Heatwave

It's been an interesting week of survival in 100 degree heat for many of the plantings that we choose to grow in zone 5!

Zahara Zinnia is my plant of choice for the south side of my house.  They love the heat.

My roses have been attacked again this year even though I used the new Bayer Systemic advertised to combat Japanese Beetles.

The containers have required watering two to three times per day to keep from wilting;

Redhead Coleus is planted in my smaller turquoise containers, too small for this large of a plant.  These are the containers that I had to water three times a day in the heat!

Indian Summer Coleus can withstand high heat without wilting.

The tightly planted back border looks great because the plants shade each others roots.

The mid-season daylilies are blooming joining the end of the early and extra early (Eileen Clymer, extra early, has bloomed for six weeks).

Mary Todd in the foreground is an early bloomer but it is overlapping with a mid-season bloomer in the background.

Chicago Rosy in the background

Cherry Cheeks in the back garden side border.  It is a mid-season to late season bloomer.

Dark Ruby

Early to mid-season still blooming at the end of July!

Chicago Apache

This is a mid-season daylily that has just begun to bloom in the raised bed on the south side.

Entrapment

I purchased this at Home Depot last year mainly because of the name.  Entrapment is a mid-season bloomer.  It is a shorter daylily and I will have to move it in the fall because it is behind Eileen Clymer and blooms after but is hidden by the long blooming Eileen.

Ice Carnival

It is more of a yellow tinged white and grows in my raised bed vegetable garden mid-season.  The nice thing about it is that the day old flowers are hardly noticeable as mushies.

Nutcracker Suite

Very strong scapes on this mid to late season bloomer, tinged with peach.

Rain spattered Mauna Loa early to  mid-season (big storm again today) in the front garden.

Joan Senior

Supposedly one of the best whites mid-season but has never been a real strong grower for me.

Barbara Mitchell

One of the best pinks mid-season but has been in two years and this is the first year with blooms and very few!

Daylilies love the heat, still need some water, but are great performers! 

Lovely Lilies

I have used lilies off and on in my gardens throughout the years but I think I can finally say they are here to stay in my present garden.

This is an Asiatic Tango Lily, believe it is called Honey Bee.  I had Halloween last year in my garden but it didn't come back.

This is an Asiatic called Regal.

I am not thrilled with having to stake certain types and the fading of the darker colors is a disappointment.

Orienpet Satisfaction

Orienpet Satisfaction faded

It will take a little moving around so that I can give the beautiful raspberry one a little more shade.  Like daylilies I will need to study the bloom times so that I can have lilies in the garden all season.

Orienpet Lavon is my favorite, beautiful fragrance and lasts longer than the others.

Orienpet Lavon Look Alike in the back border.  It looks similar but I do not have the name of this one!

Orienpet Lavon with Dark Ruby Daylily.

Lilies look great mixed in with other perennials such as phlox and daylilies.  This lily is Orienpet Conca D'Or with Blue Paradise Phlox. 

I purchased a bag of mixed lilies (all Orienpet) but most of them were too small to bloom this year.  I won't do this again as I was planning on having extended color in the raised bed garden where my daylilies reside.

Orienpet Anastasia

Only three or four will bloom out of twenty-five bulbs, all came up but not with flowerheads.

Remember, when you plan to use lilies in your garden, they can become quite tall and probably will need staking.  The show is worth it!

Orienpet Lavon Look Alike

Orienpets can become four to six feet tall.

Orienpet Conca D'Or

Welcome

Nothing says welcome like color in the front garden.   There is a fine line when using perennials in the front of your home, so easy to lapse into messy and floppy.  Staking, deadheading, cutting down and general tidiness are important tasks during the growing season, whoever said perennials are carefree?

Amaranthus green and Love Lies Bleeding are in the raised bed on the south side.  They seem to like the heat and add a little interest as one walks the path.  I will begin cutting them soon for arrangements.

Heliopsis Sweet Lorraine is also along the south side.  It is about two feet tall and blooms all summer, love the variegated leaf!

Zahara Zinnias are doing very well in the hot south side border.

Two borders intersect with Limelight Hydrangea as the anchor.

Becky has center stage right now but soon Limelight will take over.

Miss Amelia Daylily

This is a rebloomer if you cut the stems to the ground.  I do not shear this one back until later because of the reblooming.  Orienpet lilies bloom in the background.

Starlight Let's Dance Hydrangeas along the walkway

Southern Comfort, Pistache, Mocha and Villosa Purpurea flourish under the Chanticleer Pear.

Ninebark Summer Wine with Silver Tidal Wave Petunia

It looks like I have an apparition in some of the photos.  Let's hope it is just a smudged lens!

Well, I have cleaned off my lens and am headed towards the back garden again just to catch up with a border I missed and some changes since the last border post.  On the way back on the north side I see another border that is often not appreciated for its beauty.

Astilbe Sprite was brought from my last home, very delicate color and doesn't seem to multiply for me in this location.

Astilbe Chinesis Visions

The veggie garden is a raised bed border along the back driveway with daylilies at one end, Vera Jameson Sedum and Nasturtiums.

Even the eggplant puts on a beautiful show with its secret lavender flowers.

I have a bountiful harvest of peppers this year.  I had better get busy picking and making hot peppers, onion, tomato and herbs in olive oil.

The nasturtium seeds were from last  year but they all germinated and add some color to a vegetable garden.

Believe it or not, this is my Bronze Sweet Potato Vine in my concrete planters by the garage,  I have never seen this vine bloom before!

The island border in the back garden has popped with lilies and phlox, Orienpet Lavon and Bubblegum Phlox.

Bubblegum Phlox

This was an expensive phlox last year and I even wondered this spring if it was going to come back.  Wow, it was certainly worth it, looks like a three year old specimen!



The Colossal Coleus

Do you remember what the word coleus used to conjure up in past years?  Well, I do, these rust, burgundy, green combinations of leaves that you planted in the shade.  I think I put them in one year and then decided that this was not my type of plant.

Indian Summer

Wow, have things changed!  Coleus is a temptress, a mood changer, and a vibrant plant in the garden.  How often do we get a plant that can grow in sun or shade?  I  am having trouble keeping up with the varieties and apologize ahead of time if I miss one or two.

Redhead

Pineapple Splash

This variety had sufferred frost damage and very slowly is coming back, but I don't think it is going to reach full potential - tag thrown out with the other one that died.

Electric Lime

I couldn't contain myself sampling some new varieties this year and even convinced my daughter-in-law to try one that I couldn't fit in.  It was called Trusty Rusty.

I have only had a problem with one that I have grown in the past Sedona.  It is usually a very prolific coleus for the sun but this year I think it got a bug, stunted eaten leaves.  I sprayed it, fed it a systemic and I think it is on its way back but late to be a beauty.

Dipt N' Wine in my back concrete planters

Inky Fingers that I have grown for years can spread six to eight feet!