Summer Week 8- August 10

The catalogues are coming almost every day. It is important not to spend too much time thinking about the future, rather than the present. We are well into August and it continues to rain. I really think this will be an entire season with the hose.
Some of the plants of late summer are emerging. Two are featured pictures this week. Here are the four pictures this week, all obviously from later blooming perennials.

There is the Japanese anemone, looking much like the spring anemone, which is not surprising. I have these plants established several places, and boy are they healthy. They must be 4 feet tall, and really quite sturdy. And there are so many kinds. One of the catalogues, Bluestone perennials, arrived this week. I think I want another dozen (at 3 for $14). They come in pinks and whites mostly, but there are also doubles. I grow them in part shade, but like most part shade plants they will do fine with a little bit more sun. That pretty much means that they can grow almost anywhere in my garden.









Then there is the hearty hibiscus. I got myself a little dwarf a few years ago, and put it down by the street. (College Street) It started blooming this week and should bloom for a month. If you drive around you start to see clumps with the giant flowers this time of year, along with their cousin, the Rose a Sharon.










If you grow enough of those two plants you will get color this time of year.

There are late summer/ fall blooming clematis. This one in the picture is Duchess of Albany. It is in its third year in the garden. I am really just starting to realize that the catalogue says 10-20 feet. I have it on a 6-foot tall trellis of sorts. I could get a little apprehensive about next year.














Finally there are some late lilium, perhaps closer to species types. (not hybrids). This pink one is one for which I do not have a name.















So there you have some late summer color. Coming soon will be the early toad lilies. And just keep planting those annuals. The first frost could be a long way away.


In last week’s poll you liked the blackberry lily by a slight margin over lilium Sumatra.


For the extra pictures first there are some of the hosta heavyweights.
Sum and Substance, in the front yard, is pretty much unmatched.











Millennium just kept getting bigger this year.












Finally there is Lady Isobel Barnett.













Then here a few late daylilies, including the little yellow one with a brown(?) center. What you can’t tell from a picture is that it is no more than 2.5 inches wide. It is tiny.






















Here is a wonderful flocks. I often just pull the flocks out as a weed. It still comes back, and is really rather nice. This one might even have been planted at one point. After I had written that I took another look at these flocks and the more common purple ones. The common ones were covered with that powdery mildew at this time of year. I do think the plant breeders have been working to eliminate that, another indication that these were in commerce at some point.












Finally there is a second picture of the hibiscus and a picture of anemone buds. They really are just around the corner.



















Have a great week.
Philip