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You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Summer Flare

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Summer Flare

by Anne Laurie|  August 13, 20234:15 am| 33 Comments

This post is in: Garden Chats

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat:  Summer Flare

From our own beloved master gardener Satby:

I went big on lilies and gladioli this year, so I have a couple of new pictures of the lilies. Glads aren’t open yet.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat:  Summer Flare 1

First, a few daylilies. They came in a mixed bag, so I don’t know the variety names.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat:  Summer Flare 2

Next, a couple of Asiatic lilies.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat:  Summer Flare 3

This maroon and orange one is called Forever Susan, and it goes well with my coneflowers.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat:  Summer Flare 4

Sunday Morning Garden Chat:  Summer Flare 5

My neighbor gifted me two calla lily bulbs, and wow, four colors from just two bulbs!

Sunday Morning Garden Chat:  Summer Flare 7

Finally cannas, so far I have an orange, a red, and a coral one flowering, but I have 7 more not ready to bloom yet.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat:  Summer Flare 8

Sunday Morning Garden Chat:  Summer Flare 9

Bonus cherry tomato next to the red canna.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat:  Summer Flare 6

The cannas and calla lilies are in pots or grow bags to make it easier to dig them out and store over winter.

***********

We’re having a *good* tomato year, here north of Boston. We’re now picking a steady supply of full-sized ripe tomatoes, and a handful or two of cherrys just about every day, from a total of ten rootpouches. There’s been the usual blights, both yellow & wilting — some of the plants look like lollipops where I’ve removed the infected lower leaves — but they’re still bravely flowering and fruiting.

The one new variety I tried this year, Black Bear, is very highly rated by my supertaster Spousal Unit for flavor on a burger (his favorite use) or a sandwich. The plant started setting fruit early — although they took their sweet time ripening! — and it’s been productive for us. I got our plant from Laurel’s Heirlooms, but this is a good description from Heritage Seed Market:

“Black Bear” is a large purple beefsteak from Russia with a rather convoluted history of how it may have originally come from a variety called Negrityonok, but underwent a name change due to a feeling that the translation was racially inappropriate. Black Bear is, however, a much larger tomato than the original Negrityonok, so it is also felt that these two varieties are not the same.

I have to agree with the reviews I found…this is one delicious purple tomato. There is thick smooth flesh and lots of juice. But it did not like the heat and humidity in my garden and had very low production of fruits…or so I thought the first time I grew it. This spring I was able to set it out earlier and the productivity was excellent.


What’s going on in your gardens, this week?

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Reader Interactions

33Comments

  1. 1.

    like a metaphor

    August 13, 2023 at 4:24 am

    Canna just say?   the Forever Susans and the Coneflower combo is banging

  2. 2.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    August 13, 2023 at 4:26 am

    Good morning from the Left Coast! Russian beefsteak sounds like the kind of man a Russian woman would be looking for…lol!

    I hope TFG kept tossing and turning last night with his nightmare dreams of the Hell he faces.

  3. 3.

    Jeffg166

    August 13, 2023 at 4:32 am

    I seems like it is a good tomato year. After a very dry spring it started to rain regularly.

    The cucumber vines seem to have wilt.

  4. 4.

    oldster

    August 13, 2023 at 4:33 am

    Discovering cone flowers has been a small consolation for aging the last few years. They grow easily here (upstate NY), keep coming back each year, and attract all the right customers: bees, butterflies, goldfinches, and even hummingbirds. Their heads keep getting visitors late into the fall, even after the petals have fallen and the stalks look dead. Very satisfying.

  5. 5.

    Kristine

    August 13, 2023 at 4:48 am

    Cardinal flowers, Rose of Sharon, and wild hydrangea are currently the best looking things. The Jacob Cline bee balm are straggly as all get out but the hummingbirds still visit them.

    Monday an arborist will be coming to check one of the bur oaks. I fear it may have oak wilt. Hoping there’s a way to deal. Also wouldn’t mind being wrong but the appearance of some fallen leaves makes that unlikely. Dammit.

  6. 6.

    Ruckus

    August 13, 2023 at 4:55 am

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    Hello from another west coaster who is often up at this hour.

    I hope TFG kept tossing and turning last night with his nightmare dreams of the Hell he faces.

    I agree 5000%

    Except

    He’ll never conceive of the concept that he might be responsible for all of this because he’s such a shallow dipshit.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    August 13, 2023 at 5:35 am

    Wow. Your flowers are beautiful.

  8. 8.

    satby

    August 13, 2023 at 5:45 am

    @Kristine: My Rose of Sharon and my hydrangeas started blooming about a week after I took these. I planted two Vanilla Strawberry hydrangeas flanking a Rose of Sharon in similar colors of white and red. Now the hydrangeas are slowly turning pink as the blooms age and it’s looking nice.

    But tomato production has been lackluster this year. Too cool a start, followed by stretches of heat with nights over 70° hampered some fruit setting. But lots of green tomatoes now, so I have hopes of better harvest before we get a frost.

  9. 9.

    satby

    August 13, 2023 at 5:47 am

    @Baud: Thanks. To be fair, I pick really easy perennials to grow 😉

  10. 10.

    satby

    August 13, 2023 at 5:47 am

    @like a metaphor: right? That was a bit of a surprise. Thanks!

  11. 11.

    Lapassionara

    August 13, 2023 at 6:20 am

    @satby: Beautiful flowers! I love red flowers. Thanks for sharing.

  12. 12.

    WereBear

    August 13, 2023 at 6:21 am

    I adore lilies, but be careful about any bulb plants inside if we have cats. They can get sick simply by grooming stray pollen off their fur.

