Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for August 2016.
Just last week, here in USDA Hardizone Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, I thought my bloom day post would be full of my whining about how dry it was.
Was dry.
A lovely thunderstorm rolled through last Wednesday leaving behind over two inches of rain. I was pleased and thought how lovely and refreshed the garden looked. No more dry, brittle leaves. No more dusty flowers. No more plants drooping in the garden by noon.
Then this weekend, we got more rain, over three inches by mid-morning Sunday and it is still coming down.
I had the brief sane thought of waiting for the rain to pass on through before going out to take bloom day pics, but that thought passed quickly when I saw the forecast for the next several days.
So I found a rain coat deep inside a back closet, threw it on and headed out to see what’s blooming in the rain.
Turns out, there is quite a bit blooming, even in the rain.
I have a couple of white lilies blooming. There are some in several spots in Plopper’s Field, so I assume I bought bulbs for them.
This is what wet tall phlox, Phlox paniculata, looks like, growing along side false sunflowers, Heliopsis helianthoides.
This is more wet tall phlox, in purple.
The sunflowers, Helianthus annuus ‘Heirloom Titan’, grown from seeds I got from Renee’s Garden, look a little a lot drippy. It’s morning in this picture, so they are facing east, no doubt wondering where the sun is. When the rain stops, I intend to get a ladder and a tape measure and find out how tall they really are. My best guess is ten feet. I should start a betting pool. What’s your guess?
This is definitely the summer of zinnias. I have them growing all along the back side of the veg garden. I’ll be growing them again next year, which is no surprise. I grow them every year.
Oh my, this is a type of black-eyed susan… it is… give me a minute to think of it… I know… it’s Rudbeckia subtomentosa ‘Henry Eilers’! Not a great picture, but did I mention the rain?
Will you look at this hydrangea loaded with blooms? Ignore that weedy area around it, many of those “weeds” are violets, focus on the blooms. This one is Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’.
I think this hosta is pretty. It has a dark red stem and I purchased it from Soules Garden. There is a tag under there which I could look at to tell you just which one it is, but did I mention the rain?
Here’s another hosta, a white blooming passalong plant I just call ” Grandma’s August Lily” because it is just like the ones I remember growing along the northside of my grandma’s house. It is surounded by some surprise lilies, Lycoris squamigera.
And look, just to remind us that fall is coming, the toad lilies, Tricyrtis sp. are just beginning to bloom.
My apologies to those who live in areas suffering from drought or those who live where it is naturally dry. I didn’t intend to post so many pictures of wet flowers, but that’s what I’ve got here in the middle of August for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day.
What’s blooming in your garden now? We’d love to have you join in for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day and show us. It’s easy to participate. Just post on your blog about what’s blooming in your garden and then come back here and leave a comment to entice us to visit and a link in Mr. Linky so we know how to get to your garden post.
And always remember, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
Happy Bloom Day Carol and thanks for hosting! Your gardens offer a lot of color for the month of August and I love all your zinnias! I am glad you finally got some rain. We have been going through a heat wave all this past week. The temperature today was 97 degrees with no rain in sight, just a dash of heat lightening, but it is supposed to break tomorrow. Have a great week!
Happy Bloomday from the left coast !
Oh – the rain sounds wonderful! Mind you, everyone over here have complained non-stop over our "non-summer" – meaning the weather gods opted for a nice, temperate summer, as opposed to cranking it to the broiler setting on the oven. I think I'm in the minority, but I have enjoyed it tremendously! And, who needs sun when you have sunflowers anyway? Happy GBBD!
Ahh, but the colours are so much stronger under cloudy skies. Hope it stops soon though… Happy Bloom Day Carol.
We've emerged blinking into the sunshine this week as at last we're having a reprieve from quite a lot of rain earlier this month.
The dahlias are going strong as we move into the late summer garden 🙂
So, I'm hearing you say that it rained and your flowers are wet? Summer is flying by way to fast. All seasons have their charms and I do love autumn but want to hold on to summer as long as I can! Guessing that your sunflowers are 11 feet six inches. Thanks for hosting the party and inviting us all to join you!
Lovely rain, no garden can do without it. We need rain here, but it is coming, due on Wednesday!
Beautiful blooms!
We have been fortunate to have rain in July and August this year (Mississippi).
Thanks for hosting GBBD!
We were supposed to get 3 to 5 inches of rain this weekend in upstate New York – fortunately the weather underperformed. Like you, we are in a drought, but that would have been too much rain. And you reminded me, I forgot to take pictures of my false sunflower – oh well. I am happy your garden is finally getting some rain to soak up.
Nothing like rain in August to bring the garden back to life for us Midwesterners. We had some late last week but not such a drenching as it sounds like you had.
We finally got some rain too. I'd say about 1.5 inches on Friday. With the almost inch of rain the week before flowers are lifting up their leaves. More rain on the way, too.
Lovely flowers! It definitely is unusual for us to have this much rain in August.
Like you, we were dry and now we're not. You have an abundance of blooms in your garden. The lilies, especially are fetching!! Thanks for hosting once again.
You have lots of pretty blooms for such a long dry spell we had. I think the rain trumps the blooms this month. I was so happy to see it.
Thanks so much for hosting the party again this month! Like you, here in Baltimore we've had long stretches of drought followed by intense thunderstorms that dump a couple inches rain in a short time. The garden is lucky to soak up a little of it before it runs off into the storm sewers.
