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. 

Garden explosion for Bloom Day!

July is one of the busiest months in my central Ohio zone 6B garden as far as blooms go and this year is no exception. Coneflowers are blooming everywhere and are joined by Shasta Daisy 'Alaska' that I grew from seed last year.

I really enjoy this combination of tall larkspur (Delphinium exaltum), coneflowers and Sweet Love dahlias.

I have two types of coneflower, purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and White Swan.

Seeing Otto's Thrill dahlia bloom is a great thrill, first because I didn't bother digging it up last year following it's unimpressive performance. But surprisingly, it came back despite the fact that I'm in zone 6B. And it's already blooming whereas last year the first full bloom wasn't until October 1! We had the large Silver Maple in that area trimmed last winter, so it may be getting some more sun.

My Sweet Love dahlia is also blooming. I did dig up and store this one over winter.

I'm loving the combination in this pot of two Superbenas (Stormburst and ?) and Catalina Midnight Blue.

Zinnias are still one of my favorite flowers and I'm enjoying Queen Lime zinnia (left) and Senorita.

I loved the combination of bright pink calibrachoa and lantana (Bana Pink) from two years ago so much that I repeated it this year.

I haven't grown cosmos in several years and am really enjoying these Sea shells mix.

Tall bellflower (Campanula americana) that I planted last year and the only one the deer didn't chomp to death. I planted more this year in hopes of a better display in the future.

I'm loving these Butterfly Blend dwarf delphiniums, which are blooming for the first time since I wintersowed them last year. I hope to grow some more for next season.

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

June Bloom Day

Apricot Drift rose, cottage pinks and lavender (possibly Munstead)

It's been quite a week so this post is a few days late. But since I resolved to post for every Bloom Day  from April until our first frost this year, better late than never.

This has already been a challenging season in my 6b central Ohio garden. Things started off well. We had a wet, chilly early spring, followed by almost no rain (0.05" to be exact) from May 20-June 11 and a hot spell. Plus wildfire smoke from the Canadian fires. I have planted a lot of seedlings, an completely new bed's worth in fact, and was sick of watering by June 1. Much earlier than usual.

Things have been better over the last week and we got around 2" of rain total and the temperature has been cool enough that I turned the A/C off. The recent rain has been a big help, though we're still in a moderate drought. I know many have it worse and others often face drought. It's certainly a challenge. But let's see what's blooming, shall we?

I've long wanted a hydrangea and when I saw this Hydrangea macrophylla 'Linsey Ann (L.A. Dreamin' hydrangea) on sale at a local garden center I decided it had to come home with me. The joy it's brought me has already been more than worth it. I just love the color! 

Also pictured is a mixed container (left), pansies and seed dahlias.

I grew these Alaska shasta daisies from seed last year so this is my first year seeing them bloom. They're pretty, but along with the rain issues this year we've also had a lot of pest pressure and aphids have been all over them.   That's been a bummer and I prefer not to use spray pest control.

I also grew these Rainbow Loveliness cottage pinks from seed last year and they have been blooming their heads off. Their scent is amazing, perfume-y, with a bit of spice to it. And it really carries. I just love it and it intertwined with the apricot Drift rose.

I planted these foxglove beardtongue, Penstemon digitalis, last summer so this is my first time ever seeing them bloom. The bees also loved them, but unfortunately so did the deer and they ate all of the blooms a few days ago. Along with everything else, the deer seem especially hungry this year.

Continuing the theme, I also grew these Rocky Mountain Blue Penstemon from seed last year so this is it's first season blooming and I absolutely love them. The color is so vibrant.

These no ID bellflower are also in bloom. Probably my best internet plant purchase ever (there haven't been many). I've had them for years, but last year I moved some of the volunteers so that they form a nice clump and I'm really happy with the result. 

Some of the mixed Sweet William that are dotted around the garden. They're in a variety of colors, but this combination is my favorite.

And I'll close things with one of the porch pots, filled with pentas and Supertunia Vista Silverberry, and Donnie, my neighbor gardening buddy.

Visit May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming in other gardens around the globe.