July Glory

Mid-July is always a peak time in the garden. Too bad it's usually too hot to spend much time back there.

[Click on any image for a magnified view.]

The borders are filling in. This year, I've finally got the height I was aiming for. Maybe too much height, not enough middling and low? (Click here to see what it looked like in May.)
































I haven't mentioned the liatris yet -- also known as Blazing Star or Gayfeather. It is an American native. An interesting note: "Another old common name for this plant is Colic Root, alluding to its medicinal use as an antispasmodic for the intestines among other uses." I'll be sure bear that in mind.




















The daylilies are in full-throated chorus. I don't know why I love these guys so much. I'm so happy I found this particular yellow. The variety is Hyperion, in this case from White Flower Farm.













































The globe thistle is coming into bloom (if that's what you call it -- coming into fuzz?)
















The rose report:

































The sunflowers sprang into life while we were away. Here is one of them.














I always plant the type that have several heads per plant. In their appreciative exuberance, the squirrels tend to knock down the tall, regal, single-head variety. Then there's nothing left for me to appreciate. With several heads per plant, it's just the flower that rips off when the squirrels decide to hang from it as they gorge (and quarrel) -- the plant is free to keep on blooming.


The campanula -- a short variety.















I planted a taller variety this spring, but it doesn't seem to be thinking about blooming this year.

P.S. We've begun to lay out the pavers, with the help of our friend Douglas. The Tower of Power remains, however. It's just too hot to be moving heavy concrete chunks to the front and heavy concrete pavers to the back. But it will get done, eventually ...

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Hollyhocks at Last!

At last, I get to see what a hollyhock is all about. It's blooming!

[Click on any image for a magnified view.]




































So far, I haven't noticed any scent. But they are lovely to look at.


The reliable coneflowers are also blooming, in their reliable way. As summer goes on, they get a little scraggly, but now they are crisp and lovely.





































Mystery plant no longer a mystery!


















It has become obvious, at last, what this plant is. A globe thistle. Of course. I vaguely remember ordering it, thinking the round heads would complement the allium seed heads. Right now there is only one allium seed head, being swallowed up by the ever-shaggier fountain grass.


















Maybe next year, the effect will be more complete.



Jack's beanstalk?



















Only if Jack would accept a morning glory as his stairway to heaven.


A surprise

I used to have a few mallow plants (malva) in the back where the hollyhock is, but every year they were decimated by rust, an orange-brown fungus. So I gave up on them. However, when I saw this one volunteer making a go of it, I left it. So far, no rust. It chose a lousy spot, just outside the edging of one of the beds, and it may not survive the laying of new pavers currently in progress (see next post). So enjoy it while it's here.



















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