Early July in the Garden

I've been pre-occupied with a few things lately and haven't gotten around to doing any posts. 

 I've taken various pictures over the last couple of weeks of bits and pieces of the garden.

A pot full of "Dreams Patriot Mix" petunias that I picked up for the Independence Day holiday.

We had another rainfall last night.  It's been great- the lawn looks like we have underground sprinklers!

Out front the island is in full bloom with Stella De Oro Lilies

I like how easy lilies are to grow and how reliable they are.

These giant Delphiniums are so tall- they tower over me.  The tag just refers to them as Magic Fountains (tall height)

They're bent over quite far but last year when I staked them they ended up breaking over just above the support so I decided to leave them alone.  I'm just thrilled they keep coming back.  I've had some that never reappeared after the first year.

I walked around the south side of the house and thought I'd show you a picture from the backside that I forget to take pictures of.  I keep it simple so the lawn mower doesn't have to go around anything.

The fountain pump is dieing a slow death.  Dan keeps fussing about which one to buy, but right now it's not strong enough to get the water up to the top and make a spray.  The impatiens have been doing well so I'm happy.

 I buzzed out early Saturday morning to capture this shot.

By the time I walked back to the house the sun was off of it.  

I added some Astilbe that you can barely see on the right side.

Last year I planted these Astrantia (Great Masterwort) Star of Fire

They all came back nicely and have been blooming for a bit.

The Sum and Substance Hosta (left of the statue) is huge this year!

The Endless Summer Hydrangeas are coming on strong now. 

They've just started to bloom

 These purple Supertunias finally filled in and spread out like I wanted to see them do.  The alyssum came back for the third year now which I love.    

This is the color combo I wanted to see.  The African Daisies require a lot of dead-heading to look nice.  They were blooming like crazy and the white geraniums weren't and now the white geraniums are kicking in and the daisies slowed down!

The sedum has been flowering

The fairies are busy keeping the garden up!

The chipmunks run through here and tip things over all the time.  

My ornamental grasses have started to merge together.  I need to pull some of it and get them separated again.  The lilies are blooming all over the yard.  

A few years ago I planted only pink or rosy pink flowers in this bed, so I call it my pink flower bed.  They're just beginning to bloom.  I added two Foxglove plants this year.  I hope to add more next year so that each year thereafter I will have blooms.  

  The morning glories have really taken off on the arbor.  

My gold flame spirea has been blooming (on the right) and needs to be trimmed since it's taken over the walkway!

 I'm not fond of these red geraniums I put in.  They aren't heavy producers and seem to be easily overtaken by the other plants.  I've got a bunch of them out back with some dusty miller and they've been taken over.  I guess I have to "trim" the dusty miller to help them be more visible. I think they are considered a "seed" geranium.  I should have paid attention because I believe Zonal geraniums flower much better.

You can see a hint of that planter here.  I'm either going to remove some of them and put them in the ground or trim them. 

These are the Annabelle hydrangeas.  It's the largest it's ever been and full of blooms!  I guess that nasty winter we had didn't hurt it at all!

 I love this trailing tuberous begonia "Illumination Rose"

It is messy though, everyday there are blooms on the ground.

That's my succulent planter on the left I put together.  It's growing well now- seemed to take forever to get going though.  I will have to bring it in for the winter though so I hope it doesn't get too big!

 The White Bacopa seems to be clustered to one area.  I was being frugal and only planted one instead of 2 or 3 which I should have.  I had visions of training it to trail through to the other side (forgot that one!)  You can see how much my container plants have grown by looking at this post from back in May "here"

I love the fancy frilly look these geraniums have.

 My big "Dairy" planter is doing great.  I keep moving the Pink Supertunias away from the white '"Sunpatiens" that are in the center to try and help it show up more.  Those Supertunias really take over!

Love this color combo.  I got the Garden sign at a cute garden center in Pennsylvania last year.  It's cast iron and reminded me of something from the 30's for some reason.

I moved these planters out from under the eaves by the house to see if they begonias would flower better.  This particular one's tag said part shade/sun so I'm giving them more sun!   I'm watching the impatience down below.  So far I haven't seen them getting too much sun but if they have more green than flowers I'll have to put them in deeper shade.  This one has a lot of flower buds that should be open soon. 

These Gartenmeister Fuchsia's are like little trees now!  I turned the pots around because the White Alyssum was growing towards the brighter light and the backside became empty.  The hummingbirds love these.

  An overview of the back area.  Those of you who follow me may remember my "topiary lilac" which is just behind the cottage in the fairy garden.  I trimmed up some lower branches which caused the tree to be thinned a bit when they were removed (hence the gaping holes).  Next year it will look better.  I decided to stop trimming it into the "formed" look that it usually has and I'm going to let it have a more gentle rounded look.  It's higher up now too which will work out better all the way around.

September 2013

This is the topiary (on the left) from last year.  I know it looks attractive all neat and formed but I end up trimming it too much and then I have few blooms in the spring because it cuts into next years growth. 

These "Bubble Gum" Supertunias are growing like crazy.  They'll be trailing down along the sides soon!