Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for August 2020.
Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, I wasn’t quite sure where to begin! I have a lot more flowers than I thought.
So, let’s just start looking, shall we?
First off, I have Allium ‘Millenium’ blooming all over because I planted it along the edges of several borders. It is a bee and pollinator magnet. Don’t believe me? Check out the video I’ve added at the end of this post.
And yes, I shot those videos sitting right there by all those bees, and not a one of them took any notice of me.
Peeking through the allium is Clematis x jouiniana ‘Mrs. Robert Brydon’.
It’s a clematis that scrambles in and around other flowers and blooms late in the season.
Elsewhere in the garden…
This Phlox paniculata shows up and blooms nicely with no powdery mildew on its leaves.
I don’t know where it came from or when I planted it, so it might be the straight species and I might have picked it up by serendipity when I rescued some other wildflowers.
I’ve got to watch it closely and remove all the seed heads because it is a gigantic plant, over six feet tall.
‘Tis a shame I don’t keep better track of which varieties of hosta I have.
It’s Eutrochium dubium ‘Little Joe’.
I do need to weed.
I cut this back to nubbins earlier in the spring and it has bounced back nicely.
Did I mention zinnias?
I think I did. They are so easy to grow from seed and have done quite well this year.
I started the seeds indoors a few weeks before the last frost.
This a hardy variety called ‘Brown Turkey’. It dies back to the ground in the winter and comes back from the roots each spring.
This is Calamintha nepeta subsp nepeta. It is also a pollinator magnet!
So many beautiful blooms Carol and I especially love the Potentilla and Zinnias! Thank you for hosting and Happy Bloom Day!
Happy see your report post Hurricane Isaias. Lovely flowers, incuding the 'Rosie Posie' Agastache, which reminded me I forgot to post a picture of my Agastache, 'Blue Fortune' which is also drawing in pollinators like crazy! Thanks for joining in!
I'm giggling at your post Carol, because I'd thought about cheekily writing about my brown turkey figs because they are in fact flowers 😉
I've not grown Zinnias before, but I'm planning to next year for my new cut flower project.
This month I've written about a chance encounter which has neatly supplied the answer to a gap in one of my borders 🙂
Happy Blooms Day everyone!
Never grown Zinnias before? Goodness. I hope you try them soon and let us know how they work out for you. They like it a bit on the hot side but your growing season should be long enough. So easy to grow from seed. (Loved your post by the way!)
Oh lovely blooms ..I am missing my Fig plant which wilted due to my ignorance last month …btw those zinnias are startling .I have started a link up party related to Gardening .Please share your posts related to gardening here is the link http://jaipurgardening.blogspot.com/2020/08/garden-affair-link-up-party.html
I'm guessing your fig plant doesn't die down to the ground each winter like mine does. It's always a race to watch to see if the figs will ripen before the first frost stops them.
Lots of summer beauties in your garden. I'm envious of your coneflowers as mine have long gone to seed. I liked the video of the allium pollinators–they're busy, busy. Thanks for hosting!
Thank you! My coneflowers almost didn't make the cut because they are going to seed quickly!
Carol, the cup flower is one that we share on the Northern Plains! It's found in undisturbed native areas of grassland.
It's a big plant. I probably shouldn't have it in my little surburban garden but it is too interesting not to include in my micro-prairie area.
I was thinking of growing cup flower, but when I saw how tall it gets I reconsidered! Thank you for hosting Bloom Day. If only my dying lilac would get finished dying I'd put in a fig.
Cup Plant is definitely big. And figs are fun! Thanks for joining in.
I like the new look! And I've been meaning to try calamint but never purchased it. I am very tempted now that I know it attracts pollinators.
Yes, any plant that attracts pollinators is a great thing to grow. Though, it is not native to the United States. I believe it is native in some parts of the UK.
I was so curious how your video upload would go (after reading yesterday's post). I see you went the YouTube route. I never had any issues uploading videos with the old blogger platform but with the new one I've had no luck. Ugh. Love your zinnias!
I never tried to upload videos with the old blogger but when I tried to do a test of a video yesterday it never seemed to finish loading. So YouTube to the rescue, where I've been playing with different types of videos this year.
