Summer Transition

May, June and July have come and gone.  I was so busy working in gardens that I didn't have time to write about gardening.  Business has slowed enough now to allow me to get back to doing other things again.  I've even taken some time to work in my own sadly neglected garden. 

 Because I was in it so seldom this summer, the shift in blooms seemed dramatic.  One day there was iris all over. The next time I was free to enjoy a garden walk, iris was replaced by bee balm and daylilies. That's what I love about perennial gardens - the slow evolution of shapes and colors between spring and fall.

These are some of the things that were blooming in June.

  

                   

          

Some of these plants were just starting in June and are still blooming - the catmint, blanket flower, and honeysuckle vine.  The peonies and orange poppies come and go so quickly, that you could miss them!

Here is what the garden had to show in July.

                 

              

Speaking of plants that have a long bloom time, shrub roses are it!  I have pink, coral, orange, white, yellow, and red shrub roses.  They bloom all the way through fall.  Asiatic lilies, oriental lilies, yucca and daylilies are dramatic, but they won't be there for you all summer like shrub roses. Tomorrow I'll go out and see what's blooming in August.