Can't compete with Vela's beauties today, but here are a few I like:
The acclaimed Yvonne's Salvia

Oriental Lily
{{gwi:1288657}}

So far this rose is just a number-probably will never get a name

Princess Di Canna
{{gwi:1288659}}

Butterfly decided to fold his wings-he's on a golden Aesclepias currassavica

Aesclepias tuberosa

Poison! What in the world are you talking about? Your gardens put mine to shame hands down. They are sooo beautiful!

Vela, I can not believe you actually got that many shots off of the hummer! Every time one is in my yard they never sit! Lucky Dog!!! Next time you're out with your camera stick it on the highspeed setting, the one with the guy running. You might get a good motion shot that way! Great pictures. All the blooms are gorgeous! Mae Graham is looking beautiful and I love the zinnias! Very vibrant!

Hey Vela - at the end of the list on your flower mix, does it say "and others"? Mine all do. That is probably one of the 'others'.
Carol B

Vela, I love watching your garden and your pictures develop. Both just seem to get better and better as the summer moves on!

Vela-the daisy is probably listed as Gloriosa Daisy.
Pics are wonderful.
Mariann

Here are my latest blooms
Bouquet made from flowers creamed by the rain we had Sunday.

unknown daylily and red lily

White w/ purple lines lily

Thanks Vela for putting this post up. diene

Diene: All of the flowers are beautiful. I especially like the yellow with red and white with red eye lilies. Very striking. Your Cookie is very cute. My first dog's name was cookie. She was a border collie. Best dog in the world! She was such a smarty! She could do all kinds of tricks and she would even keep an eye on us. She would bark at us when we were little and tried to go down the driveway when my mom had her back to us! What a snitch! LOL!

Hello Tracy;
Cookie is a Shetland Sheepdog which is a cousin of a border collie. He normally has a full coat but my parent's decided to shave him for some strange reason. I do not think he cares because I think he is much cooler. We have had three shelties in my life and they all have that herding instinct that works so well with small children.
I am not sure which lily you really like, let me know which one it is and if I find I have a bunch of them I will dig a bulb or two for you. diene

Wonderful lilies Diene, and a sweet little dog. Thanks for sharing them all!
Today's crop-

Peach Brugmansia bloom, first day
{{gwi:1288680}}

Thunbergia

Milkweed

Bird house gourd
a href="http://photobucket.com"; target="_blank">{{gwi:1288683}}

Good Morning, Diene. The shelties do sound so much like the borders. Your Cookie's ears and muzzle have very similar markings to mine. Brings back many memories. Judging by his very bushy tail, he did get quite the haircut! He looks very nice and cool. I liked the white lily in the last picture the best. I really like the contrast of the purple lines with the white. I would love to have one, that is very nice of you. If you don't have enough to send I understand. All of our lily conversations have inspired me to develop a new section of the yard. I will be putting in a smaller bed in a sunny spot and moving all of my lilies and daylilies into there. I think they deserve their own home. I have been finding daylilies and lilies in the oddest places around here. Found Final Touch in a shade bed nearly buried under some scrub the other day along with Sammy Russell. They are so nice and were planted badly. Thanks for teaching me more about them. I appreciate it.

I can't remember which of these I have posted pictures of in the past, sorry for any repeats, but these pictures are all from today's crop of blooms.
Cannas
Peach Frost

Daylilies
Strawberry Candy has been blooming non-stop since late May.

Pale yellow Oriental Lily

Japanese Morning Glories-names too long to type
{{gwi:1288691}}

Poison: I can only say WOW! Those are amazing. I think I want to visit your house! It must be gorgeous with all of those blooms!

Poison - I love love LOVE the strawberry candy day lily!! Wow! I'm jealous!!! :O)

Absolutely Beautiful Pictures!

Hello All;
Poison those are great flowers!! Unfortunately, they are not hardy in my part of the world and I am too lazy and inept to keep them over winter. Here are what I can handle.

Great photos Diene! Nothing inept about you or your gardens!

You all have such beautiful flowers. I hope mine look that good someday. dienne love Cookie. Unfortunately, I had to put my 12 year old Sheltie down this spring. We used to shave her in the summer also because she got so hot. I think she actually looked forward to it. In the winter when it snowed she would run with her nose in the snow tilling out a groove. It was so funny. She really was the best dog. They are very protective. I know that my shitzuhuahua misses her terribly. They were friends for 3 years. Sorry. I guess I just needed to relive some memories.

