Gardeners! Share your garden photos and garden chatter here.

[terri]

Panicle hydrangeas are blooming. These are Pinky Winky and are a favorite of the bees. They’re always covered. They first bloom a pretty, soft white and then gradually start to turn pale pink and by fall will be a dusty rose color. The flower heads can get up over a foot long. They make amazing cut flower displays and also dry very pretty.

View attachment 278538

View attachment 278539

View attachment 278540

These are branches that I dried last year. When they got a bit too brown, I lightly sprayed them with a pale mauve and then some silvery white. They’ve kept their delicate little petals really well.

View attachment 278541

Wow - these are lovely! As a general rule I dislike hydrangeas, but that's mainly due to the boring (to me) round shapes of the blooms. This Panicle variety seems promising. I like these spiky blooms.

Great job with the drying and spraying. How nice to bring them inside like this.

 

[Digger...]

Flowers atm, feels like spring time the last 3 days. Even the temps are warming up. What happened to winter???

 

[SquarePeg]

Had to post this for @terri to brag about my Major Wheeler still producing blooms!

 

[terri]

Had to post this for @terri to brag about my Major Wheeler still producing blooms!

View attachment 278642

Okay, now you're just showing off.

I love mine - the color is gorgeous! I did plant another one about a foot away, and it did well but they both have stopped blooming. All the rain didn't help - I hope they come out strong next year. I want the hummers to find them!

The hummers in my yard love the cardinal flower more than anything, including the feeder. They stop at the feeder, but keep going. I'm hoping for the same reaction to the Major Wheeler!

 

[SquarePeg]

Okay, now you're just showing off.

I love mine - the color is gorgeous! I did plant another one about a foot away, and it did well but they both have stopped blooming. All the rain didn't help - I hope they come out strong next year. I want the hummers to find them!

The hummers in my yard love the cardinal flower more than anything, including the feeder. They stop at the feeder, but keep going. I'm hoping for the same reaction to the Major Wheeler!

I fed mine with Alaska Morbloom a few times this summer. I use the Neptunes Fish emulsion in spring then switch to the Alaska when things start to bud.

Your cardinal flower must love all the rain. I read somewhere that they can grow in up to 2” of water.

 

[terri]

Yes - I've read the same thing about cardinal flowers. They tolerate a LOT of water and may wilt after going a few days without rain. The poor thing also got chomped on early in the season, when the mama doe was wandering through my yard, so I gave it some household Miracle Grow, which was all I had on hand at the time. But it has flourished since then.

Also doing/did well in all the rain: my Joe Pye weed shot up to over 6 feet - and this is the Gateway varietal, which is supposed to top out between 5-6 ft. It amassed tons of blooms and the bees and butterflies couldn't leave it alone. It's about spent for the season but still looks beautiful. Also have a button bush which is another native for our area. It grew about 4 feet over the summer and only reached about one foot last year. Very happy! And both my swamp milkweed plants have bloomed - very delicate and pretty!

So, the rain killed a few things but other things flourished or were unaffected. It's never a bad thing to have the water lovers around. I'll look for the Alaska Morbloom next year. The worst was losing the three Princess Blue ilex bushes. I'll figure that out next year.

 

[cgw]

Goth cherry tomatoes...
Know a few who refuse to sample these, much less eat 'em.
Delight a friend's goth daughter with a special dish of black pasta, roasted red peppers and the Indigo cherries.

 

[KJ_North]

 

[Original katomi]

Well this is my latest “thing” for the garden
Muz wanted stools to stand her pot plants on
So much wood turning and sawdust later two stools the last one had some nice grain in the legs
Look like becoming a small table..... looks like I will be making more for the pots

 

[cgw]

View attachment 278721View attachment 278722

Adore Pinks. Lovely fragrance.

 

[Jeff15]

 

[SquarePeg]

Garden updates

Some new dahlias in bloom
This one is Otto’s Thrill

This is Thomas Edison

Gladiolus

Cone flower update

 

[terri]

A mid-August update on my garden. No pics, which is admittedly lame, but overall it's a stressed and yellowing garden from the repeated flooding this summer, so not particularly photogenic.

* I have 2 Black Swallowtail cats safely in the butterfly cage. They're about 5 days apart in age. Only one parsley plant is in there and they're both starting to devour it. I'll be throwing handfuls of it in there soon.

* Hubby picked a large, fat tomato worm off our best tomato plant this morning. The two other plants have suffered more from all the rain so when this one suddenly looked gnawed on, an inspection was warranted. He was dispensed with quickly.

* Another Blue Princess ilex bush is starting to yellow and fade. When it joins the others, that will bring the total to 4 that have died from the excessive rainfall.

* Every day now, we are visited by a few pairs of Goldfinches. They are having a great time getting the coneflower seeds. Gorgeous!

* Another monarch butterfly has been visiting lately. I keep checking the Swamp milkweed but so far, it's not getting chewed by a new cat.

Sunny and dry these days. Yay! But the damage has been done, sadly.

 

[SquarePeg]

A mid-August update on my garden. No pics, which is admittedly lame, but overall it's a stressed and yellowing garden from the repeated flooding this summer, so not particularly photogenic.

* I have 2 Black Swallowtail cats safely in the butterfly cage. They're about 5 days apart in age. Only one parsley plant is in there and they're both starting to devour it. I'll be throwing handfuls of it in there soon.

* Hubby picked a large, fat tomato worm off our best tomato plant this morning. The two other plants have suffered more from all the rain so when this one suddenly looked gnawed on, an inspection was warranted. He was dispensed with quickly.

* Another Blue Princess ilex bush is starting to yellow and fade. When it joins the others, that will bring the total to 4 that have died from the excessive rainfall.

* Every day now, we are visited by a few pairs of Goldfinches. They are having a great time getting the coneflower seeds. Gorgeous!

* Another monarch butterfly has been visiting lately. I keep checking the Swamp milkweed but so far, it's not getting chewed by a new cat.

Sunny and dry these days. Yay! But the damage has been done, sadly.

I haven’t found any swallowtail or monarch cats recently. My parsley has been ignored. I have a ton of swamp milkweed in the butterfly garden and have seen monarchs around it but no cat sightings. I haven’t looked as often as I used to so I’m hoping that they’re out there and well hidden!

I finally got pics of one of the goldfinches. They are very skittish birds! More so than the hummingbirds.

If there was one tomato hornworm there are probably more. They are so hard to spot. When I was growing tomatoes the previous two years, I ordered a uv flashlight on Amazon and you can use it at night to spot the hornworms and some of the butterfly caterpillars as well. They glow.

 

[jeffashman]

My garden is about as dead as the Texas prairie... don't light a match around here please... The purple sage is actually doing well, as well as the butterfly milkweed, but the fields around here are tinder dry right now. Hoping for some rain in the next few days to reduce the fire risk.