In bloom this week: Dec. 2, 2016

Hot lips salvia

I wonder if this is the latest we've ever been without any frost at all. That is soon to end, with low temperatures expected to drop into the 20s next week. I need to go wrap up my garden hoses and add mulch around some perennials. In the meantime, here are the last of my fall flowers.

Fern (I keep calling it lace) leaf lavender

One of a few roses still going

Creeping bellflower

Calamint

Vinca minor

Last hardy fuschia blooms are hanging on

Hollyhocks - little change from a month ago!

Borage

Hot lips salvia keeps going and going

Last zinnias on the front sidewalk

Fading zinnias

One flower that isn't going to make it before the freeze - a bearded iris that I just planted in August. I may go cut it tomorrow and see if I can get it to bloom in a vase.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - November 2016

Lace leaf lavender and rose

This last month seems to have disappeared without a trace and my yard thinks it is October, not November. You may recognize many plants from last month, they keep on blooming. We still haven't had first frost, although it could possibly come on Friday, and the late summer flowers are lingering on. I'll enjoy them as long as they last, but it has been wet and seems very dark now that daylight savings time is over, so I haven't been outside as much.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting the monthly roundup of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. I'm glad I remembered this month, only a day late!

Still have a few lingering roses

Borage

Toppled over delphinium

Hollyhocks keep blooming and blooming

Hollyhocks

Calamint, planted from seed this year

Fuchsia Genii

Hot lips salvia shows no sign of stopping

Hot lips salvia

A taste of winter to come, Yuletide Camellia

In bloom this week: Sept. 26, 2016

Veronica

We've had a few last gorgeous September days with many plants still blooming. Here are a few that I am especially enjoying because I watched all of these grow from seed! 

New growth on hollyhocks

White calamint

Pink dwarf catmint

Veronica

Nasturtium

Sunflower

Hopefully some of these will continue to bloom after the clouds and rain return!

Progress in the rose garden: late summer

I've taken pictures three times now and not gotten around to writing about the rose garden - and then the pictures get old because flowers come and go so quick! I just looked back at my last post about this area, it's been over 3 months, and the plantings in front of the roses look completely different.

I love how quickly some of the perennials are growing in, and what a long blooming season the roses have. They'll likely still be blooming in October. 

Looking north

In the middle

Looking east

Lower section, looking east

Most of the seeds that I planted in late winter grew well, especially the thyme. I transplanted them in a few different batches but found that those that were transplanted earlier have grown larger. Here's the full list that I grew from seed:

• Calamintha "Marvelette Blue" 
• Calamintha "Marvelette White"
• Nepeta nervosa "Pink Cat"
• Veronica hybrida "Blue Bouquet"
• Mother-of-thyme, thymus Serpyllum
• Columbine Blue Star, Aquilegia caerulea
• Columbine Origami Red & White, Aquilegia x hybrida 'Origami Red & White'

Aquilegia, hiding behind the fern leaf lavender

I was tempted by a creeping bellflower in July and planted two of them: Campanula portenschlagiana ‘Catharina’

Bellflower, reblooming

My only recent plant acquisitions for this area, early in August were five bearded irises: Hemstitched, Slovak Prince, Speeding Again, Jesse's Song, and Italic Light. All blue, except the last which was a freeby, and all either reblooming or scented or both.

Oops, always more plants - also a few succulents that my mom sent home with me in June and I had growing in pots until recently. Those are at the top of the lower section of roses, which gets a lot of foot traffic so I hope they are tough enough. I'm pretty good at not actually stepping on them though.

Mystery succulents

A pretty mystery

I've been very pleased with how long most of the new plants are blooming for, or reblooming. There has been nice color all summer, and will be fun to see how early it starts next year - and how big everything gets when it's full grown.

Yarrow, reblooming

Creeping phlox, reblooming - and thyme

Heron's bill, slow growing but keeps blooming

I did some deadheading of the roses and raking up fallen leaves and flowers this week, but foresee a lot more to come in the fall. At least I should be able to stop watering soon!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August 2016

Salvia

I don't know where the last month went but it's time for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day again. Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting the monthly roundup!

We're in the hottest part of summer, the grass is all brown and early summer blooms are definitely gone. I'm envious of all of the hydrangeas around my neighborhood and making plans to plant some, but I do have quite a few perennials in bloom.

In my rose garden, where all of the plants are new this year except the roses.

Creeping bellflower

Catmint

Yarrow, calamint in front and Heron's bill in the back left

A few last flowers in my shadier bed below the roses.

Hollyhocks fallen over the lavender

A very late foxglove, planted in the spring and just now blooming

Fireweed with very interesting fasciation

Flowers in my vegetable garden, where it's nice to see blooms because my vegetables aren't doing that great this year.

Dahlias are loving the warmer weather

Aquilegia,bought on sale in the spring when it was almost done blooming, now reblooming

Lupine, reblooming

On the sunny back hillside, again mostly new plants this year. I especially love the aquilegia because I planted them from seed and didn't expect blooms until next year.

Aquilegia

Thrift, armeria meritima, has been blooming all summer

Harebell, campanula rotundifolia

A drought resistant lupine, 'Hot Lips' salvia and a glimpse of penstemon in front

Yarrow reblooming

Seeing these all together, I'm surprised at how many of my flowers have been blooming and reblooming for months. I'd like to add more fall blooms though. What's in bloom in your garden in late summer?