July Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
What's blooming in the garden on the 15th of the month

I wanted to wait until dark when the moonflowers open before taking the last shots for this July. These are some of the blooms at this time of year.

Datura arrayed along the entry to the house where I enjoy the intoxicating fragrance every summer evening. They reseed themselves every year.

Rudbeckia hita native loves the sun. They last about two years, but easily reseed.

Rudbeckia laciniata picked up at a plant swap, it grows 6 feet (2 m) tall and easily falls over. Thanks to Janet, Queen of Seaford in identifying for me.

I thought a closeup of the balloon flower would be interesting. Platycodon grandiflorus reseeds but they're difficult to move because of their deep tap root.

Phlox paniculata 'Jeana' giveaway at the Washington DC Garden Bloggers Fling. Pollinators love it as much as I do.

When echinacea purpurea is planted in part shade, it gows 5 feet tall (1.5 m).

Echinops ritro is about ready to bloom and inviting all the bumbles to it.


Will it go round in circles? Watch bees on coneflowers go around the ring of pollen on the flower.

Find more ther garden bloggers' blooms on May Dream Gardens.

June Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
What's blooming in the garden on the 15th of the month

I want to highlight some blooms that are not the usual ones I post every June.

Lychnis coronaria, Rose campion is such a work horse. It blooms in heat, reseeds well, survives winters, and the color combo of silver and magenta is striking.

Coconut lime echinacea is a hybrid that is lower in height, and not as attractive to pollinators as the native. Here, some little guy poses on a petal.

Speaking of lime ... this is lime green nicotiana. As thick as ever at this time of year, and a proflific reseeder. I keep it separated from the white in another garden to keep it from intermixing, and to maintain the green color. This year the fragrance at night is incredible.

I was lazy and did not cut off the seed pods one year. A whole lot of different hostas sprouted the following year. I kept about a half dozen including this one.

This lavendar was free at the Garden Bloggers Fling when it came to Washington DC. Lavender 'Phenomenal' is exceptional in that none of it died back in winter, and the amount of blooms is awesome.

\Once I figured out what this low-growing iris was (picked up at a plant swap), it was moved from the sunny garden to damp part shade. My native crested iris (Iris cristata) is now flourishing and I am rewarded with flowers.



An impatient visitor waiting for pollen to open.

Daylilies I crossed using the orange ditch lily with 'Night of Passion'. Very proud and pleased with the results, but the colors get washed out to a dull pale rust in bright hot sunlight.

Find more ther garden bloggers' blooms on May Dream Gardens.

June 2020 Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
What's blooming in the garden on the 15th of the month

There is a lot going on in the garden at this time of year. Most of these are perennials that have been featured in past years, but I will try to add a few comments and use closeups for this year's photos.

After receiving them from a Master Gardener plant swap three years ago, these bloomed well for the first time this year. A little research turned up that they are 'beach-head iris", found along the eastern coastal areas. They do best in part shade here.

Hydrangea 'Incrediball' is looking as good as ever, but just wait until the next heavy rain or wind. Half will be bowing to the ground.

A type of Opuntia -- Prickly Pear Cactus.

Unknown hosta that seeded itself three years ago.

Closeup of St. John's Wort 'Brigadoon'. This cultivar has beautiful lime green leaves when they start out.

Unknown daylily cultivar. This will bloom again off and on during the summer.

Purple coneflowers have just started.

For other garden bloggers' bloom day photos, spring over to the blog May Dreams Gardens

July Bloom Day

It has been a month since the last post. No excuses are offered but another rush out the door after work today to snap a few photos hopefully makes up.

Echinacea is very thick and the goldfinches are probably drooling waiting for the seeds to be ready.

One flower finally opened on this particular zinnia, 'Oriole'. I was expecting more of an orange hue.

Pollinator-magnet liatris is nearing the end of its bloom. Funny, as it blooms from top down each stem.

Rudbeckia 'Irish Eyes' reseeded after blooming early this year. This result grew up and bloomed already - without green eyes.

This Rudbeckia hirti plant developed some brown markings.

It's not a ditch lily, but a double-ditch lily. And, it grows in semi-shade and is thriving.

My newest daylily 'Cherokee Star' seems to bloom one blossom at a time. Its location does not allow a good angle for photos.

Monarda 'Violet Queen' looks a little sparse. It probably needs more sun than it gets now.

Echinops is in varying stages of bloom. Bumblebees love it.

I love this marigold 'Tiger Eyes', and it reseeded itself true to form. Dark green, thick, lush foliage and no problems.

Cleome seeds found their way 60-feet (18 m) down the hill into a shady spot all by themselves, and grew. I let them. Anything that makes that journey deserves to live.

For the first time, a few little sky blue Platycodons germinated from last year's seeds. I guess some like the extra shot of winter.

Only five cosmos plants came up this year after the severe winter - the least number ever - but they still look full. Zucchini makes a nearby foliage plant in my front yard.

For other garden bloggers' bloom day photos, check out our host at blog May Dreams Gardens.

Fibonocci Coneflowers

Fibanocci patterns are found in the seeds of a sunflower head, and in the head of a coneflower. My sunflowers are not yet blooming, so come on and admire the coneflowers.

OK, it's time for your math class. Leonardo Pisano Fibonocci was an 11th century mathematician who brought the Arabic numbers we use today to the merchant world to replace the cumbersome Roman numerals. He also pondered (mathematically speaking) the successive reproductive growth of rabbit populations. (Only a mathematician...) He applied an old Indian Hindu numbering sequence to develop a formula calculating the count over time. The Hindu sequence is what we (our Western-centric society) now call the Fibonocci sequence. The sequence adds the previous two numbers in a series to arrive at the next one: 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34...

