Hydrangea time!

A year ago I was posting about my Endless Summer Hydrangeas and a few others.  I couldn't have been happier with how they were doing!

Here you have a fine crop of hydrangeas with NO blooms!  Grr....  I'm convinced it's because of the early warm up we had then the various freezes that came afterwards.  When I think back on it, I realize that these started growing later then normal too.

This is my City Line, Paris hydrangea that also has no blooms!!

I went through my pictures from last year at the same time and they definitely should be flowering by now....darn...Well the plant is healthy anyway!

 My Annabelles did well, but its a young plant and the stalks are not heavy enough to support their own flowers so I tried to help the plant with my wire cage...it looked good for a bit, but then some of the stalks bent over the wire and I decided to cut a bunch of the flowers to dry them.  I hope they keep the papery green look they have! My alyssum came back from last year and look so nice! I love freebies!

One of the Annabelle's that I cut...

These hostas were put in last summer and they have a super tall flower stem on them!  

How pretty their flowers are!  

Wouldn't you like to be a bee flying inside of me!! 

(I made that up!)

I am tickled that my PeeGee hydrangea is flowering nicely this year! I mentioned before that it only had 5 flowers last year.  I was worried I had placed it in a bad spot but as with a lot of plants/shrubs/trees the 3rd year is the charm! (Sleep, Creep and Leap)

I like how the hosta filled out around it too...you'd think I planned it or something! 

PeeGee Hydrangea...up close...

I will capture pictures of the flowers in their various stages...

Our front my Rose Mallow-Hibiscus plants are slow to get going.  I did some reading on these and they claim they won't even pop out of the ground until you have at least 70 degrees consistently for a while....My husband kept saying their dead...I kept hoping he was wrong!

I think there are flower buds forming!  Let's all say YAY!  

This garden bed out front is winding down....the Daisies are 98% done and the Cones are about 70% done.  These Black Eyed Susans are blooming but kind of short this year.  As you can see some Delphiniums are blooming again!  Another YAY!

 This is my Limelight hydrangea shrub again....the flowers are really full and absolutely beautiful!  I'd love to have these in my backyard  all over the place but I have too much shade.  Aren't they quintessential summer!

They'll turn a tad bit pink and get papery....finally more brown.  You can leave the shrub alone and enjoy them in the winter and trim them in the spring!

Back out near the patio I see my impatiens that I planted along the walkway finally got going.  I had to trim some leaves off the hostas to give them some light and space!  

My Queen Elizabeth Grandiflora rose has done well and I'm pleased with how it's performed.  The information I read on them has all been accurate.  They claimed they are fairly disease resistent, and they can take the cold winters too!  I did use a spray on them early in the summer to stop the Rose Chafers from eating them up but I haven't had to treat them for a while.  I gave them some Rose Tone fertilizer in the late spring and lots of water.

It's a pretty flower....these are close to being done but still pretty!

I put a spike, sweet potato vine and begonias in this pot and they've all done well.  These begonias are easy to grow, no maintenance..just kept them watered...that's my kid of plant!  

We've cooled into the 70's and are having very enjoyable sleeping temps.  The wind is blowing today and the leaves are rustling...it has the sound of fall to it!

How are your gardens and plants doing?