Proudgm: Thanks for posting the story of your sheltie with her nose in the snow! You just reminded me of how my dog Cookie (border collie) did the same thing. She used to do this for the longest time and then she would pop up... look at me for a second and let out a huge sneeze! Then, right back to nosing through the snow! Ah, memories! Thank you! You made me smile.
Tracy

A few different things today.

Recently introduced Brugmansia "Wild Thing"
The blooms are huge, even for a brug, with absolutely no tails.

Pontederia cordata, Pickerel Weed
{{gwi:1288694}}

I lost the marker for this tropical Hibiscus.

Salvia patens, Blue Angel

Lysimachia vulgaris

OMG! That hibiscus is GORGEOUS!! Thank you for sharing those pictures! They are all so beautiful! Having a down day here, so looking at the beautiful flowers is a perk! Thanks!
Rebecca

Great pics everyone! I just love all the flowers. The hummingbird photos are great too.

Diene,
I just had to post to say that I think your unknown peach daylily maybe Luxury Lace. Here's mine to compare.

Hello Reny;
Mine is not as pretty as yours, I have been doing some investigating from daylilies I have bought and received in trades and I think mine is called Lady Georgia. I am hoping to identify all of my lilies this year and put in permanent markers since I have received many of these in trades. It probably will not happen but it is an admiral goal. Thanks for the effort, the one with the ring is called Charles Pierce Memorial but the two toned one is still a mystery. Hope everyone is well. I did not get near the gardens today, I will try to get there tomorrow. Have a wonderful night all. diene

Luxury Lace is lovely!

Orange day

Zinnias

Marigold, Flagstaff

Crossandra, Orange Flame
{{gwi:87277}}

Agastache Apricot Sprite
{{gwi:1288699}}

Begonia, Pin-up Flame

Tithonia, Sundance

Diene,
It doesn't hurt to try : )
I forgot to mention. I had a Sheltie, Lady. She died of old age(16) last Thanksgiving. She was such a good dog.

Poison...,
Thanks. It is an oldie, but goodie.
I wintersowed Apricot Sprite. I'm still waiting on blooms.
Remy

Remy, I sowed my Apricot Sprite from commericial seed in February. I am curious. Did you have any unusual foliage types? I have one plant that as soon as it developed true leaves was highly variegated. The other plants have been blooming for weeks, but this one has just developed buds and even the tiny calyx's are white, like much of the foliage.
I have never tried Agastache from cuttings, but this one is so interesting that I may try. Do you have any experience with this?

Other than that, it is a pink day!
New Guinea Impatiens

Double Inpatiens
{{gwi:18874}}

Nicotiana Marshmallow

Monarda didyama

Zinnia

Achillea millifolium, Summer Pastels

Diene and Poison, just LOVE the pictures!! I don't have anything new blooming...just the same stuff you all have already seen me post a thousand pictures of LOL!

Poison...,
Cool! I've not heard of a variegated one. I don't know about doing cuttings from an agastache, but you could always try. I would actually move the plant away from the other ones if possible and try to save seed. Sometimes the variegation is a stable thing sometimes not, but if you got stable variegation in the seeds, they would be a hot commodity!
Remy

Good idea Remy! I think instead of moving the odd one, I will move the others from around it. It is clearly not as vigorous as the "normal" ones. Thanks!
Alana

Beautiful pictures!!!! I love all the colorful flowers.

Poison, I love that 'Yvonne's Salvia' and would love to have some seed if you get any. I grow a lot of salvias for my hummers. I love that 'Wild Thing' brug too.

Thought I'd add a few hummer pix to the mix. This time of year there are dozens of them fighting over my flowers and feeders. Can't seem to get them to stand still long enough to get more than a few at a time. There were 6 sitting quietly eating at the feeder yesterday; of course by the time I got my camera they were back at the 'dive bombing' they usually do.

