Mid-August Blooms, Part 2
OK, so here are the rest of our garden’s blooms taken this past Sunday.
The Parkway Bed is visually dominated by Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida), plus some Brown Eyed Susan (R. triloba) cut very short.
The first cluster of Sedum telephium ‘Matrona’ has begun to bloom among the Rudbeckia. Also, at the bottom of the photo you’ll see some of the tiny white flowers of Calamint (Calamintha nepeta).
Calamint is a plant that is difficult to photograph, but it is beloved by bees. I was warned that it would spread aggressively by seed. This has not come to pass.Like the Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), the Calamint is tormented by Four Lined Plant Bugs early in the season. I suspect that recovering from the bugs deprives the Calamint the energy it needs to spread in its usual way.
Regardless, those tiny white flowers are much beloved by bees.
The Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis) is blooming nicely. It’s not really a Petunia, though.
Now here was a happy surprise! A couple years ago I planted three Prairie Baby’s Breath (Euphorbia corolatta) in the Lamppost Bed. They seemed to vanish. But now here is one plant, at least, blooming and looking perfectly happy. I do hope it spreads itself around.
I first saw this flower at the garden of Pat Hill, author of Design Your Natural Midwest Garden. The foliage has great fall color.
Here is some native Prairie Onion (Allium stellatum) blooming alongside the seed heads of the exotic Allium tanguticum ‘Summer Beauty’. The Praire Onion is leaning about in a rather disordered way.
Though it is a native, I would have to say that Prairie Onion is generally inferior as a garden plant to ‘Summer Beauty’. ‘Summer Beauty’ is more upright and with larger flowers. Both are equally attractive to pollinators.
I’m pleased that a few of the younger Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) are still putting out a few flowers.
The shrub rose ‘Cassie’ is having a new flush of small, white blooms.
After I deadheaded the Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica), it also offered up another round of flowers.
And ‘Sally Holmes’ has sent up some tall arching stems adorned with light pink rose buds.
Most of the asters are biding their time, but two have just begun to bloom. First, Crookedstem Aster (Symphyotrichum prenanthoides).
The other is Big Leaf Aster (Eurybia macrophylla), a plant with gap-toothed flowers that is unfazed by dry shade.
This year I’m conducting an experiment by growing Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis). It seems to be going well, though looks like the peak of bloom happened while we were in Japan.
And finally, here’s our wheelbarrow planter, full of Impatiens of various kinds.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
gardeninacity 
With these goodies, I bet all the bees in the neighborhood are at your house! Good job:^)
Thanks!
My goodness, you have lots in blooom. I have tried and tried to grow Cardinal flower. Sigh~~ I love the wild petunia. I have seen that in the wild and wondered what it was, now I know. Your garden didn’t suffer from your vacation. It looks marvelous.
I have also had trouble with Cardinal Flower. This is an experiment to see if I do better with containers.
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It is certainly the time of year for Rudbekia, they look wonderful. I also like your little rose Cassie, the bees must enjoy visiting that one.
My, I LOVE your hellstrip! I’m sure many passersby stop to check out what is growing – I know I would, every time I walked past.
Thanks!
A vision of loveliness and a good laugh (over “gap-toothed flowers”).
I’m glad I introduced you to Prairie Baby’s Breath. Don’t worry–it will seed itself about, but it is always welcome.
Wow. Your cardinal flower is amazing. That color just jumps off the monitor!
It’ll be interesting to see how the cardinal flower handles dryness.
The flowers are looking great!
This container is quite large and drains slowly. It is also in part shade, so I’m gambling that I can keep it good and moist.
Nice to see your Indian Pinks, a plant I don’t see much of around here. I will have to try deadheading mine next year to encourage more blooms. I forgot to add in my last comment how much I liked the ‘Raspberry Wine’ Monarda–a great contrast to all the yellows and oranges. Thanks for another idea, Jason!
You’re welcome!
Your garden has been very well behaved while you were away, although the Cardinal Flower could have waited for full blooming until your return.(it is lovely). I think we have Prairie Onion springing up in our garden, and maybe I should be more tolerant if it brings the bees, it always looks very disorderly!
There are better Alliums.
All this inspiring me to continue with my blog on Urban gardening. Thank you
What a stunner the lobelia is and I love your wheel barrow full of blooms.
A beautiful August show. Couldn’t decide which photo was my favorite, so they all get a bit thumbs up!
What a wonderful variety of plants! Cassie and Sally Holmes Are just gorgeous. I’m pleased to hear Prairie Baby’s Breath popped back up, how lovely!xxx
Don’t you love it when plants you thought you’d lost suddenly reappear? More than a decade ago, I planted a couple of dwarf Amalanchier shrubs at the back of my garden. Since I was clueless that shadbush was in the rose family and susceptible to cedar-apple rust, I planted them on either side of a low-growing juniper and both shrubs promptly succumbed to rust and disappeared. Imagine my amazement when I looked out this spring to discover Amalanchier blossoms at the back of the garden!
Your late summer/early fall flowers are ahead of mine. My sedum ‘Matrona’ has buds but has not yet started to bloom, and I just saw my first aster blossom today.
So is the juniper still there?
yes
I was wondering — how do your neighbors and others who drive by like your streetside garden? Are the comments mainly positive? (I ask because your garden seems so unusual — in a good way to me! – from typical American streetscape standards.)
The comments are mostly positive. I think there are a few people who disapprove but they are too polite to say anything to me directly.
Love your Parkway Bed …. my next house will hopefully be in a neighborhood that has sidewalks, and I really do not want to have to fuss with grass in that strip between sidewalk and curb! May I ask how wide your Parkway Bed is? (or should it be “deep”? meaning distance between sidewalk and curb) It looks nice and wide for sure. 🙂
I’d say the parkway is about 5′ wide. I should go measure it to be sure.
Looks like things have been fairly well behaved while you were gone. It’s nice to see the garden reaching a peak rather than sputtering out like so many others do.