You may have noticed that I've been letting the garden surveys slide. I just haven't felt like doing them-- so I haven't! Maybe there will be one later this summer, or maybe not. (They were getting to be very repetitive, anyway, so waiting a little longer between them might not be such a bad idea. If they become a monthly occurrence again, it would be good to limit the number of photos. A more streamlined approach would save time and make the whole process easier and faster.)
Though I haven't done a full-fledged "survey" of the garden for a while, I
do still take the occasional photo (or 50). Here are the latest photos from June 2017, taken before all this rain we're currently getting from Tropical Storm Cindy. (It's raining and raining and raining some more! Some of the plants are less than thrilled, but most will take it in their stride.)
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Rose arbor and nearby flowerbeds.
This is totally unrelated to the photo (except that the arbor reminded me of the cardinal nest, which reminded me of the bluebirds), but we have a pair of bluebirds who have chosen our brand new bird house (which Donald built and put up just this spring) for their nesting site. The female has been staying in the house for a while, now, so I imagine it won't be long before we hear cheeps!
'Peggy Martin' rose.
We've been enjoying sporadic rebloom ever since the very heavy primary flowering period, earlier in the year. Pretty!
We had two caterpillars (black swallowtails?) on our fernleaf dill, but then they just disappeared... I'm not sure if they were eaten or if they were just ready to pupate and are now hidden away somewhere. Some creatures are so brightly colored and distinctively marked, they almost don't seem real...
Speaking of the dill, it flowered. We didn't end up eating or harvesting a single bit of it. Oops... At least it provided food for the caterpillars.
Tuberose.
I was so excited to see a flower stalk and bud emerge from one of the tuberoses I planted last year! It's earlier than I expected, but maybe the mild winter made a difference. This is 'The Pearl', which is a double-flowering variety that is reportedly a less reliable bloomer (and returner) than the 'Mexican Single' (a.k.a. 'Single Mexican') variety I planted this spring.
I'll be thrilled if I get to sniff any flowers at all, this year! I've never smelled a tuberose, that I know of, and I've been looking forward to this momentous occasion for a while! ;o)
Bald cypress.
Feathery-soft, both visually and to the touch.
Circle Bed.
Earlier this year, I planted this bed (which was formerly covered in small stones) with some of the smaller, lower-growing plants from Granny L.'s garden-- mainly variegated monkey grass and purple heart. There are also the occasional bit of elephant ear ('Illustris'?) and annuals (cleome and celosia) mixed in. I'm sure there are weeds, too. In fact, you can see spiderwort around the edges, right here in this photo.
Rose of Sharon.
This is the all-white form. This one is prettiest from a distance, in my opinion, because the flowers tend to attract ants, which spoil macro photos. (I'm not a fan of ants, sorry.)
Straight and Narrow Path.
The sunny side.
Straight and Narrow Path.
The shadier side.
(That's a four o'clock at the bottom of the photo.)
'Lady Margaret' Passionflower.
'Victor' Crepe Myrtle.
Zephyranthes 'Citrina'.
Rain lilies are new plants in my garden. It's just now coming up and blooming for the first time. There's another type with pink flowers that have yet to make an appearance. I hope some of them will come up. Unfortunately, I waited a while to plant them, then read that they "resent" being out of the ground for very long. I guess I can try again, if I messed up the first bunch.
Bat-Face Cuphea.
A small piece of it came back from the winter. It hasn't really taken off, yet, but I think it did most of its growing, last year, in the full heat of summer.
Assorted daylilies.
There aren't that many of them, now, compared to peak bloom-- just a few straggling late-bloomers-- but some clumps have sent up new stalks. I love rebloomers!
Blanketflower.
Makes me happy!
Curcuma 'Scarlet Fever'.
Love those red stalks and midribs! ('Black Ripple' elephant ear in background, with pincushion ginger in the very back.)
'Russian Red' Canna.
Ok, I just love red-and-green foliage, period. (Indian hawthorn in back.)
You're gawgeous, dahling. Just gawgeous.
Moss Rose.
Mom gave me some portulaca that she bought on sale/clearance. Some of them are doing pretty well-- better than the ones I've tried to grow from seed, in recent years. They pack a big punch, for such small-flowered, low-growing plants!
Hardy gladiolus.
Another variety from the mixed bag. I think this is probably 'Charm'.
Some of the mixed hardy glads that bloomed earlier have seed pods. Some of them are a nice, subtle shade of muted red-orange. I'm not sure which variety it is that's setting seed, but since they're fairly tall, my best guess is that it's 'Atom'.
The
Gladiolus italicus that bloomed in spring also set seed. Here are some of the small, reddish seeds:
Crocosmia 'George Davison'.
This golden-yellow variety of crocosmia is just beginning to bloom, in the Oval Bed. (That's bog sage making the blue spots in the background.) I'm surprised by how tall this plant is. I was expecting it to be shorter than the orange pass-along crocosmia I already have, but the tallest of these stalks must be over four feet tall.
Lunaria 'Corfu Blue'.
There are seed pods on the lunaria!! Excitement!! ;o)
I hadn't realized the seed pods of this variety were shaped differently from the species, but it looks like they are. Interesting... Must try the species from seed, next year.
Night-blooming jasmine.
Seems like this started blooming earlier than usual, this year, like so many other things. There have been a few flowers here and there for a while, now. Not sure it's really been very fragrant, yet, though.
Flower bed.
These last few photos are all of the same flower bed along the west side of the house.
Lots of purple coneflowers, this year!
June has been generous with her flowers, this year!