Your gardens look great, and I'm sure they enjoyed the wet relief!
Everybody talks about the weather. We never know what we'll get from year to year. August here is wetter than usual. Your garden has thrived with all the moisture, lovely. I'll post my blossoms later. Thank you for the opportunity.
No rain in sight here and plenty of warm temps. Ah well, that's what summer is all about.
Your multi-colored Zinnia are gorgeous! I'm growing just the green this year. Next year I will follow your lead!
I'm pleased to see rain somewhere. There's none here, although that's the norm in summer. Hopefully, we'll get more in winter this year. The forecasters were wrong about El Nino's bounty for SoCal so they might as well be wrong about the paltry rain expected with La Nina.
Your garden looks lovely even in the pouring rain. I bet it smells fresh too!
The zinnias have been abundant and those are beautiful. The rain has been wonderful for the past week and everything is growing so well. I'm already looking forward to the fall flowers and foliage.
Happy GBBD Carol! I adore your lilies – we have too many lily beetles here to grow them unfortunately but I do love to see them in other people's gardens. And I didn't manage to get my sunflowers into the ground quick enough (again!) this year – next year perhaps! Here's my GBBD post – hope you enjoy it! https://sallynex.com/blog/
I enjoyed my visit to your August garden, Carol. Thank you for hosting us once again. Happy Bloom Day to all!
Hi Carol,
As Loree said, no rain in sight for the Pacific NW. We appear to be headed toward a record breaking heatwave this coming weekend. other than that…it's been a very 'vintage' Oregon summer with more traditional temps unlike the incredibly hot summer of 2015. Congrats on some rainfall, everything feels so refreshed and smells so sweet after a summer rain. Happy GBBD!
Loved your August Lily –Mama called them that, too– and Lycoris Squamigera together.
I've been enjoying rain as well, although not as much as you've gotten. We hopefully have left the heat and humidity behind us. Here's to a glorious fall!
Happy Bloom Day! Just realized that NEXT month's bloom day we will be in Atlanta – IF I get my act together, I will pre-post one for that, but not likely to happen and so will just see you on the GWA garden tours and we can compare garden bloom notes in person there 🙂
Happy bloom day from Central Florida! I love all the flowers on all the blogs! Thanks Carol for hosting 🙂
Happy August Bloom Day! Thanks for hosting, Carol.
All of us midwestern garden bloggers seem to have the same theme. First we whine about the heat and the drought. Then we rejoice over the rain! Here in Columbus Ohio we also received several inches of rain this week, and it has been glorious indeed!
No need to apologize for the wet flower photos. I admit I am missing the 2 or 3 unusual thunderstorms that passed through and watered my garden last year in July and August, but overall I like my summer-dry climate. Hope you don't float away in all that rain!
We have had the rain here north of Pittsburgh too, Carol. I am thinking that if it keeps up I should start planting out some more ground cover – a very unusual idea for August!
Happy GBBD
Julie
We have had the same drought issues here in Massachusetts, though in the last couple of days we finally got two decent bouts of rain. Also very jealous of the Lycoris squamigera. I wish they were more widely available!
Dry here too in Virginia, but not to the point of a drought. Love your Rudbeckia.
-Ray
We had a rainstorm here last week, too! Very unusual for this time of year. Everything looked so much better afterwards!
Your surprise lilies made me smile. When we used to live in Kansas City, it seemed that they were everywhere, but I haven't seen any out here (Washington state.) Anyway, brought back some happy memories. Maybe I need to find some to plant.
Happy bloom day!
Hi Carol, we too have found the weather swinging between no rain and too much rain. And in-between, the weeds grow abundantly. Hydrangea 'Limelight' is a real winner, season after season.
No such rain here and we could certainly do with some although the garden is just about coping. Thanks for hosting and showing us your own blooms 🙂
Carol, I provided the whine about the dry conditions. We did get 1" late last week, which helped to give my plants some immediate relief; but we really need a few days of good, soaking rain. Your rain seems to fall under the heading of "When it rains, it pours." We can both be thankful we're not in Louisiana. I hope you get sunshine soon and can enjoy your happily hydrated flowers. -Jean
The rain sounds lovely! I'm surprised at how much we have blooming in the PNW though even without much rain in the summers (we get all our rain the other 9 months).
Carol, your garden is looking lovely despite the dry heat we've had. I spend many hours watering these days to keep us going until the weather improves. Thank you for hosting this great event each month! WG
You are a brave soul, Carol, to go out in the rain to take all these great photos. I decided to take the easy route and just use what I had taken the previous few days:) But I'm not complaining–we had over three inches by this morning, and my garden is loving it! Love all your zinnias, and I am vowing that next year I won't forget to plant sunflowers until it is too late!
All these flowers shown in photos are looking absolutely amazing. It was just great having a glance at your summer garden photos. Keep sharing garden updates! Anyway, I am going to throw a party and recently I have been seeking reviews about online Bloom Flowers shop reviews. Is there anyone who has used their services?
Your lovely flowers seem to have enjoyed the rain. Thank you for hosting the monthly Garden Bloom Day!
Thank you for holding the garden gate open for me. It has been tooooo long without a visit.
Hi Carol! Happy Bloom Day!
It seems as though your flowers are happy and enjoying the rain 🙂
My favourite flowers that are blooming right now in August are sunflowers. I am a professional gardener so I pretty much live and breathe gardening. I Enjoy reading all your comments too!