Around The Garden

It is that terrible time of the summer when our plants are bitten up, wilting, brown spots and general disarray in the garden.  I have had terrible rose problems this summer with midges and Japanese Beetles and am looking for a single rose that is fit to show.

All The Rage

The phlox has mottled leaves but it ready to rebloom again.

I have begun cutting down the daylilies that have already bloomed so that other plantings can peek through.

The vegetable garden seems to have done well this year, huge tomato plants but I am not sure the yield will be that great.  The Fanfare cucumber has been just great, no disease and wonderful tasting cucumbers.

Fanfare Bush Cucumber

I have lots of miniature eggplant and now need to make a delectable recipe out of them along with the multitude of hot peppers.

Hansel Eggplant

I have to give the Gardener's Supply double decker tomato cages a thumbs up for holding up the Super Beefsteak and the Big Boy tomatoes.

Super Beefsteak Tomato

Nasturtiums supposedly keep aphids away from the vegetable garden, don't know, but I haven't seen any!

Blue Sunshine Geranium has been a winner all summer.

The coleus border, Indian Summer, with black sweet potato vine has done well all summer.  However, the sweet potato vine is a mound and not trailing, never had one like this!

This is Kim's Knee High and it has been my best Echinacea, blooming all summer never losing color.

I deadheaded Sweet Lorraine Heliopsis and it has put forth a multitude of blooms.

Perilla is an annual in my area but it is a wonderful plant to grow, related to coleus but much stronger and taller.  It fills in my border along the fence with Sweet Lorraine Heliopsis.

Rudbeckia and Zahara Zinnia
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The south side is doing great this year with plants that welcome the heat and humidity.

Zahara Zinnias

Purslane has been a star this year in the heat, goes well with other tropicals.

Pennisetum is getting its fuzzy little flowers.

Henry's Garnet Sweetspire has been trimmed back and Limelight Hydrangea is ready to bloom.

Tidal Wave Petunia with Ninebark Summer Wine.  This is a spreading petunia like you have never seen, but does well in the landscape with some pruning.  I don't recommend it for containers unless you have a huge amount of room to let it trail many feet.

 Autumn Fern is new under the Chanticleer Pear with Lirope.

Heuchera with Japanese Painted Fern

Raspberry Ice Heuchera also under the Chanticleer Pear

Japanese Painted Fern with Lirope and Heuchera Flowers

Heuchera Vilosa Purpurea

Hydrangea Starlight Let's Dance

Lady Lucille is new this year and mid-season to late blooming.

Silom Space Age

Mid-Season

Unique Hydrangea is beginning to bloom.

It's been an unusual summer in that I didn't think I had much to show because of all the heat and the insect damage, but I guess I was wrong.  There is always so much more than what we see is going wrong with specific plants.

The Deadheads Are Alive And Well

Oh we all know who the deadheads are, we run around the garden clipping and cutting spent blooms and plants.  We also deadhead other peoples plants when we are visiting or walking by, even at the shopping mall, how could they let those dead blooms stay on their container plants?

I haven't been up to Wisconsin in two months and I am afraid my Knockout roses have been neglected.  I used the Bayer Systemic on them for Japanese Beetles and not one in sight.  In previous years they had just about been destroyed!  I can't figure out why I didn't have the same results at home.  Knockouts will produce new buds without deadheading but they look messy.

All the dead buds have been clipped off, fertilizer has been applied and it is ready to bloom again.  Do not use the five leaf method on this, just clip off the dead buds.

It is an action that is almost uncontrollable, we want growth to keep going, lengthening the season forever.  I have had a few questions lately on deadheading the hows and when and the difference between deadheading and rejuvenating.

Coreopsis Zagreb benefits from a shearing in the early spring to promote spreading and then again after bloom, clean up with pruning shears for stray spent flowers. 

Coreopsis Zagreb ready for rebloom

Dianthus Firewitch is certainly ready to be sheared back for rebloom before the fall coolness takes over.

Shearing does not mean taking away any of the lower growth but removing all of the spent flower stalks down to the bottom.

