Evolution of a Garden

All summer long, and earlier, in the spring, this garden has been a great source of delight to me. I call it the Rose Garden because there are 3 rose bushes planted here, but it could just as well be named the Clematis Garden.

Here it is in early June before we decided to enlarge it.

The Jackmanii Clematis, growing tall on the left (this picture was taken before the blooms began to open) is really the star of this little corner, producing a mass of purple blooms from June 21st this year and lasting until about the 2nd week in August. Carnaby, the other clematis that you see in the corner, has its main burst of blooms earlier in the spring and then reblooms on and off all through the summer.

Here's the Jackmanii on July 9th in all its glory.

Here's the Carnaby on June 14th....

....and again on July 30th, growing on the first bent wood trellis that Ross surprised me with on Mother's Day.

You can see in the top picture how it spread around the corner and needed a second trellis to keep it growing up instead of sprawling all over the garden.

There are perennial Sweet Peas beside it which also sprawl all over the place, so......

......my dear husband made a second bent wood trellis to keep them looking tidier. He's always so willing to help out :) It's shaped like a heart and turned out a little higher than he anticipated, but the Sweet Peas have climbed quite high on it at this late stage of the season. I wouldn't be surprised if the Carnaby Clematis heads over that way too eventually.

A few weeks later we decided to bring the garden out a little because we needed a sheltered place for the 2 new Hydrangeas.

The space in between gave me a perfect place to fit in a new Munstead Lavender,

......a Heuchera (Coral Bells) with dark leaves, plus numerous other bits and pieces.

The new Queen Elizabeth (pink) Rose has 3 blooms here......

......and the hydrangeas were providing some pretty pastel colors.

The Hydrangea on the right was more pink.......

.......while the one on the left produced blue flower heads.

The dainty annual Diascia has been one of my absolute favorites this summer.

Growing behind it you can see the marigolds whose seeds were sent all the way from Germany by Anita, one of my dear blog friends. I'm still waiting for the white flowers to open....hoping and praying they'll beat the frost.

And here are the yellow flowered Four O'Clocks that Marion, another dear blog friend in Wales, sent to me last Christmas. I killed the first seedlings of both, started early in spring, by foolishly overwatering the poor things, so I started more.

Marion, these blooms are all the more delightful to me because every time I see them I think of you. But they're blooming on Welsh time I think, because they open at 9:00AM instead of 4:00PM :)

Anita, the Marigolds have lots of buds but they are taking forever to open!! Nevertheless, I'm enjoying the pretty foliage and thinking of you whenever I look at them :) The world of blogging is such fun! I'm absolutely loving that purple Verbena behind the Marigolds.

Here's Fiona playing near the Lavender when the Marigolds were still small.

And here's why I call it the Rose Garden: Mr. Lincoln blooming with the Echinacea (Purple Cone Flower) has had quite a few lovely blooms this season.

My no-name pink has done very nicely this summer, with more blooms than usual.

Queen Elizabeth was planted last Fall and was inspired by Nature Girl, whose blog is where I first saw this beautiful rose.

Petunias and "Sweet Alice" (Alyssum) which of course reminds me of my very dear blog friend, Alice :)

A wider shot to show you all these new flowers together.

Sweet little Gus deserves equal time on the blog with his sister Fiona.

When I trim plants or a piece is broken off I often stick them in a pot to see if they'll grow. More often than not they do....and here are a couple of the results. There's a few fuchsia cuttings and a piece of pretty purple Bacopa in among the Marigolds and purple Alyssum.

The view from the other end with Miss Cleo, and the Obedient Plant in the background (over by the corner of the shed).

I was headed down toward the fence garden to plant a "passalong" lily when I stopped to take this last photo. See how red the vines are on the big elm? The Fall colors are beginning to look very pretty but this week has felt like the middle of summer. The weather has been absolutely wonderful and we've even had a little rain tonight and this afternoon.

I hope your week is bringing you as many blessings as mine is!