{{gwi:1288710}}

{{gwi:1288711}}

{{gwi:1288713}}

{{gwi:1288714}}

{{gwi:1288715}}
See the cute little yellow head; too bad he'll grow out of it. Looks kinda cool!!
{{gwi:1288716}}

Althea 'Blushing Bride'
{{gwi:1288717}}
{{gwi:1288718}}

Echinacea 'Magnus'...Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' and Phlox 'David' in the back
{{gwi:1288719}}

Veronica 'Sunny Border Blue' and Coreopsis 'Moonbeam'
{{gwi:1288720}}

Roxanne

Rox, Those are great photos! That is a lovely Althea. I love the hummers, too. They seem to be ramping up the activity around the feeders here over the last week or so. You can't walk through the gardens without feeling like you have to duck out of the way.

I posted Yvonne's Salvia seeds on the seed exchange and it will take me the weekend to dig out from under all of the requests, but I keep harvesting. I will save some and when I send your Brug cuttings this fall I will include some. I should have plenty despite the demand.

We have finally had some real rainfall here; rain off and on for the last 3 days and things are getting a little droopy looking, but no complaints! Every drop is a drop closer to ending the drought. I think I will go outside in search of lilac/purple flowers to photograph today. Ah summer. If it were 12 months of the year, it would be too short!

Poison, I know what ya mean about the hummers! Sometimes I'll be out in the garden and it sounds like a bullet whizzin by my head.....nope.....just a couple of hummers chasing each other.

We had a good rainfall last night...about an inch. We needed it.....the weeds were starting to crunch under my feet. LOL This year has really been FREAKY!!! We had a hard freeze at Easter and killed everything to the ground. Then we didn't get one drop of rain the whole month of May.

I ran the well dry yesterday morning watering all the gardens.....and of course....then we get rain. Can't win!

I'm waiting to see all those beautiful lilac/purple flower pictures you took yesterday. Where are they? Lavender/purple is my new favorite flower color. I just bought daylilies; Bela Lugosi, Star of India and Orchid Corsage. They range from deep dark purple to pale lavender. Can't wait for next year to see them bloom.

Gotta get out in the garden....noticed a seedling yesterday that looked like it might bloom for the first time today.

BTW....where are you that you're having such a drought? Texas?

Rocky

Nope. Southeast Kentucky. We were about 20 inches behind for rain in my county until this week. It rained again last night and is raining this morning so things are looking up, but it has been the strangest weather year I can remember. I was barbecuing in the backyard in January and covering plants to protect them from a freeze most of April.

Here's the purple-

I can't get a photo to do this one justice-nicest Datura I have grown.
Datura meteloides
{{gwi:83720}}

Calibrachoa, related to petunias, but a separate and distinct genus.

Strobilanthes

Echinacea

Aster chinensis

Dolichos lablab

Hibiscus syriacus

Oh, Poison! I'm not usually one for folaige plants (except that I've found a love for coleous all of a sudden), but that Strobilanthes is goregoues!! I just love all of your pictures!!

Poison,

Yeah! Our weather was the same as yours this year. Much too warm in the late winter and then much, much too cold in April.

I absolutely love your pictures. I've really been learning a lot since I've been on GW. I've never been good at the 'real' names of plants....now I'm starting to do a lot of research and looking things up. :) Now I know what a Hyacinth bean looks like. Never grown one before.

I've been growing plants most of my life; but mostly houseplants. I guess before the last couple of years....if they didn't sell it at wal-mart....I didn't grow it. I live in a very, very, small town. Gotta drive 20 miles to get to the nearest wal-mart. No nurseries or anything interesting anywhere near my house. The local 'highway veggie farm' does carry a few nice perenniels in the spring, but other than that....I'm in plant nowhere land!!!! Soooooo glad I stumbled on this site when I was surfin'!

Keep those pictures comin'

Rocky

I live in a small town too, but we do have a Walmart, LOL.
I am about an hour away from what I call a city, but I usually like it that way. For years I did a lot of traveling to monster-cities with my job, and I have to repeat the old saw "Nice place to visit, would not want to live there."
I have never had any interest in the "common" names of plants and don't know many. There are so many plants that share the same common name and it varies depending on where you are, so I don't find them very useful. If you have the botanical name, you can look it up with confidence. I have learned a lot of common names on GW, but I still don't trust them. If anything, it has reinforced my belief that while colorful, they are not of much value. I guess that makes me anal, too.
Too wet to take pictures today. I love that!

