Mid-August in My Flower Garden
Colorful flowers are still blooming in and around my cutting garden.
Fortunately, there are many flowering plants that blossom this time of year, including rudbeckias, phlox, balloon flowers, and sweet peas - and my large flower garden, located just behind my main greenhouse, is filled with them. My goal for this garden was to always highlight unusual flowers from different parts of the world using seeds from trusted sources and seeds I find during my travels. I really enjoy seeing what pops up during the season.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
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- There’s always something to see whenever I walk through my flower cutting garden. Right now the garden is filled with Echinacea purpurea, or purple coneflower – a hardy perennial. Echinacea purpurea has a large center cone, surrounded by colored petals that brighten the garden in mid-summer. Echinacea is a genus, or group of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family. Look closely to see a happy bee on one of the flower centers.
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- Nicotiana is a genus of herbaceous plants and shrubs of the family Solanaceae, that is indigenous to the Americas, Australia, southwest Africa and the South Pacific.
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- It is also called tobacco flower, or flowering tobacco – and yes, Nicotiana has high concentrations of nicotine.
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- Ageratum houstonianum, a native of Mexico, is among the most commonly planted ageratum variety. Ageratums have soft, round, fluffy flowers in various shades of blue, pink, or white.
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- These are the showy flower heads of rudbeckia. Rudbeckia’s bright, summer-blooming flowers give the best effect when planted in masses in a border or wildflower meadow.
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- Here’s another variety of rudbeckia. In general, rudbeckias are relatively drought-tolerant and disease-resistant. Flower colors include yellow and gold, and the plants grow two to six feet tall, depending on the type.
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- Shasta daisy flowers provide perky summer blooms, offering the look of the traditional daisy along with evergreen foliage. They are low maintenance and great for filling in bare spots in the landscape.
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- This is a balloon flower, Platycodon grandiflorus – a species of herbaceous flowering perennial plant of the family Campanulaceae, and the only member of the genus Platycodon. It is native to East Asia and is also known as the Chinese bellflower or platycodon.
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- Balloon flowers get their name from the unopened buds, which swell up prior to opening and resemble little hot-air balloons.
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- This is a double, white, bell-shaped flower. Balloon flowers thrive in sun or partial shade. It likes well-drained, slightly acidic soil; and although the balloon flower plant will tolerate dry conditions, it prefers plenty of moisture. This cold hardy plant also does best in cooler conditions in summer, so afternoon shade is a good idea for warmer regions.
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- I have many, many roses in my flower garden and in various other areas of the farm. This perfect yellow climbing rose is blooming on one of the arbors in the garden.
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- Here’s another rose growing on the fence – such a beautiful pink. A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae. There are more than a hundred species and thousands of cultivars.
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- Also growing on the fence surrounding the flower garden is this dainty perennial sweet pea or Everlasting Pea. It is a herbaceous climbing vine with beautiful bright flowers that grows up to 10 feet tall. This pink and white variety is one of our favorites.
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- Here is another one in crisp white. The perennial sweet pea blooms in summer, and blooms are on long peduncles above the foliage. It climbs by tendrils and can be trellised or used to cover a fence or other structure. It also makes a nicely mounded ground cover.
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- Euphorbia marginata is a small annual in the spurge family. It is commonly called snow-on-the-mountain, and is a warm-weather annual native to prairies from Minnesota and the Dakotas to Colorado and Texas. The foliage is so pretty. Snow-on-the-mountain is great to use in borders, meadows, and cutting gardens.
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- The phlox is thriving in the garden. Phlox has superb heat and mildew resistance. Phlox is a tall and upright grower that’s great for the back of the border, or even planted at the edge of the garden among the shrubs. Phlox also comes in a range of colors from pure white to lavender to even red and grows happily in most parts of the country. If properly planted and sited, phlox is largely pest and disease free too – a perfect perennial.
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- This phlox is called ‘Robert Poore’. The deep green foliage is topped by large rounded clusters of fragrant magenta pink flowers from summer into early autumn.
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- Here’s another phlox variety. The flowers bear a mild fragrance and come in a wide range of colors. These perennials also attract hummingbirds and butterflies.
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- And here’s beautiful white phlox with pink markings in the center.
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- Morning glories are annual climbers with slender stems, heart-shaped leaves, and trumpet-shaped flowers of pink, purple-blue, magenta, or white. The vine grows quickly—up to 15-feet in one season.
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- The anemones are also holding strong. Anemone is a genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Most anemone flowers have a simple, daisy-like shape and lobed foliage that sway in the lightest breezes. Depending on the species, anemones can bloom from the earliest days of spring into the fall months. This is just one of many growing just outside the garden.
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- And of course, the sunflower – the popular and cheerful annual whose giant, round flower head look like the sun. Sunflowers come in vibrant yellow, but they’re also seen in orange, red, bronze and even white. Young sunflowers turn to face the sun as it moves across the sky. They face east at dawn and then slowly turn west as the sun moves. During the night, they turn back east to begin the cycle again. This is known as heliotropism and is due to the presence of auxin, a growth hormone in the stem. This process continues until the sunflower is mature. I hope you’re still enjoying the late summer blooms where you live.
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