Butterfly and alyssum

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July flowers

I have tons of flowers blooming all over the yard right now. July seems to be when everything here reaches peak bloom, and there are colorful spots all over the place. It’s so much work keeping everything watered during the heat and drought, especially with temps in the 90s, and I spend a lot of time deadheading and clipping.. but it’s worth it to get to see all these beautiful blooms. As always, click on any of the photos to view a larger version.

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Pink Veronica

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I love these bright orange moss roses (Portulaca), and have them in many spots in the rock wall beds. They seem to thrive there and also in pots on my blazing hot, full-sun deck. I like these new hybrids that stay open even on cloudy days. The bee balm has more blooms this year than I remember them ever having. The clump in the photo is in a rock wall bed at the bottom of the yard, still blooming profusely. They’re so tall, of course I had to stake and tie them. I’ve kept the blue balloon flowers deadheaded and they have bloomed a long time this year.

    
Portulaca, bee balm, and balloon flowers

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The pink roses are growing along a fence at the edge of the yard next to the driveway. These roses were given to me by my grandmother, and I’ve had them for many years. The potted marigolds shown are much prettier than they are in the photo. Their true color is so light that they almost look white. The dependable coneflowers are still producing bloom after bloom. I have a few different varieties of these flowers, and I love them all. They attract so many bees and butterflies, and require so little maintenance.

    
Roses, marigolds, and coneflowers

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I have several rock wall flower beds, all filled with flowers right now. Two of these walls are more than 30 feet long, and I quite a few smaller ones as well. We built these stacked rock walls years ago, and they’ve held up well. We live in the mountains, and there isn’t much flat land here, everything is sloped, and these rock walls help to connect the levels in the yard, plus they give me lots of planting spaces. :) They get excellent drainage, a little too much drainage, actually, they dry out quickly this time of year — but I have soaker hoses installed in them so they’re not too much work to keep up.

    
Rock wall flower beds

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The hostas have finished blooming now and are definitely in need of deadheading. I love these plants, but I have far too many already and don’t need them to produce any more seed — they spread almost invasively here and I’m constantly pulling out small ones from all over my yard. I have them lining a path into the woods, a large clump on a slope at the edge of the yard, and various other clumps everywhere.

    
Closeup of a hosta flower, on a slope, and lining a path

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I find the moss, shade, and green plants soothing in the Secret Garden, so I don’t have a lot of color there… a couple pots of impatiens, a few clumps of caladiums along the path, and a pink begonia, along with the ferns and other mostly green plants. The New Guinea impatiens don’t bloom very well in the deep shade of this area, but I like their foliage so I use them anyway.

    
Impatiens, large fern, caladium along the path

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In addition to all the flower beds, I have many containers.. too many. It’s not easy keeping them all watered in July heat… but I can’t seem to help myself and keep adding more. Since most every spot in my yard already has something planted in it, if I want to add more flowers, it just about has to be in a container that I can stick somewhere on the porch or decks.. and along the edge of the patio and walkway, by the steps, by every door, even along the side of the carport. I just can’t help it. :)

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Click any photo to enlarge

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I’m not out of photos, but since this is already way too long, I think I’ll stop here and continue this post later. :)
What’s blooming in your yard this month?

Random flowers and planting

My Blaze Climber is blooming around an arched gate at the entrance to my front yard.

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Native evergreen ivy, also known as mountain laurel, is starting to bloom. I don’t know what’s prettiest, their bright pink buds or their white and mauve colored flowers. When in bloom, I think this is one of our prettiest native shrubs. Click any photo to view a larger version.

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Wildflowers are blooming in abundance in the woods all around the house, including the dwarf irises still blooming with their bright lavender and purple flowers. The woods are getting thicker and thicker now, and I notice something new in bloom almost daily while I’m out walking. The dark burgundy trilliums are nearing the end of their bloom now, and are such a dark burgundy that they almost look black against all the bright shades of green. Everywhere, I see tiny white flowers of all kinds, including the blackberry bushes with their bright white flowers at the edges of the woods and roadsides in this area.

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I’ve gone back to the garden center twice now. I cannot resist buying when I see all the pretty flowers everywhere now. With everything I’ve bought, plus the dozens of plants I grew from seed indoors, I’ve had a lot of planting and yard work to do lately. I have planted numerous containers and beds for the past week, and there are very few bare spots left anywhere in my yard.

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Tulip Poplar flowers are falling everywhere now. It seems there’s always something falling from the many poplar trees here, but their flowers are kind of pretty.

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I absolutely love these African Daisies. I bought several pots of them, and have planted them in containers and here and there throughout the rock wall beds. I think the purple ones are one of the prettiest flowers I’ve seen.

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The azaleas, including the flame azaleas, are mostly done blooming now, but a couple of the brightest pink ones in the shade at the edge of the woods are still bright and pretty. I also have two large evergreen azaleas to look forward to. They are just starting to show color. These always bloom later than the deciduous varieties here.

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I planted two large hanging baskets for my front porch, one with the fuchsia I bought the other day and just got the other one planted yesterday with New Guinea Impatiens. The fuchsia seems to be thriving, so far. I have two hanging baskets in the Secret Garden, also with impatiens, and one at the lamp post bed with a purple Wave petunia, and another red wave petunia at my front porch steps.

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I still have a few things left to plant and a couple of empty large containers around the pool, but for the most part, my flower beds and containers are full.. until I go back to the garden center. :) It’s so hard to resist, isn’t it?

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Click any photo to view a larger version.

Trilliums

The trilliums are blooming now. Our woods are filled with these flowers, and they have even spread down into the edges of the yard. These native wildflowers have one thick stem and grow to about 15 inches tall. Each plant has a very large, single flower which droops below three large, bright green leaves. The flower color ranges from deep mauve to very dark burgundy. These nodding flowers appear from late April to early June and are very striking against all the green of the leaves and the white blooms of the mayapples and the many other wildflowers in the woods right now.

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Mayapples

On my walk today, I found that the mayapples have started to bloom. When these plants first sprout in the early spring, they look like folded umbrellas pushing up through the soil. These large-leaved, herbaceous perennials grow in the nearby woods here in large patches and thrive in shady areas with rich, damp soil, usually growing alongside ferns and trilliums and wild ginger. They are plentiful in our woods.

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The single white flowers with pure yellow stamens, which usually appear in early May and can reach up to two inches across, hang underneath the shiny green leaves and develop into lemon-yellow “apples” by late summer. This fruit looks like a small lime and is edible in moderation at certain times of the year, but all other parts of this plant are very poisonous, so poisonous that the FDA has rated the use of this plant as unsafe. The mayapple is also known as Devil’s Apple, wild mandrake, and umbrella plant.

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Click the photos to see larger versions.

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