Dog Days of ... June?

It has been just scorchingly hot here for the last few weeks, as if I needed another hurdle to get out and garden! On the plus side, I have my new bed installed! Yay! Hoping that the plants I got from Plant Delights nursery turn out ok... it can be really hit and miss there, but I've had some real winners, and they do have a great selection of hard to find beauties. I planted a few tropical plants that i'm hoping will do well... Perennial Hidden Cone Ginger, 'Jack's Giant' Elephant Ear and what I think is an alocasia, but I can't seem to find the name, and my memory is failing me. Whoops! There's also some gladiolus, some calla lilies (wishful thinking there, no doubt), cannas and a flowering quince. And since I had no place else to put em, I planted my tomatoes and basil in the bed.



I'm finally getting blooms on this hydrangea and I just couldn't be more pleased. I lost the blooms off this plant for 2 years in a row, the first year, it was just not doing too well after I saved it from the clearance rack, I think I paid 2 dollars for it. Second year, the lawn crew weed whacked the one stem with buds on it!! This year, it is rewarding my patience with beautiful pearly buds that turn to a soft blue and open lovely magenta blooms. I just absolutely am over the moon about them!



My coneflowers are doing so much better than last year, when I got almost all yucky mutant flowers.



Lastly, I'm loving this combination of the geraniums, zebra grass and artemsia in 2 pots on my deck. I love these geranium colors, they are so bright and perky.

Coneflowers

Coneflowers are one of my favorite flowers. Tough, easy to grow, long blooming, bees love them, drought tolerant, there are so many reasons to love them. Most of all, I love their beautiful range of colors. I've got quite a few different kinds growing, and some of them are blooming now. I'm guessing on these names, because I forgot to write them down, but I think my memory serves me correctly.

Miss Kim:





Sundown(?)or Summer Sky (?):



I have several more varieties waiting to bloom, one white, one yellow and one of the classic pinks. I love their warm colors, especially with the Catmint's purple hues, which you can see in the first picture. I added some Liatris which I thought would bloom with the coneflowers, but since we're having such a mixed up year, the coneflowers are blooming early, who knows when the Liatris will actually flower. Also added some May Night Salvia this year, So hopefully I'll have more purple throughout the bed. I have most of my Coneflowers in my drought tolerant bed, which I think of as my sunset bed, because all the colors are what you would find in the sky as the sun drops down.

Other than roses, I think my collection of Coneflowers is the largest in the yard. Speaking of roses, here's my Graham Thomas, I think its looking pretty fabulous! I can't wait to see how it performs next year.