  13. 13.

    JPL

    August 13, 2023 at 6:28 am

    Satby, thank you so much for sharing pictures of your garden with us.   The flowers are beautiful!

  14. 14.

    satby

    August 13, 2023 at 6:29 am

    @Lapassionara: if you love red flowers I recommend canna lily, because most of the varieties are red. They’re easy to grow in pots, like moist but not sodden soil, and in zone 7-9 I think can overwinter in the ground. And, best of all, they multiply. At the end of every year I have more rhizomes than I started with, plus I have grown them from seed too. They like it hot to grow, so mine also got a slow start this year, but the hot days made them really mature.

  15. 15.

    satby

    August 13, 2023 at 6:31 am

    @WereBear: I grow very little inside because the cats want to eat everything I do grow!

  16. 16.

    satby

    August 13, 2023 at 6:33 am

    @JPL: my pleasure. Plus my garden always looks so much better in close ups than IRL 😆

  17. 17.

    eclare

    August 13, 2023 at 6:59 am

    Such pretty lilies!  I hate that I can’t have any because of my cat.

  18. 18.

    delphinium

    August 13, 2023 at 7:00 am

    Lovely photos Satby! That dark pink Asiatic lily and the Calla lilies are just stunning!

    My butterfly bush and hydrangeas are still blooming but almost everything else is done for the moment. Got some tomatoes (cherry and roma) but production was not great this year. Wish I could say the same for the weeds-have had a ton of rain, so trying to keep up with clearing them out has been a challenge.

  19. 19.

    J.

    August 13, 2023 at 7:00 am

    Those flowers are spectacular! Lucky you!

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 13, 2023 at 7:05 am

    Nice pics of beautiful flowers, thanx for the Sunday morning brightener Satby.

  21. 21.

    satby

    August 13, 2023 at 7:07 am

    Most of my daylillies are from here, and they’re running a 30% off clearance sale using a coupon code.

    Sale is only until tomorrow, I just realized.

  22. 22.

    WereBear

    August 13, 2023 at 7:10 am

    @satby: secret of success

  23. 23.

    Mousebumples

    August 13, 2023 at 7:13 am

    We’ve mostly been enjoying raspberries this year. The July season berries are mostly done, but the late season berries are starting to grow. Will probably be a few weeks until I’m picking them in quantity again.

    Also planted strawberries this year, but the rabbits have been eating most of those. 🐇

    Any thoughts on planting a bunch of marigolds my strawberry plants?

  24. 24.

    satby

    August 13, 2023 at 7:17 am

    @J.: @OzarkHillbilly: thank you!

    @delphinium: I’m running out of room elsewhere, and my roses in pots are less happy in year two even with more coddling than usual, so the nightmare back beds are slowly getting cleared. Then going with a no till smother of the weeds so that I can plant the roses in those beds next year. It worked pretty well in MI for a vegetable patch.

  25. 25.

    satby

    August 13, 2023 at 7:26 am

    @Mousebumples: I don’t. I have no luck with strawberries; my raspberries have so taken over that they’ve now landed on the eradication list. But I put a chickenwire fence up that worked for bunnies for several years.

  26. 26.

    delphinium

    August 13, 2023 at 7:38 am

    @satby: Thanks for that link-will check out the daylilies! Spent most of early summer clearing out beds and moving plants around and am now deciding what (if anything) to get next to fill in a couple spots.

    There is a weird, small area behind my garage where I need to do the weed smother thing. Moved some hostas and spiderwort there this summer to take up some of that space and they are doing well but and am thinking of doing some kind of walkway too once the weeds are gone.

  27. 27.

    SkyBluePink

    August 13, 2023 at 7:57 am

    Lovely pictures to start the day.

  28. 28.

    Mousebumples

    August 13, 2023 at 8:01 am

    @satby: I don’t. I have no luck with strawberries; my raspberries have so taken over that they’ve now landed on the eradication list. But I put a chickenwire fence up that worked for bunnies for several years.

    Fair enough, thanks!

  29. 29.

    kalakal

    August 13, 2023 at 8:26 am

    Here in west central Fl the garden is really feeling the heat. This time of year (:the rainy season) we normally get a pop up storm everyday but it hasn’t rained in weeks. The criniums are flowering like crazy but the general look is crispy. Having all the fences replaced so been doing a lot of clearing & temp potting so the overall effect is a mess 🙁 OTOH will have a chance to make some much needed changes when it comes to replanting the beds

  30. 30.

    MazeDancer

    August 13, 2023 at 8:35 am

    @satby: And a great job you do of it!

    So many! Most impressive.

  31. 31.

    prostratedragon

    August 13, 2023 at 9:20 am

    Dazzling flowers!

  32. 32.

    MomSense

    August 13, 2023 at 10:03 am

    Gorgeous!!!
    I’ve been away from my gardens all week hoping my kid has been watering as needed.
    I’ve been in Augusta all week watching my granddog, who is the bestest dog ever. I’m impressed with some of the pocket parks and wildflowers that have been planted in the parks and along the rail trail.
    Yesterday we hiked a preserve in Hallowell and saw lots of beautiful wildflowers in the field before the wooded part of the trails.

  33. 33.

    satby

    August 13, 2023 at 12:15 pm

    Thanks for the compliments again everyone!

    Once you get flowering shrubs and perennials established it really only takes watering and watching for signs of disease or bugs. So they’re perfect for sort of lazy gardeners like me; because on the hottest days of summer the only attention I give them is making sure they don’t get too dry.

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