But nature had already discovered this and was using it in all sorts of ways. The mathematical logarithmic spiral of a nautilus shell, the branching of certain trees, and the spiral seed arrangements of sunflowers and coneflowers all use this sequence or a formulation of it.

According to Innovation Factory, the image is a "Yellow Chamomile head showing the arrangement in 21 (blue) and 13 (aqua) spirals. Such arrangements involving consecutive Fibonacci numbers appear in a wide variety of plants. Plants produce their leaves and seeds from a growth tip that spirals around the plant or center of the seed head as it goes -- the most efficient way to pack seeds into the seed head... You get the closely packed Fibonacci spirals of seeds, with the number of clockwise and anticlockwise spirals at any point on the seed head a pair of successive Fibonacci numbers." Sure enough, my coneflower has 13 spirals in one direction, and 21 in the other.

Writing of coneflowers (Echinacea), I offer some observations on the three types in my garden: native Echinacea purpurea, Sundown of the Big Sky series, and Coconut Lime. The original echinacea purpurea are the most drough-tolerant, but the flower petals can droop, leaving a large prominent seed head. Bumblebees love them, and so do the goldfinches who perch on top and chow down. They are taller than the others with the largest flowers and largest seed cones -- making it easy for the finches to fly in for a snack.

The flowers can vary in their color intensity for no apparent reason -- some being a dark purple-pink, while others are light pink. They do have a distinct fragrance. Speaking of rabbits multiplying, they also easily seed themselves in my habitat.

Sundown, part of the Big Sky series, is what happens when breeders get involved. This coneflower puts out a riot of blooms early, then dies out before summer ends. The blooms start out with an beautiful orange color then fade in a few days into an dirty washed-out salmon. Deadheading does not seem to help the plant continue into the summer, as foliage turns a dark bronze like it has given up making chlorophyll. The plant goes ugly on me and slowly melts away until next year. The internet is full of stories of disappointments on this one.

Coconut Lime, another plant breeder introduction, looks different than the others. The blooms start out with petals and centers looking like the native, but the centers begin to increase into larger pompoms. The blooms last a long time, but bees never touch them. I suspect the thick pompoms prevent them from getting to the pollen, or the pollen is not to their liking. Height is much shorter than the other two coneflowers at about 16-inches (40 cm.)

For The Record:   #&149; Full sun   • Small amount of fertilizer on the Sundown   • Some early season pests eat bloom petals & leaves Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: coneflowers, liatris, rudbeckia, daisy, monarda,      echinops, phlox, daylilies, bachelor button, zinnia, hydrangea   • Harvested: 20 onions, green beans

Sundown Goes Down

Several years ago, new echinacea varieties were the rage. Every garden catalog seemed to tout their company's latest propagations. I didn't buy an iPhone or iPad when they were first introduced to the world, but I was sucked into buying two new echinacea.

I consider the purple coneflower a gold standard for its toughness and its ability to grow. My clump has been divided numerous times. Coconut Lime was the first new variety that I reviewed [posted 2012.07.05]. All I can say is that I got my money's worth: reliable, interesting, pest resistant, and pretty much everblooming though the summer (better than the native purple coneflower.) Its new bred sibling is, however, is another story.

The second new echinacea was a salmon-orange number named Sundown and one of the five 'Big Sky' varieties. It came out roaring during its first spring, and then flamed out. The entire plant just gave up in the heat of summer. The second year was better, coming on strong again in the spring, only to just as strongly poop out by summer. It did stay alive and above ground. Last year, I noticed fewer blooms, but its leaves again stayed around until disappearing in the fall. They curled, turning a nice lovely brown before doing so. Flowers are listed as fragrant? Ha, right - in another world.

Not many blooms appeared this year, and most had inconsistent petal arrangement. I deadheaded, hoping for a repeat bloom. Leaves are turing a rust copper color today, maybe like a sundown on Mars. Always 30-inches high (75 cm), Sundown has never grown beyond its original size. These photos were taken in a previous year and this spring. Notice the lower leaves on the lower picture.

The location in a new bed with still-improving soil can be partly to blame for the performance and research indicates it needs more regular watering than the native. Further reading on garden forums paints a different picture than the catalogs. With their high expectations for the Big Sky series after reading the hype, other gardeners leave a trail of comments such as very disappointing, mutant, grew next to Chernobyl (my favorite), dud, Big Sky Coneflowers Suck, inferior, deformed, and stunted.

My advice: if you see Sundown for sale, run away.

For The Record:   • Moderate heavy clay soil with ongoing amendments   • Full sun   • Small amount of fertilizer   • Poor performer not lasting past spring   • No pests Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: cosmos, all zinnias, phlox, marigolds, sunflowers, echinacea, nicotiana, buddleia, rudbeckia   • Harvested: 2 peppers, 2 tomatoes, 8 cucumbers

June 2011 Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day (After)
What's blooming in the garden on the 15th of the month.

There is so much going on in the gardens, I needed an extra day to document it all, and ended up leaving some things out. The peony poppies are about pooped out while the yellow daylilies are coming on. A maroon daylily was handed out at a master gardener tour last year. Coneflowers are all over - purple, coconut lime, and a sundown series. Cleome is robust. Bachelor buttons are new for me this year and so are the yellow oriental lilies. Get a load of the production on the rudbeckia, nicotiana and cactus!

The Find other garden bloggers' bloom days at the blog May Dreams Gardens.

unknown poppy		unknown daylily
unknown daylily		unknown asiatic lily
Echinacea 'Sundown' Big Sky Series		unknown asiatic lily
Astilbe 'Radius' (Astilbe x arendsii)		Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana)
Cactus Opuntia		Echinacea 'Coconut Lime'
Bachelor Button (Centaurea cyanus )		Cleome (Cleome hassleriana )
Rudbeckia hirta		Nicotiana sylvestris