Summer Planting

On July 31 we will have been in this, our first house for 4 years! It seems to have flown by! But I have just to look at how the garden has grown to see those 4 years.

Since I have my own ground I have a really difficult time sticking to my own rule. "Smart gardeners don't plant in the heat of the summer". The reason for that is, it's hard for new plants to establish themselves in the hot weather. And it has been hot, 90s and humid for the past few weeks. I picked up some mulch yesterday at a nursery for a job and couldn't help but buy this Salvia Patio Deep Blue that I had never seen before. I planted it in the garden this evening. I DO love Salvias. Wish me luck that it doesn't fry in August.

Green Flowers

Usually when flowers are spent, we cut them off to encourage more flowers. It's called deadheading and I know I've mentioned it before. It's what gardeners spend a lot of their time doing.    It makes the plant concentrate on making more flowers instead of making seeds. And most gardeners are all about MORE FLOWERS! I know I am :-)

This is that Hydrangea arborescens Invincibelle Smooth Spirit that I bought back in April that I was so excited about. See here Hydrangea Post.   The flowers start out pink then turn green. The plant was sort of laying down with all these green flowers. So I cut them all off to encourage more pink blooms and to make a bushier plant. I like the way they look so I put them in a vase.  

  

  Do you grow Hydrangeas?  

Shade loving Vine

There are not many vines that I know that are shade loving. Stephanotis does it's best in shade to partial sun. Mine is on the east side of the house behind a Tangerine tree that also gets some shade from a huge Cedar tree. I know I've posted on this before. But it's summer and Stephanotis smells so good. It's native to Madagascar and thereby its common name is Madagascar Jasmine. It will grow in full sun. But then the leaves will be yellowish and not as lush. So if you have a shady spot for a vine, try Stephanotis. The white shows up at night and the flowers smell yummy all day and night.

Deadheading

Deadheading means removing spent flowers from any plant.  That makes the plant stop concentrating on making seed to concentrate on making new flowers.  So I was on a job today and needed to deadhead a hedge of about maybe 7 Jerusalem Sage or Phlomis fruticosa plants. You might have seen them before. They have yellow flower spikes. The task looked daunting and I only had 45 minutes left at that job. The first pic is "before" and the second is "after". I spent all 45 minutes on it and didn't get around the corner by the porch steps. Just wanted to share my tedious job for today. I hope you has a good gardening day.

Sunflowers

Just had to share how big my Sunflowers are now. Can you see me between them? I'm 5'9". That makes them about 10' tall! I did sow about 10 seeds but only 3 survived. This is my first time growing them and they grew SO fast!! Are you growing Sunflowers?