Shasta Snow Lady needs to be cut low if it going to rebloom, sometimes it does and sometimes I get just a couple of blooms.  However, it does form a lovely green mat going into the fall.

My May Night Salvia in Wisconsin has been let go or it would have rebloomed a couple of times by now.  I will cut it low down to the green stalk and expect some rebloom before fall.

The Walker's Low Nepeta can be sheared down low or can just be pruned taking off all of the spent flowers.  It will rebloom lightly before the fall.

Ater you have pruned your earlier phlox for reblooming you might want to have Phlox Eva Cullum which is a later blooming phlox.  It is not as mildew resistant as some of the new ones but I plant it in back of my Rainbow Knockout and also pick off the mildewed leaves.

David is also a later blooming phlox and taller than most.  I moved mine last fall and it is doing well but it sure doesn't look like my daughter's!  Mine will probably never be this full or tall because I have it in not quite full sun whereas hers gets a good dose of sun all day.

I have been taking care of my daughter's garden while she is away, but this is who I found patrolling when I arrived to photograph David.  It's convenient that rabbits play like they are a statue when threatened long enough for me to snap this picture!

Phlox David

Tetrena's Daughter is shown in the header, a mid-season to late bloomer approximately forty-eight inches tall.

The Layered Garden

When you have a layered garden like mine it is important that that spent plants be deadheaded and cut down so the next show can begin.

Bubblegum Phlox is ready to be deadheaded cut just below the spent flower buds.  This is one of the most mildew resistant phlox but it obviously has had some other issues that did not affect the blooming.

Daylilies play a big part in my garden all season but the early bloomers take up room with messy foliage and no blooms.  Underneath these earlier daylilies I have interplanted Plumbago which is late to appear in the spring and blooms in late summer and fall.  The daylilies are cut back to develop smaller clumps of fresh leaves and let the Plumbago peek through.

Daylily foliage from Dark Ruby

Dark Ruby foliage trimmed down to expose Plumbago.  Daylilies will sprout fresh leaves and the Plumbago will bloom in the late summer and early fall.

Deadheading clematis can be very rewarding such as this Hagley Hybrid which will put on a show as long as those fuzzies are cut off.  The flowers are not quite as large as the springtime flush but just beautiful as a background.

Carefree Beauty will bloom off and on all summer if deadheaded and fertilized.

This is what I have been finding each morning when I go out to water!  They are not something I want to pick off and put in soapy water, Yikes!  I usually spray them with a strong stream of water, doesn't work, they hold on for dear life.  Sevin works, but another group is back the next morning.  I even used the Bayer product that is supposed to stop this.

Pink Promise seems to have escaped the Japanese Beetles but it is battling rose midge.  I can barely keep up with all of the aliens in my garden.

Certain roses still have to be deadheaded to produce continual blooming, the Hybrid Teas, Floribundas, and some Shrub roses to keep them within bounds.  The Knockouts supposedly do not have to be deadheaded to produce flowers but I prefer to keep up with the dead blooms for appearance.

Duchess Of Albany is a later blooming clematis in my garden because it it along the fence that has the lilac peeking over from the neighbor's yard.  It is a huge clematis and I have often thought about saying goodbye to it, but this year it has sort of begged to stay on by being a bit more controlled.

As we are saying goodbye to some of our early bloomers we are saying hello to others that herald the waning of summer.  This is Ligularia Rocket and comes up behind my sun plants in the back border.

Platycodon is in full bloom below the island phlox and rose garden.  It is too large for the edge and may have to be moved so it doesn't fall over.  Oh, we love moving things don't we?

Volcano Pink Phlox with a white eye has taken over for Bubblegum Phlox, not as vivid but definitely acceptable as a replacement.

This plant certainly reminds me of fall, Boltonia Nana, earlier than the other Boltonias and smaller.

A beautiful coneflower and I do not have the name, don't think it is Kim's Knee High as I have this in another location.  It is pretty short only about fourteen inches high, help!

Tetrina's Daughter is a mid-season to late bloomer and is more yellow than the photo.  It is tall and slender about forty-eight inches in height.

Miss Bateman is blooming later than usual but it is in  part shade and had been sheared down by the rabbits in the winter.