Walking the Garden
August 2024
We love to see the giant blooms of the perennial hibiscus appear in early August because they are so very showy. At the same time, we see them as a signal that summer is drawing to a close. This year, the rosy pink one in the front garden was the first. A few days later, the showy red one (photo below) in the back garden opened up.
At this point, the Summer Phlox is still in the height of bloom time, along with some of the later daylilies and the Joe Pye weed. The usual attack of Powdery Mildew has not yet hit the phlox but will start soon.
Below are four shots of the back garden from slightly different viewpoints on August 7.
The front garden is still holding its own in the photo below!
Finding flowering plants that like being shaded for a good portion of the day is a challenge. Therefore, I was really excited to be introduced to the shade-tolerant Woodland Aster (Aster divaricatus) in the next shot. Not incredibly showy, but delicate and pretty and a lovely late-flowering treat in a shaded area. (Introduced to me years ago by my then-boss, Dr. Z.)
The next two photos are Bobo Hydrangea on the left and Turtleheads (Chelone Glabra) on the right. These two are late summer stars and grow in a semi-shaded section of the back garden,
My attempts to get photos of the most frequent butterfly visitor to our garden usually fail dismally. This time I actually managed to get a rather poor quality snap of the White Cabbage butterfly, as it enjoyed a visit to a Mordens pink.
This spring and summer have been dominated by intermittent heavy rainfall. Not the nice, steady, penetrating rain, but that pounding, drowning type. Rain that washed away topsoil and beats down on the flowers. Below is one of the Phantom Hydrangeas, drooping and soaked after one such downpour.
In the shot below, you can see the path that leads to one corner of the back garden. In the spring, we added a few new plants, including the rudbeckia, and you can see that it has finally decided to flower.
Another sign of late summer is the flowering of the Japanese Anenome, seen in the shots below. It begins to bud in July, but only in August do the flowers really begin to open up. The flowers are a bee magnet, usually dozens of bees can be found on the flowers, legs puffy with pollen, buzzing about noisily.
In the photos below, you can see that the front garden is still blooming strongly, with Purple Coneflower and Rudbeckia vying for attention in the main front bed, and the Sea Buckthorn loaded with ripe fruit over the Rudbeckias in the side front bed.
In the photo below I finally got a decent shot of the Common Blue Butterfly (Polyommatus icarus), resting on the Rudbeckia flower. This tiny beauty is said to be the most widespread blue butterfly in Britain and Ireland. This is the first year I have seen it in our garden. The first time I spotted it was in July and I only got a blurry shot, so I was delighted to find this one displayed so nicely.
The tall and rather sparsely flowered plant in the photo below is Tall Evening Primrose (Oenethera biannis), which was a present from a bird and can be problematic if allowed to get too carried away. However, I loved the soft yellow of the flowers and have allowed it to stay there for now.
As the days of August wear on, the back garden starts to put in a big last effort, as seen in the photo below.
Still in the back garden, the photo on the left shows the Eastern Redbud tree that was apparently dead last fall and has decided to regenerate itself. On the right is an originally barren corner under the new Maple, which has filled in very nicely with a gift Hosta from our neighbour, Viola, a phantom Hydrangea which got moved last year, and two bushy Rudbeckias.
As the end of August approaches, the front garden begins to slowly wrap up, but there is still colour. In the photos below: A pot I planted in early spring and put in a shady spot near the front door is still looking perky with Kalanchoe, ferns and red begonias.
Center, the Butterfly bush (Buddleia) is forging on, providing nectar for butterflies and a single green-throated Hummingbird (not seen here).
And on the right, some pink Cosmos provide a little shot of colour.
When I first planted the giant Miscanthus grass in the photo below, I questioned how much it would add to the view. I think it really is a lovely addition, now that it is mature.
The tall and graceful Mordens Pink in the front garden, seen below, has come into its full glory at this point of the summer. The bees and the butterflies spend a great deal of time clinging to it. I like how it blends with the neighbours silky tall grasses on the other side of the hedge.
In the photos below you see my Morning Glories, which this year agreed to climb the front fence. So gorgeous.
And to finish up August, a last shot of the back garden, showing my June transplanted Boneset plant in the background, with Rudbeckias in the foreground.
That’s it for walking the garden in August.
