After years of slowing making room among the June bloomers, I finally have a decent August display of flowers. 'Millenium' allium, above, has been a beautiful long bloomer this month and well deserves all the attention it has received as 2018 Perennial Plant of the Year. The honeybees agree, as you see above.
I've realized that my northwest garden bed has become predominantly purple while the northeast area around the swings is mostly golden. In the photo above the purple blooms of 'Thomas Edison' dahlias blend perfectly with the 'Miss Molly' butterfly bush. 'Millenium' allium makes a great, easy edger down at the bottom of the bed.
I planted eight 'Thomas Edison' tubers this spring, and it has been my most successful dahlia so far this year. The TE plants started blooming early and have produced many large blooms. I've learned to look closely at the flowers before bringing them inside as earwigs love to hide in the long petals, ew!
I really should have captured photos of the Lillium rubrum while they were in full bloom, as you see they're winding down in the photo above. These lily bulbs keep making more flowers each year, and their fragrance is lovely and different from the typical Oriental lily scent. This photo captures the hazy look we've been experiencing in recent weeks as wildfire smoke drifts through Spokane. Last Sunday the air quality rating was 382, or hazardous, and we were all supposed to stay inside.
Purple Dara Ammi (Daucus carota) has been so pretty in the garden and in arrangements this year. I'll definitely grow more of this annual from seed next year. In the photo above it plays nicely with 'Rozanne' geranium and 'Blue Chip' butterfly bush.
Some of my dahlias are in full bloom while others are just starting to make buds. 'Cutie Patootie,' above, is prolific with nice long stems for cutting.
Over in the golden northeast area of the backyard, Hypericum 'Magical Desire' is making really cool peach berries that blend well with the 'Chantilly Peach' snapdragons behind.
I'm such a sucker for mophead hydrangeas, even though I have trouble getting them to bloom during our short gardening season. I recently planted several new mopheads from Monrovia's Seaside Serenade Series, including 'Cape Lookout' above. I also planted a blue or pink (mine is lavender right now) 'Cape Cod' mophead from the series. They're gorgeous right now, but the real test will be whether they bloom well next year. Despite transplanting my 'Let's Dance Big Easy' mopheads to more protected spots and giving them plenty of water and high-phospate fertilizer this year, the six plants have only produced a couple of flowering stems. And my 'Endless Summer' and 'Blushing Bride' mopheads were relegated to the green waste bin years ago. Fingers crossed that breeders have finally created a mophead hydrangea that can stand up to my climate!
interesting comment about your endless summer hydrangea. i have a 'twist & shout', and it had only one bloom each of the first four summers, always in the same place on the plant. last year, i had 27 blooms ...? this year, back to only one bloom, again in the same place as before on the plant. go figure. i'd give up on it, except that it makes a nice backdrop in my bed, even when it doesn't bloom. --suz in NE ohio
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