Late Summer Flowers

Ozark Sundrops- a low growing perennial. It started blooming in its second year

This time of the year there is a lot of garden clean up to do. The daisies have mostly gone to seed as have the maltese cross, the delphiniums and the monkshood, not to mention the columbines. The roses need to be deadheaded, as do the early lilies that are finished blooming.
I try and deadhead my annuals every day as I pass by a pot of them on the deck or on my way down the outside deck stairs. If you keep the pansies and osteospermum daisies deadheaded they will continue to bloom all summer long. The same goes for the geraniums, of which I have many. The geraniums are looking spectacular right now, full of masses of flowers.

Its very gratifying to continue to see different perennials blooming in my flower beds . That's what every gardener strives for: having a flower garden where there is always something in bloom from early spring to late fall.  I planted some low growing Ozark Snow Drops last year ,but they didn't do much until a few weeks ago. They have the most beautiful bell shaped yellow blossoms. It was a wonderful surprise to come upon them one morning blooming quietly. :)

The hollyhocks are still blooming, but the flowers are mostly blooming at the tops of the tall stems now as the rest lower down have gone to seed.  The lone hollyhock plant in my stack stone bed is about a week behind the rest and still looking healthy and lovely, aside from a few lacylike chewed leaves, thanks to the slugs, and thanks indirectly to all the rain we have had since spring....

'Autumn Colors' Rudbeckia

The late summer flowers are looking really good. The rudbeckia "Autumn Colors" are full of flowers, especially the ones that got nibbled off early in the planting season. (Not sure if it was the deer or the marmot that was responsible.) That's proof positive that one should snip annuals down after planting them, something that I find so hard to do. Snipping off perfectly good flowers seems to be such a dumb idea when you have waited all through the long winter for flowers to bloom in the garden.

My Lavatara has FINALLY started to bloom! They were so tiny when I planted them and some of them didn't survive the transplanting. (Lavataras are finicky.) But the ones that did are opening their blossoms now and should bloom until frost.

7 foot tall helianthus

My tall helianthus (also sometimes called heliopsis) in the middle of my angel bed are still looking great. I love their multi-petalled yellow pom pom shaped bossoms. :)  I had to re-tie them though. Many of the stems had grown outside of the stakes and the strings that I had tied them with.  What a job!

helianthus 'pom pom' blossoms

Note to self: Next year, check the helianthus as it is growing and move the stakes as needed, before they get 7 feet tall!

heliopsis- false sunflower shorter variety

I think I will have to dig some of it out and give it away at the Plant Swap in May before it takes over that whole bed.

Gaillardia -Blanket flowers 

Another note to self: Dig out some of the delphiniums and the maltese crosses in the angel bed or move the blanket flowers out 12 inches.  Also, remember to give the dahlias and the foxgloves more room to grow. The Baby's Breath needs to be cut back or some of it dug up as well. My poor dahlias are growing at a 45 % angle due to being crowded out.  They are a beautiful red cactus blossom  and still looking wonderful!

I'm enjoying some late blooming lilies and the Stargazers are promising to be big and gorgeous, if the size of the buds are an indication... Looking forward to their spectacular blooms! 

Gazanias - continue to bloom and look fabulous

Dahlias, Lilies and Pests

Cactus Dahlia

This amazing cactus dahlia is 10 years old! I bought the tuber many years ago and each year I dig them up after the frost has killed the plants and  I over-winter them in the laundry room in bags of peat moss. The following spring, I plant them in a pot of soil and they start growing again.  The other half of the tubers are growing in my 'Angel bed', but the buds have not opened yet. That dahlia plant has a huge Baby's Breath next to it, hogging much of the sunlight. Next spring I will have to find it a more generous spot to grow in.

My favorite 4-legged companion

Flower box- pink geraniums, blue pansies, white lobelia and creeping jenny- lysemackia

Lexy relaxing in the shade

False sunflowers, another late summer perennial easy to grow.

This false sunflower is quite small compared to the giant growing in the middle of my round Angel bed. That heliopsis is over 7 feet tall! Next spring I will have to dig some of it out and give it away at the spring plant swap, or move the stakes back and re-tie it. It has outgrown it's confines and some of it is hanging down over other not quite as tall perennials.

oriental pink lilies

I love these pink oriental lilies. Such a fabulous color! Thanks to Bobbex, the deer have only eaten 3 of my lilies this year. My Stargazer lilies in my stack stone bed have big buds on them now and should be blooming soon as long as I keep them sprayed...

My white daisies are mostly finished blooming now and I have been deadheading them regularly to avoid a massive takeover in the spring. The Maltese Cross in my rock garden have all gone to seed now, too, so I cut the stems down to about half their size last evening.  Also yanked out copious amounts of tall quack grass hiding in among my tall perennials. Today I trimmed off a number of Maltese Cross in my round 'Angel bed' as well as some of the monkshood which is going to seed.

The Delphiniums are next!

The ugly part of gardening: pest control!
Tiny caterpillars had infested my red current bush and had a hay day there. More like a "hay week",  I think! They almost stripped every leaf off the entire bush!  The week before that, I  had discovered masses of aphids underneath the upper leaves of the same shrub, so I clipped off all the upper leaves,  then sprayed the entire thing with insecticidal soap, thinking I had the problem beat. Riiiight!

I also noticed that something in my flower beds were making lacy holes in the leaves of many of my flowers, notably the sunflowers. Many of the smaller ones in my stack stone bed had no leaves left at all. I discovered the culprits yesterday evening, after the sun had gone around to the other side of the house and it had cooled off. There were about a dozen slugs there, one on each sunflower, merrily munching away oblivious to my angry glare. I picked the leaves that they were sitting on and squished them....

I have to spray some Neem Oil on the plants in that bed to deter any other nasty creatures, but rain was forecast for tonight which would mean re-applying it tomorrow, so I will wait till then.

Hollyhocks & Clematises

Hollyhocks and clematis are both types of perennials. They both like sun, but do not like to dry out.

Hollyhocks are short-lived plants, but if you let them drop seeds in the fall, you will always have a few new plants. I usually collect and keep some of the seeds to start a few plants in the house in the spring. Then I plant the seedings in the spaces in the flower bed where any of my other hollyhocks didn't come up.

Hollyhocks

This spring I found a hollyhock growing in the vegetable garden and another one in a bad spot in one of my other flower beds (my "Angel bed"). I dug both of them up and moved them to my hollyhock bed next to the house. One of them had bare roots, but I watered it well and eventually it started to grow.

More Hollyhocks

Another thing to keep in mind, Hollyhocks are actually a type of biennial. That means that in the first year seedlings do not grow very tall, nor do they flower till the second year.

General Sikorska clematis on right -light mauve flowers / Jackmanii on left- dark purple flowers

 Clematises like sun but prefer to have 'cool feet'. It's a good idea to mulch them well and to plant a shorter perennial or annual right in front of them. I have some black-eyed susans growing directly in front as well as some blue petunias. and a pink oriental poppy.

4 petal mutant Jackmanii flower

Jackmanii flower opening

General Sikorska light mauve flowers

Clematis vines need a trellis or something tall to climb on. The General Sikorska and the Jackmanii are both hybrid clematises. Their vines die back over winter, but I don't cut them off until spring because sometimes they don't die entirely.  They need to be kept well watered even in the fall.

Once established, clematises and hollyhocks have a beautiful, stunning display of flowers from mid summer till end of September and are well worth the effort to grow.