Garden Bloggers Bloom Day August 2009

It's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day (hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens)... and it's a typical August weekend here in Northeast Ohio. We are finally hot and muggy--yes, I mean that WE are hot and muggy, just like the weather!--and the gardens are in their midsummer doldrums, where most everything looks a little worse for the wear and the annuals try to catch their second wind before they put on a good fall show.

There are a few exceptions to the doldrums, of course, and I think that this time around I'll show off the backyard blooms first before I move around to the front. But only because the star of my garden right now is the lovely verbena bonariensis, a.k.a. "tall verbena," "Brazilian verbena," or verbena-on-a-stick:

Verbena bonariensis, an anual that doesn't quite reseed as freely as I would like, backed by sorghastrum nutens 'Sioux Blue'

Most of my spring bloomers are long gone--and even some summer blooms, like the drumstick allium, have called it quits--but my silene is still blooming off and on:

Silene uniflora maritima 'Compacta' putting out some more blooms and mingling with 'Metallica Crispa' ajuga and one of my golden-leaf thymes... incidentally, I know that I had promised someone seeds of this last year, but I don't have any clue who that was. If it's you, email me to let me know!

Okay, this one isn't quite in bloom yet, but many of my sedums look really pretty in bud, too:

I'm pretty sure that this is sedum cauticola... the leaf color just looks more purple than blue because it doesn't get as much sun as my truly blue-leaf versons do!

... and here's one that I actually prefer in bud, 'Matrona,' (which flowers... ugh... pink!) alongside Russian Sage:

Love it now... but hate it when the 'Matrona' sedum blooms cotton-candy-pink against the already-sweet purple of the Russian sage.

In the shade garden by the driveway, 'Othello' ligularia sometimes pouts and droops its leaves in the heat... but it's still blooming away in a bright cheddar-y yellow:

'Othello' ligularia with golden creeping jenny, 'Jack Frost' brunnera, ferns, 'Chocolate Chip' brunnera, black mondo grass and the brick-y orange of the bamboo pot to break up the monotony

Keeping 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth confined to one corner is working out fairly well so far... as is having that area be Coco's Corner, since the ones she happens to bend over fall artfully into the also-blooming 'All Gold' hakone grass:

'All Gold' hakonechloa macra, 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth, and foliage from hellebores, goatsbeard, ligularia and sweet woodruff

Moving on to the front yard, there are more annual reseeders to be found. Nestled amid the catmint (which I need to cut back again for a little more rebloom) are some red-toned snapdragons that were allowed to stay--the white and pink ones are always weeded out for bouquets!

Random red snapdragons with 'Walker's Low' (probably, but a passalong) catmint

'Summerwine' achillea would reseed for me, except that I keep them deadheaded fairly well in order to get more bloom. This one needs to be trimmed a bit for both rebloom and to help it stand upright again--I put a little too much compost and manure on this bed in the spring, which the heucheras love but which makes the yarrows a bit indolent:

A lot going on here by the front porch! Plants from left to right: 'Garden Dwarf' culinary sage, Northern Sea Oats, 'Chubby Fingers' sedum album, 'Peach Melba' (I think?) and 'Obsidian' heucheras, 'Summerwine' achillea, bergenia cordifolia 'Bressignham Ruby'

On the other corner of the porch, the 'Purple Dragon' lamiums are starting yet another rebloom, entirely unaided by any gardener's work:

From top of picture to bottom: Japanese maple, 'Purple Dragon' lamium, Japanese bloodgrass, the foliage of (Spanish foxglove) digitalis parviflora

I've decided that my neighbor has the best view of all of my anemones, since they show up so nicely against the Japanese maple (as seen from her driveway):

From top of photo to bottom: Japanese maple, 'Northern Halo' hosta, golden marjoram/oregano, various Japanese anemones

I DO have a pretty good view of these dahlias, though, as I come down the stairs every morning:

I love this dahlia and wish I knew which one it was, but it came into the garden center without any tags as a spontaneous purchase from a regular supplier. Behind it you see variegated ginger, 'Frosted Curles' carex, 'Amber Waves' and another unnamed heuchera, 'Ivory Prince' hellebore foliage, and a blue haze of catmint blooms.

**EDITED TO ADD A BIG THANK YOU: To Chris, the wonderful photographer and blogger behind Digital Flower Pictures, for the comment that led me toward an ID (I think!) of this dahlia. I believe that it's 'Gallery Art Deco' and you can check it out on Dave's Garden via that link to let me know whether you think I'm on target! ***

And here's the last thing I notice before I get into my car. The lovely blooms on my oakleaf hydrangea:

At the top of the shrub, you can see a new, creamy white oakleaf hydrangea bloom... and in the middle bottom of this same picture you can see the browned remains of an earlier bloom, mixing in with the hazy purple-brown of 'Hameln' pennisetum flowers. Plants in this photo, from left to right: The blue foliage of crambe maritima, variegated iris spears, the oakleaf hydrangea and the pennisetum in front of it, culinary sage, and 'Golden Sword' yucca

That wraps up my highlights of this month as far as Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is concerned. Go to Carol's August 2009 GBBD post to see more of what's in bloom all across the world!
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Also in bloom here in my garden in August: 4 different hosta, 'Caradonna' salvia, salvia plumosa, ceratostigma plumbaginoides, my blackberry (weird... I'm eating berries already, and there are still branches in bloom?) and my strawberries, allium senescens var 'glaucum' and an unknown white-flowered allium, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil (oops!) and marjoram, golden marjoram, 'Rotstrahlbusch' panicum, 'Aureola' hakone grass, my wavy-leaf blue (unnamed) echeveria, bronze fennel, 2 kinds of thyme, 'Grosso' and 'Munstead' lavender, unnamed calendula, 'Tequila Sunrise' calibrachoa, 'Vancouver Centennial' geranium, annual salvias, 'Vodka' wax begonias, echonops ritro, and (the coral honeysuckle) lonicera sempervirens. Pyracantha and 'Albury Purple' hypericum have pretty berries, too.
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