Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for July 2018.
Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, the flowers of the season are out in full force even though it has been a hot summer, so far, and mildly dry. We could use some rain!
But the lack of rain doesn’t seem to be affecting the blooms. They are everywhere in the garden, delighting me at every turn. They are like old friends with new friends mixed in. So many that I sometimes forget who “just arrived” a few years ago and who has been here the 20+ years that I’ve been here. And some came with me from past gardens so we are almost life-long friends.
Such is the way of gardens.
Annuals and perennials, natives and non-natives, I like to think there wherever one might look, one will find a flower or two or ten that they like in my garden.
The first bloom is brand new to my garden, the annual zinnia ‘Queeny Lime Orange’, an All-America Selections Winner for 2018. I love it and have declared I’ll be getting seeds to bring it back to my garden every year.
It’s a hot day, so let’s speed up this little visit with just pictures and captions. Skip thee all the way to the bottom to find out how you can join in for bloom day!
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| Candy lilies. I like how the petals twist up when the flowers fade. |
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| Let’s just call this a double tiger lily, because that’s what it is. |
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| Another lily. Maybe ‘Black Beauty’? |
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| Let’s let this bloom represent all the daylilies blooming in my garden. |
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| White phlox, probably ‘David’. A good one. |
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| My river of coneflowers through Plopper’s Field. |
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| A butterfly on phlox and yes, those phlox plants need some water! |
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| Heliopsis, also known as false sunflower. Oh how they can take over a garden! |
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| Wild petunias, Ruellia. I am encouraging them to self-sow! |
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| Cup flowers. Big plants. Good for the back of a border. Don’t let them self-sow! |
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| Candy Strip zinnias. An oldie and goodie. |
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| An older flower on Queeny Lime Orange zinnia. It ages gracefully. |
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| Marigolds from seed. |
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| Borage. It just comes up where it wants to and I let it. |
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| The bee magnet, also known as Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’. |
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| One of my favorite daylilies, ‘Hyperion’. An old variety with scent. |
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| I’ve been working on getting Geranium ‘Rozanne’ to take over in a bed out front. |
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| Leadwort, false plumbago, and the bluest flowers anywhere. |
What’s blooming in your garden on this hot July day? We’d love to have you join in for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day and show us. It’s easy to participate. Just post about the blooms in your garden then come back here and leave a link in the Mr. Linky widget to tell us how to get to your post and a comment to tell us what you have for us to see.
And always remember, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
Lovely Carol! Lack of rain will be a common theme this month perhaps. It's certainly the case here and very unusual for SW England. Happy Bloom Day.
You got quite a spread for a month when most of us are commenting on how ravaging the weather had been. Ours had not been nearly so bad, but did a number on the bloom in just the last two weeks or so. The weather was not at all bad, but got warmer too suddenly for the flowers. I am sorry that I could not post a Gravatar (or whatever that is), and am having difficulty commenting. I think that the slow connection here may be interfering. I will be back during the day.
Playing snap with Phlox paniculata David.
I didnt grow zinnias this year for the first time in years so am enjoying yours even more.
Beautiful prolific blooms of Zinnia and lilies ….Our monsoon season has started so we are expecting lot of rain that will bring relief from the scorching sunny days of summer ..Hope everyone gets few rains or more to drench there garden and make it more alive .
Please visit my blog to know whats blooming in my garden
https://jaipurgardening.blogspot.com/2018/07/blooms-on-arrival-of-monsoon.html
Lovely Carol. Your garden is looking abundant with blooms despite the lack of rain and your Zinnias are especially gorgeous! We finally got a little rain just last night after a long period without, so the garden and lawn should get a nice boost. Happy July Bloom Day!
July is a colorful garden month, isn't it? Thanks so much for hosting, Carol!
I love all of them, but most specially the violets and the blues!
Beautiful,Carol. My Black-eyed Susan's began to bloom this month and my daylilies look great.
A river of coneflowers sounds delightful! The only plant that spreads like that in my hot, dry garden is Santa Barbara daisy and even it's looking singed in spots this year. Thanks, as always, for hosting, Carol!
This post has me wanting to grow zinnias again and the colors of your Candy Lilies are stunning. How fortunate that your butterfly posed for you. Great shot. Thanks, as always, for hosting GBBD!
I envy your beautiful zinnias. The humidity here is so hard on them but I love every single bloom I can find.
Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry
Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and thanks for hosting. I intended to sow Zinnia seeds this year and never got to it. Unfortunately in spring my attention span is often too frazzled to pay attention to any task for long, too distracted by the next shiny thing (or impending chore).
You have a great selection of bloomers Carol. I really like the bluest of the blues.
We've been fortunate enough, where I live in upstate New York, to get rain because not everyone has upstate! I love Candy Stripe zinnias – I have not grown them in years. For some reason, zinnias don't do well on my property although my husband grows them just fine in his community garden plot. Go figure! (no such thing as too many lilies, by the way). I enjoyed all your blooms. Hoping you get some rain soon!
Hello Carol – Happy GBBD! I love seeing your collection of sown plants in summer. So colorful! I have borage growing everywhere around my veggie boxes. Like you, I leave it. The bee's love it and then they pollinate my veggie blooms. Cheers
Happy GBBD.
Happy Bloomday Carol.I find it interesting that your Phlox David and my Phlox David are blooming at the same time-zone 9 and 6 don't tend to coincide much !
"Rozanne" geranium will spread nicely, and borage used to self-seed liberally for me but this year I had to get a few from a friend to plant! I love their flowers. And so do the pollinators.
I'm so glad you like zinnias too. I not only have them in my own garden, I have planted them in two public gardens here in town. I'm just one of several volunteers who are creating pollinator and native plant public spaces.
Oh… how I miss Zinnias!!!
https://thelowerleftcorner.com/2018/07/15/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-july-2018/
Zinnias, coneflowers, and daylilies–I know I'd find more than one or two or ten flowers I love in your garden, Carol! We've had quite a bit of rain here recently; I hope it heads your way soon.
Your garden is looking great! I especially enjoy your zinnias. How do you keep your borage from flopping over and breaking? That's what happens every time I grow it. I still love it anyway.
I regret not planting any Zinnias this year…darn-it! Yours are gorgeous.
So many beautiful flowers and so many pictures of them. I enjoyed walking through your garden very much. Happy Bloom Day my friend!~~Dee
You have a lovely selection of Zinnias, something I've not tries yet.It seems we are all suffering from a lack of rain, hopefully we all get some soon.
Hi Carol,
Somehow I am always late to this party. Nevertheless I'm happy to participate with a boatload a of lilies. We are now paying for all the water we had in May and June. We've had less than an inch of rain in the last three weeks and the ground is cracking…
Carol, It has been hot and dry here in Maine, too, and I've been doing more watering than I would like. But, as in your garden, the flowers just keep on blooming. Thanks again for hosting.
I have never heard of Candy Lilies – they look very similar to our Blackberry Lilies = sure enough after some googling I find they are related. "Candy lilies, also known as Pardancanda norrisii, are the result of hybridization between the blackberry lily I. domestica (formerly Belamcamda chinensis), and Iris dichrotoma." Interesting.