What's blooming in your garden???

Hi all,

We need another picture thread. We've all been so busy enjoying our gardens, that there hasn't been a photo thread in a while. I hope you have been taking pictures! Here are a few photos I took the last few days of just a few of the things blooming in the garden. This cool weather summer has caused my yard to look spectacular in August! June and July blooming things are still blooming, alongside the hydrangeas and other August bloomers.

Pic is of some yarrow (Colorado mix) that I started from seed in the winter.

Some of our bounty. The berries are doing great this year!. We have Duke blueberries, Berkeley blueberries, Cascade Delight raspberries, Caroline raspberries, Anne raspberries, Hood strawberries, and Seascape strawberries. Plus pinot noir grapes and lingonberries.

I'm pleased with the color scheme in this bed. Hopi red dye amaranth pairs well with the tickseed and black and blue salvia. There are also pink roses in the background of the pic. It's a very brightly colored bed, outside my dining room window. And the hummingbirds love those salvia.

Our chicken coop. I put in a lovely country style flower bed around it this year. It was fully planted. But we decided to free range the chickens. They ate everything except the gladiolas, dahlias, and rudbeckia. :-(

The red snapdragons, that I started from seed way back in February, are finally blooming! Here they are, paired with Iceland poppies (amazing--the poppies are still blooming going on month 3 now! Thanks to not a single 90 degree day yet in 2011!). This snapdragon has a lot of orange tinting---the others (I put in around 40 of them) are cardinal red. I might try and save seeds from this one, the color is so striking. I have a long fenced bath (fenced both sides), which is planted with trellising pinot noir grapes, icelandic poppies, a yellow chinese meconopisis poppy, red climbing roses, and the red snapdragons. I'm enjoying it.

I can't believe my lupines are still putting out spikes of blooms. I love them! This two toned pink Russell hybrid is my favorite.

And who says marigolds aren't pretty? Not me! Cut arrangement made of marigolds, strawflowers, rudbeckia, and a cream colored lisianthus.

Bee balm along the driveway. I started the monarda (panorama mix from Johnny's) from seed in the winter of 2010.....I had to wait thru one season and half of this summer until it bloomed. It was worth the wait. I have seen a huge increase in butterflies and hummingbirds in my yard this year. My only complaint---the bee balm is taller than me, which I didn't expect, and completely blocks my bed of phlox from view! (But the phlox looks great from my neighbor's yard, lol).

You can smell these lilies from 30 feet away. Wow. Serious fragrance. Almost too much!

Bouquet of tree mallow (tree mallow makes an excellent cut flower surprisingly), Rosa 'America', achillea 'Moonshine', sweet peas.

You are way ahead of me, Stephanie. My daylilies are now about at their peak, almost two weeks late, and I will share some here.

This is Always Afternoon

Desperado Love

Strawberry Candy

Prairie Blue Eyes

Blue Voodoo

And an NOID clematis that was here when we moved in.

Very nice, ladies. It's nice to see some color right now -- I'm struggling with the doldrums in my own landscape, feeling lost & uninspired.

This actually is blooming in the pot that I transported them in to my new house. Love it!

Do you have a name for it, Bea?

Very nice!

I believe it is Shaka Zulu.

I love the daylilies! I added several this year, which will hopefully bloom for me next year. I'm particularly fond of the blue/purple ones....

China asters, started from seed indoors this past winter. Now blooming beautifully, but they do need staking.

Onions are ready. I started these from seed indoors around March. I love being able to walk outside and pick a fresh onion.

Strawflowers (also from seed), rudbeckia.

Liatris, hydrangea, white China aster. Partial shade bed.

Ornamental porto spineless cardoon, started from seed 2 seasons ago. It is finally giving me those blooms I've been waiting for---perfect for unique arrangements.

Red snapdragons (from seed!) with pinot noir grape vines.

First year ceratostigma is blooming. very pretty shade of blue with yellow foliage. I'm excited for this shrub to get bigger. Planning to mulch heavily for winter.

Ageratum mix I started from seed indoors putting out blooms.

Echinacea 'Summer Skies'

Ptilotus 'Joey' I started from seed. Planning to move it to greenhouse this winter since it is a perennial I believe (with succulent kind of foliage) in Australia. Interesting plant, though not all that full of pizazz or anything as the color is very muted.

Fava beans need to be picked today.

Gomphrena mix, started from seed.

Last but not least, asters are starting to bloom. Adjacent to Coreopsis. I love purple and yellow together.

A couple more. Pink lisianthus. This took an incredibly long time to start from seed (started in January). But it makes an extremely long lasting cut flower. (about 2 weeks in a vase). No scent. I also have ivory and purple.

4 o'clocks mix in a container on the patio. These are fun. It's the first year I started them. Very easy from seed (started indoors in April), but finally started putting out the blooms a week ago. Worth the wait.