-

-
Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, August 2013


Here are a few blooms from my garden that caught my eye:

Impatiens niamniamensis ‘Congo Cockatoo’

The dreaded Impatiens  glandulifera.

The same wearing light pink.

Impatiens balfourii, another weedy one which Scott was kind(?) enough to pass along to me when we visited his lovely garden.

This tuberous begonia will represent all of the large-flowered ones this time.  I've had this one for at least five years and the blooms this year are bigger than ever. 

Here's one atop a bowling ball for reference. I often pick up the fallen blooms and float them in the closest  water feature outside or throw them on top of whatever's handy. 

More begonias.

Begonia boliviensis

If you try really hard, you too can grow phlox horizontally like this.  It takes some doing but it's worth the effort because you get to enjoy them even more when you're mowing the lawn and get to pick them up and enjoy their fragrance.
 
Pelargonum  whose flower shape I fell in love with this spring.  Hope it makes it through the winter.  I'll bring it in but usually kill houseplants so we'll hope for the best.

Pelargonum 'Indian Princess'
 
 
 Hardy geranium 'Ann Folkhard' shows up in the darndest places like 9 feet up this choisya.


Is it cheating to include this stunning Salvia dombeyi?  You see, It just came home from the Fronderosa Frolic where it was quite an eye catcher on the Far Reaches Farm table.

Crocosmia 'Hellfire.'  So pretty that I had to get another one at the Frolic.


It's a good thing that Clerodendrum bungei has such fragrant flowers that look all fresh faced and new in August!  Otherwise, I could never forgive it's tendency to come up everywhere and try to take over the world!

Echiveria blooms.

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Pistachio'.  The novelty has worn off and I still like it.

 Who couldn't at least smile when seeing this member of the hydrangea clan which possesses all the subtle charm of a drag queen dressed for a fiesta.

Dichroa febrifuga

Abutilon megapotamicum.  (Yes, AGAIN!)

Acanthus mollis


Tangle of white lilies, Hydrangea 'Bavaria', Persicaria 'Golden Arrow' and a bunch of other stuff.
 
 
Clerodendrum trichotomum.

The last of the lilies for the summer.  Le sigh.

Anemone.

Dahlia.  This one has very dark foliage & the color combination is stunning.


 Crazy Tropaeolum speciosum popping up in another area.  I love but will never understand this plant that just appears and disappears in various areas.  Some things are just not for us to know.
 
 Needs some serious editing!

Clematis something or other growing up rosa glauca.

Alstromeria

Mt. Etna Broom.
 
 Maybe  a backhoe  would be the right tool to use to edit this mess.  Don't you feel better about your own garden now?

I've never met a hardy fuchsia I didn't like!
 Cyclamen still holding their own in the battle with the timber bamboo grove!

Fuchsia 'Shrimp Coctail'


And back up the steps to the back door is a brugmansia pouring out it's evening scent.  Hope your bloom day is as sweet as this smells!

Thanks Carol for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day on the 15th of each month!  To see what's blooming around the world, be sure to click over to May Dreams Gardens!

40 comments:

  1. looks great Peter. I started editing yesterday. It is tough when you are a collector.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If only we had enough space to grow all the cool plants we keep finding!

      Delete
  2. Oh, it all looks beautiful! So lush. Despite watering, my garden is kind of crispy. I'd rather have a mess of lush foliage than crispy plants. The Brug is gorgeous, and since you showed the Abutilon megapotamicum again, I'll say again that I should get one. Have you ever tried to overwinter Pelargoniums? My tall Phlox is flopping too. You'd think instead of flower color and interesting foliage, they could work on breeding one with strong stems.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pelargoniums are easy to winter over. If they are 1 gallons or less, they get dragged inside the unheated glass room, sometimes I put a scented one by the kitchen sink so I can enjoy the summery smell all winter. You can take cuttings from larger ones. I've not had luck with the bare root, upside down dry storage strategy. Your garden doesn't look crispy at all in your bloom day post!

      Delete
  3. How fabulous, no you don't need a backhoe, I love the chaos! Your garden is filled with wonderful things. Love that new salvia and I'm so jealous fuchsias are hardy for you. All of mine have to come indoors for the winter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, bless your heart! We are very lucky here to have so many things that are hardy in the ground that I could only dream of growing in my former zone 3/4 garden.

      Delete
  4. I like the mix of everything too - I prefer to have one of everything and then just figure out where to stuff it in!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've always had a one of everything - impulse - whatever strikes my fancy or haven't grown before kind of garden for a long time. Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming though.

      Delete
  5. This was going to be the year I remembered to buy a Abutilon megapotamicum. But I forgot. I guess I'll enjoy yours instead.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your garden is fabulous, Peter...you know I love me a stuffed-to-the-gills garden! I totally forgot to post a picture of the Impatiens glandulifera you gave me...mine is that lighter pink (almost white).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't worry, they're prolific seeders and the light ones can produce darker offspring as well.

      Delete
  7. Lilies are my queens. I also want to have Fuchsia, but on the balcony is a lot of sun. Salvia dombeyi is a beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you like lilies too! The fragrance alone is pretty wonderful!