That's the same issue I had. Loading forever…
It looks like you're having a glorious August! I love the abundance of zinnias growing in your garden. Like my dahlias, mine got a late start this year but at least that gives me something to look forward to in September.
Yes, all things considered, the August garden is looking pretty good. Of course, we've had rain occasionally and the hottest days haven't been just awful.
Your pollinator video was awesome. I should take a video of all these wasps around my pineapple mint – not one bee, but lots of wasps. (?) I enjoyed your Joe Pye weed (it's having a banner year – the wild ones, that is – where I live) and zinnias. Calamint is one of these things I always mean to try but don't. Thank you once again for hosting GBBD.
Forgot to say who I am! Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com. Sorry about that!
Hello Alana. I haven't been too many places lately where the Joe Pye weed are growing wild. I'll have to keep my eyes open. I like 'Little Joe' because it isn't quite as big as the wild ones are.
I could watch that video all day! What an awesome allium, and calamint is one of my favs too.
Thank you! The bees are the stars of it. So many!
Fabulousness in your garden! xogail
Thank you, Gail, for stopping by to see!
Beautiful flowers, and I enjoyed the video, too!
Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
Thank you. I am and I hope you are too!
You have so many beautiful flowers but I especially love your gorgeous alliums, watching all your bees in the video was amazing. I think we will all be buying them for our gardens next year!
The other great thing about them is the bulk up and are easy to dig and divide. I'm sharing them with my sisters! And indeed, I got these from an old neighbor friend.
Your garden is looking lovely. I find August to be such a tough month for blooming perennials by end of summer. I bet you're looking forward to harvesting those figs!
Karin, I am looking forward to those figs. I manage to get a few that ripen before frost hits.
Your garden always looks so lush!
Thank you, Nancy. We've been blessed with normal amounts of rain this summer, plus… I don't share the scarce parts of the garden!
It has been busy week (as you know!) and I didn't think I'd get a Bloom Day post done this year, but glad I decided to charge ahead and do one as I'd have not noticed much of the flower action in my garden this week. Thanks for continuing to host this sharing forum!
Thanks for joining in. It was a busy, but fun week. Anyone reading this… we just had GardenComm's first ever virtual conference last with some great talks, lots of sharing, etc. Good fun!
Gorgeous flowers Carol ! I just tried linking in for this event .. not sure I have done it correctly but I wanted to give it a shot 😉
Looks good. Thank you!
I thought I didn't have too much to show off this Bloom Day, but surprised myself. My garden is not large, but it is has trees and very large shrubs. The flowers are more scattered in this season. Even so, I have lots of zinnias – a new project.
Commonweeder… it is surprising how many flowers you have when you go out and look! Thanks for joining in!
Carol, what lovely summer flowers you have! Thank you for hosting the monthly bloom day 🙂
Thank you for joining in!
Nice to see those 'Millenium', they are a delightful allium. I also liked your figs – I have some hanging on a potted fig that I forgot to take inside last winter and it survived.
And thank you for participating, John!
Thanks for hosting this monthly bloom fest, Carol
You're welcome! It's my pleasure to do so!
I really need to move my alliums to more sun. I keep seeing how gorgeous they are and mine are pitiful in too much shade.
Yes, you should move them. I have some in partial shade and they are nice but not as nice as those in full sun.
I guess I always thought of alliums as a spring flower, but maybe I'll have to look into this kind. They're lovely!
Yes, everyone is surprised to see them blooming this time of year. A nice surprise!
You August garden is lovely, Carol. Yes, August is for zinnias. Sorry I'm late! P.x
Thank you Pam, and better late than never!
Does the silphium self-seed? I love zinnias and planted a lot of seeds a month ago but they're still quite small (a 2-6 inches tall) and not flowering. I think it's our drought, though I have watered them just about every day.
I'm afraid to even let Silphium (cup plant) try to self-sow as it would be a lot of very large plants in my small surburban garden.
Hi again Carol, a bit late, but good to join in again. Have serious envy with your cone flower strip! Very nice. I'm also a fan of allium Millenium, great video btw. This allium moved in here last year but I added more this year beside it. It's a mega pollinator magnet as your video shows. I love it too, both as a plant and to see all the wildlife it brings. Enjoy yours 🙂