Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - July 2010

It's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, and inappropriately enough, my first photo is NOT going to feature a flower... 

... yet!  This is my pineapple lily, 'Sparkling Burgundy' eucomis comosa, which has yet to flower but shows a lot of promise now that the bloom stalk has elevated the bud out past the base of the plant.  Oh wait, there IS a glimpse of an oakleaf hydrangea bloom over its left shoulder--so this photo actually DOES count for GBBD after all!  YAY!

Looking around the front yard, it's obvious that flowers take a backyard to the foliage.  Looking at the photos I took of the few blooms in front, my camera seems to pick up on the foliage-first theme, too:

 From top to bottom:  Agastache blooming in front of the sharper-focused sea kale leaves... 

'Summerwine' yarrow clusters peppering a bed of grasses, heucheras, culinary sage and bergenia... 

Dragonwing begonia blooms bravely peeking out in front of a variegated monstera leaf... 

'Black & Blue' salvia guaranitica fuzzy against a swirl of stipa/nassella tenuissima and sea kale

Hmm... maybe I'll have better luck in the back yard.  Let's head there... but not until I show the one publishable attempt (out of at least a dozen) at obtaining a photo that proves both how high my bronze fennel has become, and how bright my hanging basket of 'Bonfire' begonias blaze on the side of the porch:

 Yeah, it still doesn't look any better than it did at first, even with the addition of Steve's cute blue car for contrast.  

*sigh*

I have a few new pots that match the color of his cute blue car, and I got them for a steal at a local garden center.  Since I want to do a whole post about those, though, I'll just show you a few blooms from one today:

This is a bloom from 'Yellow Doll' watermelon, which is growing up, over and around a few coleus and these 'Vista Purple' salvia. I LOVE the way these pots are turning out!

Most of the backyard continues the theme of mixing edibles and ornamentals:

Top to bottom: "Hummingbird sage" (it was not tagged well--so not sure which salvia this is, sorry) and various portulacas in the clay tile planter, surrounded by blooming Russian sage, Japanese bloodgrass, blueberry bush, 'Opal Purple' basil, woolly thyme and cabbage...

A shrubby clematis (2nd pic) and 'Merlot' echinacea (3rd) pop out from a bed of alpine strawberries...

'Ichiban' eggplant with its demure, downward-facing flowers and pretty leaves...

'Sum & Substance' (I believe) hosta blooming under the 'Concord' grape, with a bed of oregano at its feet.

Lest you think that the backyard is all about me, though, I want to show you that I do a few things for the butterflies, too:

These are 2 of the three asclepias I have in the backyard, in a bed that also includes drumstick allium (when those were not as spent and faded as they are above, the effect of them mingling with the orange butterfly weed was spectacular!) and fescues, serrano peppers and 'Gretel' eggplant.  I wish that I could tell you that butterflies eat as well out of this bed as I do... but as with the fennel in the front yard, they just don't seem to find this table that I have set for their enjoyment!  Boo.  :(

I don't want to end on such a bummer, though, so let's include one last shot from the front yard:

'Albury purple' is my idea of a perfect front-yard shrub:  Awesome form and foliage, colorful berries and cheery, buttery-yellow blooms on a tough plant that needs no extra TLC.

In addition to the above, I also have a few volunteer snapdragons, peppers, tomatoes, heucheras, golden oregano, blue plumbago (a month early!) and brouwallia in bloom this month.  To check out what the rest of the world has in bloom, visit May Dreams Gardens, where the lovely Carol hosts Garden Bloggers' Blooms Day!