High summer at its best! From commentor HinTN:
I had a zinnia and tithonia garden for ten years but last year the deer decided they just loooooved them some newly sprouting seedlings. I tilled the whole mess under and planted wildflowers.
The first rush of blooms was pink poppies. This is the second wave.
Hidden among the mass of bright-eyed susans are some sweet and striking sneaker fleurs.
More bright color within the big mass yellow.
Bonus far field shot of the pink poppies in the first wave.
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What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Jeffg166
Love the wildflowers. I tried that once with a pack of seeds. Got one larkspur.
This week I transplanted about 80 wild columbines seedlings into individual cells. See how they do. Will put them into the ground in October for next year.
Put poppy and foxglove seeds into large pots to start plants for next year. They get transplanted into the ground in autumn.
Lapassionara
What a great idea. The flowers are lovely.
My Tithonia s are doing well this year, and I know there are deer roaming around at night, but they have not gotten to them (yet).
OzarkHillbilly
Beautiful, looks a lot like our “meadow.” Our power line cuts got “trimmed” (translation: decimated) last year and between the dropping of limbs and the heavy equipment chewing up the ground, the carpets of bee balm of past years, were more like lonely and isolated individuals in solitary confinement.
Sigh. It will take a few years but they will be back. For now tho, the flutterbys are not happy about it. I guess they will just have to content themselves with the flowers up here around the house.
WereBear
If anyone would like a couple of Canadian tea roses for fall planting, just for rush shipping costs, let me know.
I’m not sure they can get through the winter, especially with the swings. I’m zone three, but they need like five, or serious protection I can’t give.
I have a contact tab on my nym.
These aren’t rugosa tough, in other words, regarding cold. But they are better than your average tea rose. Also, OWN ROOT, not grafted.
Rusty
HinTN, thank you for sharing the pictures, the flowers made my morning.
HinTN
@OzarkHillbilly: I want to add bee balm, coneflower and other fleurs to the mix, much like @Jeffg166:, as plants this fall. What sort of maintenance did you do previously on your meadow to keep out grass?
Mousebumples
This might just be me (or I might need to wait for coffee to kick in), but I could use some clarity on this.
Canadian tea roses on offer for replanting, for the cost of shipping makes sense.
Recipient should be Zone 5 or greater? Because you’re in Zone 3, and they’re not doing great?
I’m not sure that I have anywhere to plant them without decimating other plants, but this is a line offer that I hope someone can be a new home for them.
Mousebumples
HinTN, these are great photos. Thanks for sharing! I’ve thought about planting wildflowers to minimize lawn mowing. Instead, I’ve had some golden Alexander plants spread across my lawn. Great pop of color on the lawn.
Eta – I googled golden Alexander top add a link, and we have something else golden colored. Hmmm… Much lower to the ground.
OzarkHillbilly
@HinTN:Basically, I just stopped mowing it.* At some point during our 2nd year here I came to the realization that mowing the cuts was a silly thing to do. Over the years, slowly but surely, the wildflowers all came back. I spread some seed a few times but can’t say as they had any lasting effect.
*I now mow the cuts only once a year, late November or December.
I have grown tired of waiting for the purple cone flowers to spread on their own thru Micky’s Meadow, so this year I am going to harvest all the PCF seeds I can from the plethora I have growing in the driveway island and spread them far and wide. Lord knows, they took over the DW island without my help, maybe giving them a small helping hand will convince them to do the same everywhere else.
JeanneT
Inspirational!
kalakal
Thanks for putting up the photos, lovely sight to see
Gvg
Hurricane coming. Yesterday mowed short as extra water is likely to make the lawn grow even more and it was already growing about 4 inches a week. Also I may be very busy this next week. Put away stuff. Should start raining later this after noon. Not predicting heavy winds here so I intend to leave bird feeders up and stocked.
Cleaning house today. Always have all laundry done in case you lose power, all cleaning you can because it’s hard to do anything once you lose power. Take a shower before it hits. Tomorrow was supposed to be trash day. Not sure I want to put trash out over night, wait in see. Try to get some rest. Probably have to work tomorrow.
Mother cut most blooming flowers for church arrangement which is good, they won’t get wasted by the storm. I had some curcomas (hidden gingers-tropical), phlox, cleome and pentas. I also picked a cantaloupe. First one the borers didn’t get. Smells delicious. I will try it for lunch.
delphinium
Lovely photos HinTN! I especially like the tiny pops of color from the red flowers.
ETA: Stay safe Gvg-hopefully you won’t get hit too hard by the hurricane.
kalakal
@Gvg: Stay safe.
OzarkHillbilly
Moving Past the Climatological Temperature “Hump”
People always look at me like I have lobsters crawling out of my ears when I say August’s weather is better than July’s. If you look at the bell curve in the above titled window, you will see why. No doubt not true for everybody, but certainly is here.
eta: @Gvg: Sounds like a good day to catch a really bad summer cold.
eta: Never mind, NWS took that graph out. sigh… Basically, it showed avg temps peaking on Aug 3rd.
Jeffg166
@HinTN: On Gardeners’ World yellow rattle is used as a natural grass control. The rattle plant is parasitic on grass weakening the plants.
HinTN
@Jeffg166: I think I’m too far south for Yellow Rattle. I’ll start with adding some plants and following Ozark’s mowing schedule and see how it goes. Interesting plant!
CCL
@HinTN: The pink poppies are beautiful! What variety?
We divided our Hartford asters in the spring and all the divisions seem happy and healthy. Waiting to see their bloom in the next couple of weeks. The flat of Merton strawberry foxglove is going gangbusters in the cellar way, but the whites I started aren’t looking so grand. Still, will be planting both out in the fall.
Jeffg166
@HinTN: On Gardeners’ World it was mentioned it takes 7 years to get a wild meadow going to keep going on it’s own.
JAM
@Mousebumples: It might be helenium amarum, bitter sneezeweed. Those are blooming in lawns here. The name is because they were used in snuff, but they don’t cause allergies afaik.
JAM
@OzarkHillbilly: You might try planting annual lemon bee balm until they recover. (Monarda citriodora) I planted it in a new perennials bed I just started and the bumblebees especially love it, but also the large butterflies.
JAM
Thanks for the pictures, HinTN. I am so jealous, I have always wanted to have enough land for a meadow, but sadly, no. I have to make flowerbeds for everything.