Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August '08 - Late!

I didn't get this done on the 16th when I meant to (see previous post)....but here's my Bloom Day post at last. I'm holding fast to the old proverb: better late than never :)

The driveway garden is looking a bit scraggly, but there are still some bright spots of color.

The Butterfly Bush (buddleia davidii) lives up to its name, drawing plenty of the lovely 'flying flowers'. Unfortunately, I didn't happen to catch any on it when I took these photos.

The White Temptation daylily is still opening a couple of flowers each day, but its blooming days are almost over for the summer.

Catherine Woodbury is like the Energizer Bunny - she just keeps going and going! What a beauty she is!

There are several colors of phlox in the driveway garden, including this vibrant red....

.....and this soft pink with the darker eye. The Cerise Queen Yarrow (achillea) blends nicely with it. There's lots of Bee Balm (Monarda) in this garden as well.

Looking past the Butterfly Bush to the lilac garden, we see more phlox providing the most eye-catching color there.

The red Monarda and white Shasta Daisies are still blooming, but are beginning to wane. These pink phlox spread very easily and must be kept in check. I dig out lots of the monarda and daisies too at the end of the season. Perennials save planting time in the spring, but thinning the spreaders can be labor intensive.

This pretty pastel Monarda goes well with the Yarrow.

The bees mix up the colors when they polinate, and I end up with lovely shades of pink and purple. There's a couple of ants sharing this bloom with the bee.

Tiger Swallowtails are abundant in our gardens.

The dwarf campanula (campanula carpatica) makes a pretty edging.

It's very easy to move pieces of this around to other gardens.

Here's a view of the driveway and fence gardens looking bedraggled after all the rain we've had. The garden in the foreground is filled to the brim with phlox which badly need thinning. I've found a few neighbors who want some :)

The Coneflowers (echinacea) are pretty in pink.....

......and the Gloriosa Daisies go on and on. They're both rudbeckias. Can you see the resemblance?

They're easy to grow from seed, and the birds sometimes spread them around.

Down in the lily garden a few daylilies are not quite finished blooming. Cherry Cheeks is still putting on a show....

...and Mariska, planted last year, is doing nicely her second summer.

Strutter's Ball, further up in a different garden, only had a few blooms this second summer. I added more compost so we'll see if this improves her performance next year.

Back in the lily garden, portulacas seeded themselves from annuals planted last year...

....and the wave petunias reseeded for a third summer. Other annuals that reseeded and are blooming in this garden are Nicotiana, Painted Tongue (salpiglossis), Snapdragons, Larkspurs and some pretty blue Petunias. I've never had so many annuals reseed before.

Aren't these rust colored Gloriosas pretty? They've been blooming for weeks in the fence garden, and really can't be beat for long-lasting blooms.

These bright Petunias are also in the fence garden.

I don't know the name of this Heuchera because it wasn't labeled. It's grown large in the clematis garden up by the house, where the soil is rich in compost. I've just pulled out all the Gloriosa Daisies that planted themselves here. Most of them were finally beginning to fade. I wanted to replace them earlier in the summer with some annuals, but didn't get it done before they bloomed, and then they looked too pretty to move. I have some other things I want to plant here to try and brighten it up a bit.

This lovely lady is Social Climber, bought on sale and planted at the end of the season last year. She was slow to start in the spring, but has done well since then, and given us some beautiful blooms.

There's lots more blooming, but this will do for now.

Many thanks to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day. I hope she'll forgive me for being so late!