Vivid West Garden in Midsummer

I was really excited to see how the vivid violet-lavender-golden-peach-rose west pathway garden would turn out this year (I posted about it here and here last summer). I shouldn't have had such high expectations. Of course everything is still small and there's a lot of bare earth showing. The peachy-yellow 'Crown Princess Margareta' roses haven't started growing up their trellises, so there isn't much height, either. This is the view when looking south.



Good thing I planted some boring old pink petunias, as they are providing the main color right now. In this shot you can also see lavender 'Blue Clips' campanula and violet 'May Night' salvia. I had two salvias come up from seed this year - obviously 'May Night' can reseed, though not very heavily.



This photo is from a month ago, when my 'Lady Emma Hamilton' rosebush was blooming. You're looking toward the north. In the foreground are the last blooms of golden 'Stella d'Oro' daylilies. My 'Apricot Sparkles' daylilies haven't bloomed at all this year. I cut them up into little sections while transplanting last fall, so hopefully they just need some time to get up to blooming size.



The 'Hush Little Baby' daylilies are finishing up their heavy bloom period. The flowers are smaller this year than last, probably because of being transplanted. These poor daylilies have been moved 5 or 6 times since I ordered them online several years ago. I think they're finally settled for a while.



I also divided my 'Early Sunrise' coreopsis clumps into tiny pieces when transplanting, so they're pretty small this year. A few cheerful flowers have shown up, though. All of this dividing should pay off in a year or two, when I'll have 3 plants of each type blooming in matching clumps (6 plant total) across the flagstone path. Plus a dozen total of the salvias and 8 of the catmints.



Here is a daylily's backside with lavender 'Walker's Low' catmint in the background. The new little catmint clumps are finally starting to fill out and cover some bare ground. Next year they'll be the perfect size, and by the next year they'll probably need to be divided.



Here is the first bloom from the 'Excentric' dahlias. They should get going and be pretty for a couple of months before the frost zaps them in October. Remember the rosy-orange dahlias I gushed about last summer? Although I dug up the tubers last fall, I never got around to storing them properly and they froze to death in the garage. This fall I'll probably just let these tubers go and order new ones next spring.



I waited a day to post this so I could get a photo of a peachy 'Smoky Mountain Autumn' daylily and show that not everything in this bed is pink . . . but even SMA looks pink today! Good thing I like pink.