      Delete
  8. What an amazing bevy of unique and varied beauties. I've never seen some of these impatiens species. I'm assuming you must grow your own seedlings because I've never seen them even in the best of nurseries. I'm duly impressed and I will be back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These impatiens are fairly aggressive self seeders so they end up being pass along plants. I pull thousands of them up each year. Also I. glandulifera is categorized as a weed in some places.

      Delete
  9. So many gorgeous blooms and your garden looks wonderful! Are those Impatiens naughty plants?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Linda! Very naughty Impatiens indeed! They seed everywhere and must be pulled up frequently. Fortunately they pull very easily.

      Delete
  10. This is a time when so many gardens start to flag, but not yours! I'm duly impressed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ricki! See, if you underexpose the pictures, no one can see that half of the lilies have fallen over because you forgot to stake them or that some of the interesting things in the beds are in pots sitting on top of the soil.

      Delete
  11. Really beautiful, and the horizontal phlox adds a new dimension to vertical gardening! Literally!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jason. I can always count on you to put a positive spin on my bad garden practices.

      Delete
  12. I really love that impatiens especially Impatiens niamniamensis ‘Congo Cockatoo’. I tell you a funny story, if you plant mix impatiens together you could have natural hybrid and I really did this with orange and red impatiens and now wondering where this pink (why pink??) and red with white spot (look like hybrid phal. orchid) impatiens come from.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fascinating and fun story! I. niamniamensis isn't hardy here but I like the blooms so it gets treated as a houseplant during the winter.

      Delete
  13. Ha ! some of my best friends are drags queens dressed for a fiesta! I am pretty jealous of your tuberous Begonia-I can't tell you how many years I've been trying to grow the damn things with limited success. Some day maybe I'll figure out what I'm doing wrong. I think your garden looks fabulous..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are tuberous begonias hardy in the ground for you? In the late fall, we cut or snap the plant off and store the tubers inside for the winter. In February or March, they start showing little growth buds and we bring them back into the light and start watering them. Most years, I'm too lazy to dig the tubers and just throw pot and all into the basement.
      Thanks for saying that my garden looks fabulous. A good underexposed picture hides a multitude of sins.

      Delete
  14. Lovely blooms for bloom day, impatients are weedy aren't they.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Karen! There are some really well mannered perennial impatiens but the reseeding annual ones get quite weedy. They grow in just about any situation and bloom their heads off when lots of other plants are past their prime so I allow a few to stay each year.

      Delete
  15. A veritable jungle of lush beauties! I've been craving Impatiens but so far they have eluded me. No use apologizing, we are all envying your tropical blooms. The Congo Cockatoo is fantastic, and I can't imagine having Clerodendrum self-sowing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Next time you're in this area, let me know and I'll be happy to send some I. glandulifera home with you! The Clerodendrum doesn't self sow but rather, once established wants to create a thicket via underground running roots. Like many of my plants, they are aggressive but I'd rather pull up cool things than other weeds.

      Delete
  16. Wow Salvia dombeyi... impressive.
    I don´t see any mess... so many plants together look just perfect!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That salvia is stunning. I hope I'm able to keep it alive inside during the winter!

      Oh Lisa, flattery will get you everywhere!

      Delete
  17. I just gasped and showed Greg your photo of Salvia dombeyi and he declared, "That's the devil's plant." I have no idea where that came from but I think it means you're doing something right!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well if the devil is Kelly or Sue from Far Reaches Farm, Greg was right because it came from there. I now have way too many plants that need to come inside for the winter. Oh well, I've always wondered what it would be like to live in a greenhouse.

      Delete
  18. A agree you need to edit. Maybe you could take out more of that turf to add to your beautiful and diverse garden.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I removed all of the turf 5 years ago, expanded the beds and used acaena purpurea as a groundcover between brick stepping stones. Didn't work as the chaos needs some sort of negative space. Ripped it out, thought that gravel might be the thing but didn't like it so actually planted grass again. It's realy only a two foot wide grass path between beds. Usually things look pretty crowded at this time of the year but winter takes away a lot of that and everything looks peachy in spring. Oh well, there's always time to move things around.

      Delete
  19. Gorgeous blooms! Need to get me some Cyclamen for the garden...and Clerodendrums... Clerodendrum bungei probably would not make it here but Clerodendrum trichotomum should be worth a shot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. C. trichotomum would indeed be worth trying. The peanut butter fragrance of the leaves alone is worth having the plant. Cyclamen are wonderful with the way that they announce spring and late summer changes in the garden.

      Delete
  20. Wowzers. You are a gardener after my own heart! I was also blessed to get one white/light pink Impatiens glandulifera from my otherwise dark pink 5 plants (from 3 packages of very stubborn seed). I am going to be begging you for seed or baby plants next year if my plants don't reseed, okay? (I'll pay.)

    Tropaeolum speciosum just disappeared in my garden, never to be seen again, dammit. Apparently I pissed it off.

    One of these days you and Alison will have to drive south to Fry Road Nursery. They've got over 100 varieties of hardy fuchsias and several Impatiens species. I spent (ahem) a buttload of money there last Friday--again. But I got a ton of stuff because their prices are so reasonable. Let me know when you're coming! :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'll happily give you plants next spring. I pull so many of them up that it's not funny. Tropaeolum speciosum has disappeared from some spots in my garden for up to two years and then mysteriously returned. I'll never understand the plant but I sure love it.

    I've heard great things about Fry Road and would love to come see it sometime!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.