garden more than anything else and as a result I have a ton, even after adding some more variety to the front bed.

White Swan Echinacea

The swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) I planted last year is blooming for the first time.

My porch pots finally recovered from a severe pruning by deer.

This was a great year for breadseed poppies (Papaver somniferum) and this is one of the last ones. I'll probably do a separate post on these because I loved them so much and had quite an assortment.

That's it for my garden this month, but you can visit May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming in other gardens around the globe.

June Blooms

It's starting to feel like summer here in my central Ohio, zone 6b garden. The weather has been fairly mild, enough so that I've been able to comfortably turn the AC off for several days at a time, but that's about to change as we're set to have a 9-day stretch of 90+ temps starting tomorrow with no rain in sight. I'm not looking forward to it.

But for now the garden is doing great, let's take a look.

The 'Alaska' Shasta daisies are the stars of the front border right now. And they look fantastic with these salvia farinacea.

I'm thrilled I was able to overwinter this L.A. Dreaming hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Lindsey Ann’) in the garage. Although I don't love this year's color as much as I did the deep blue last year.

I have four seed dahlias grown from seed last year that came back despite overwintering in the ground. I'm glad they did because they've been blooming for weeks and this bee also seems pleased.

These bellflowers are one of the earlier flowers I ever planted and they just keep going.

This is also my second year of having milkweed in my garden and my first year seeing it bloom. This common milkweed is pretty and has an interesting scent. Shown with foxglove beardtongue (penstemon digitalis).

This is my largest lavender patch. It's wild and unruly, but I love it and so do the bees.

I really love volunteer flowers, especially when they're as pretty as these snapdragons.

These dianthus are also volunteers that returned in this pot.

That's it for this month in my garden, but visit May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming elsewhere.

April blooms and a new gardening year

It's a new gardening year in my central Ohio zone 6a garden and the star April blooms are the tulips. While planting 135 bulbs during some chilly days last fall I began second-guessing my purchases, but as usual it's all worth it come spring. This patch of 30 pink and purple tulips is making me especially happy. 

Mystic Van Eijk (pink) and Negrita tulips

It was also worth spraying it regularly with a stinky deterrent to keep the deer away so I actually got to enjoy them (a lesson I learned last year).

previously planted Columbus and unknown purple tulips

Most of the daffodils are done, but there are still a few, including one of my favorites, Narcissus Cheerfulness.

Top row, from left: Daffodil Salome and Narcissus Cheerfulness

And there's a few other blooms now, including grape hyacinths and especially exciting to me is wild geranium (geranium maculatum). The latter I planted last year and is blooming for the first time in my garden.

That's it for this month in my garden, but visit May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming elsewhere.

A dry September Bloom Day

It's been a dry month here in my central Ohio zone 6b garden and it shows. The perennials are pretty much done for the season since I haven't been watering them. That makes me even more grateful for the annuals and dahlias that continue to bloom their heads off. 

Otto's Thrill has become my favorite dahlia in my garden and has been blooming since mid-July. It doesn't have the longest vase life but it's coloring is exquisite. The fact that it has performed so much better during its second year makes me consider giving some new tubers I planted this year that haven't bloomed one more year, if they make it over winter. 

Sweet Love dahlia is also in its second year in my garden and continues to be a reliable and prolific bloomer. And it lasts for a week or more in a vase.

I also grew several dahlias from seed, these are two of my favorites. While I love the fancier dahlias like those above, these are pretty too and the pollinators love them especially now when pollen is getting more scarce.

Top row: Senorita Zinnia, Bottom row: assorted Cut and Come zinnias

Zinnias are a longtime favorite of mine and I'll always grow them. I hope to squeeze even more in next year.

Cosmos seashells mix

This is the first year in a long time that I've grow cosmos and I'm really enjoying them. Unfortunately the deer also enjoy dining on them but have finally left them alone long enough so I can get some blooms.

This container of lantana and calibrachoa is still going strong and are so cheerful I will definitely repeat this combo again.

That's most of what's blooming in my garden this month. Visit May Dreams Gardens' Garden Blogger's Bloom Day post to see what's blooming in participating gardens around the world.