jWith all the cutting back trying to keep perennials from blooming too soon or prolonging their bloom out until the middle of August and hopefully blooming beautifully on August 27 for the garden walk..I only have a few things to share today Im also linking up over at May day gardens for the monthly bloom day....... and Fertilizer Friday over at Tootsie Time.
Some of my roses have developed black spot.....yikes!! but, since I want to encourage butterfly's and help pollinators that have been affected by the pesticides that are often found in fungicides I have chosen to watch carefully and later determine how much damage I am willing to have through out the garden so that I am not killing all the beneficial insects or birds!
Several of the roses are actually quite beautiful. Some have been hit by pest leaving their leaves riddled with holes! my Fourth of July Jenkins and Perkins climbing rose is getting ready for another flush... The carpet roses are pruned back and budding out. Chuhuly just might grace us with a bloom or two in a couple weeks. I cut it back hoping to encourage it to develop some side branches. Perhaps it will bless me with a bloom on August 27th... Am I ready for the tour you ask...Nope! but, it will just have to do as I fly out on Friday 16th and won't get back home until after dark on the 26th...The tour will be at 7pm on the 27th.
Monarda is a favorite of mine but can be susceptible to mildew so the ones along the front walk which have to be hand water do get a certain amount of splashing which also spreads the spores. I have continued to cut back the plant to get rid of the mildew and to delay the blooming time. It looks as if it will have several new flowers to show off. I have read that if you use 9 to 1 ratio of water to milk that it helps reduce mildew..anyone out there use this method?
The softer lilac and pink Monarda will be moved else where in the garden. although it has not been my experience of being able to move it very easily due to the root system it has rambling around in the sandy bed along the front walk.
This Raspberry Monarda is one of my favorite and with time does get into big clumps so full of blooms that its a sold burst of colour in a bed.
Balloon flowers have been cut back in several places as on August 7th... we shall see if they bloom again on the 27th. They appear to be getting ready for another burst of colour and if the Raspberry Monarda keeps looking good will give a good show side by side
The lilies have been left... I do not know of any way to get these to actually "bloom again" does anyone out there have a tip for next year?
The Hollyhock bloomed and was cut back as well as heavily attacked foliage that was left looking like transparent leaves of only the veins. I found them strangely artistic but thought I best do something to help them photosynthesizes if I wanted them to bloom again. I removed all the affected leaves and new leaves have since replaced them. They have started to prepare to bloom again and should carry on through next week.
Potentilla has attracked lots of pollinators. I have pumpkins rambling all over them and finally had to remove them as the Potentilla foliage was being crushed from the weight of the growing pumpkins. I still wish that this was some variety other then yellow flowering but it does put on quite the show and last for months. Funny how in the spring we love all the yellow and then again in the fall when everything else has disappeared anything flowering still is truly embraced again.
One last white lily almost missed as its hidden behind some large elephant ears in the moon garden. I keep hoping that the Lady tresses will be blooming... they essentially have two weeks... Please bloom!!!
look what else I found blooming in the moon garden.
I also had cut back the white Phlox and its preparing to bedazzle having spread and grown into a good sized clump this summer. Also there is Sum and Substance Hosta just about to bloom. The Moon Garden should put on a bit of a show on the 27th
I cut back the cardinal flower a couple weeks ago in hopes to get it to bloom again in two weeks time...
I didn't quite time that right so I have cut it back again!... hmmmm we shall see! I do think though that the red poking out behind the arrow head and grasses in the pond look spectacular. There are also 7 remaining fish.I think they have spawned. Also, frogs did return this year even though not in the numbers that we had last year.
Lambs ear in front of Lamium "aurea" I am one of those people that prefer's the Lambs ear before it is blooming.
The first seed head to appear on the ornamental grass I do hope that I will be lucky enough to have other varietys start blooming in time for the tour...Such a shame.. Its really a little too late... and a little to early! But they will be welcomed to stop on back around later if they would like to see the full show towards the end of September. I did post about the ornamental grasses in late September last year and into October if you want to look at some of the back posts.
And yes finally I capture a butterfly on the Butterfly bush ... Not my butterfly bush but, it is outside and at a Vineyard in Niagara last weekend. ( hey at least Im honest about it!)
Maybe I should sample desert wines more often! These two shots turned out pretty good for me.
I will leave you with this shot as I don't want to give away all that will be seen on the tour. I do have friends who follow the blog even if they haven't added themselves so I do not want to spoil the tour.
I am in the air by the time this gets posted... I have a list of places to go to get photos and stories to blog about. One particular one that if it works I'm truly excited about! More to follow on that though next week.
Anyone who has had their garden on a tour...do you have any last minute advice before the final curtain call. What worked for you? What didn't? Do you worry about tiding up those edges? Dead heading and removing any brown leaves etc... If you could do it again what do you think had the greatest impact or gave the best result......I'd love to hear all of your advice and wish I would of thought to of asked it three weeks ago!
Have a fabulous week. Be kind to others and good to yourself.
Smile and enjoy the days of summer because fall is coming fast!
Kate
Everything looks so beautiful! It's good to see a monarch even if they're not in my garden yet. I have a big plan for all the black spot that's attacked my roses this year. In early winter I'll publish a post called The Rose Rescue Plan that you can try along with me. It will be interesting to compare our results.
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