Thought I'd share these pics.

This seedling is sure blooming late in the season! Hope it stays a late bloomer; right now not many daylilies are blooming.

{{gwi:1288731}}

{{gwi:1288732}}

The edge looks white in the picture; but is actually pale yellow.

Rocky

Beautiful pictures everyone.

Poison: I saw the varigated leaves of your agastache, We have been having some odd mutations in the clematis leaves this year as well. Some leaves are looking like the flower petals, similar to what your agastache did. The general consensus in the clem forum is that all of these growers experienced a late frost during the maturation period of their younger plants. Did that happen in your area this spring?

Tracy

Very pretty daylily Rocky! You must have a knack for hybridizing.
Tracy, That is interesting about the effect the odd weather had on Clematis. We did have late frosts but I started the Agastache from seed in the greenhouse and did not plant them out until May, so they were not exposed to the late freezes. It interests me that the variegation marked the first true leaves after the cotyledons, which makes me believe the defective plastids are the result of a molecular defect and not due to injury after germination. When the first true leaves opened, one was green, the other was about 50% white and the plant has been about 50% white ever since. I have friends that come and raid the greenhouse every spring and everyone wanted that one. I am going to try to save the seeds and provide a little winter protection to that plant and see what happens. Whatever the cause of the defect and even if it cannot be duplicated, I have enjoyed it.

Poison,

Your variegated Agastache is very interesting. Well worth trying to propagate. I have tried rooting cuttings from my Agastache 'Tutti Fruitti' with no luck. It was from weak top growth that got broken off. I am going to try again. Maybe you could hand polinate the plant onto itself and see what you get. F2 generation may produce good variegation.

No...... no talent at hybridizing. I bought the seed off of The Lily Auction. A couple of years ago when I fell back in love with daylilies I decided there was no way I could afford all the gorgeous ones I loved so much. Solution? Buy seed from 'beautiful' crossed with 'beautiful'........seems to have worked so far.

I can afford $10 for some seed. I can't afford those high-dollar $250 - $300 daylilies that the seed came from. :)

Well, time for this old lady to wind down for the night.

Roxy

I have made some crosses over the years, but each time I have successfully collected seeds, I end up not planting them, maybe because there are so many other interesting plants to distract me. This year, I resolve to save, label and plant the results in the spring.

Dwarf Brug, Cassie's Curls

Brugmansia suavolens

Zinnia, Purity

Solanum integrifolium, Pumpkin Tree

Poison I would love to see the results of the seeds from the agastache. Please post the results after they start. They really are startling!

I always enjoy your pictures and postings. You have so many amazing plants that I have never heard of! Your garden has been an amazing eye opener for me. Thank you.

Tracy, It is so nice of you to say that! I sometimes regret posting because it reveals my botanical obsessions, LOL!

Oh please post away! LOL! I really am amazed at all that you grow and really get a kick out of your frogs hanging around too! I remember quite a while ago that you mentioned missing your pulmonaria plants. Would you like me to send you one. I divided them when I bought them and they handled it very well. I could divide the one again. It looks like it has two plants close together in there.

What zone are you in that you can grow the brugs. Do you bring them in for winter? I am really enjoying all of them that have been posted but I don't have a greenhouse or safe area to overwinter. How cold does it get by you?

Ah Tracy. I am zone 6, too. A few brugs survive and come back from the roots for me. My favorite double white does that. Charles Grimaldi seems to be pretty tough also, but there are several that don't. I have a tiny greenhouse I heat just for brugs, bananas etc-can't afford to heat the big one all winter, but never have enough room, so bananas and brugs come in the house too. When I run out of space, I take cuttings of the brugs I don't have room for and start a few immediately and store others in the fridge to start into growth in February. The new (to me, anyway) dwarf Cassie's Curls in the photo remains small and can live in a 10 inch pot. I suspect it will winter over indoors very well.
Hang on to your Pulmonaria division and if you are interested in trying some brugs, we can trade when this heat wave breaks. I will send you details about how to get them going.

That sounds great! I would love to try the brugs. They are fascinating to me. I am surprised to hear that any of them can survive our cold climate! Great news to me.

Let me know when you are ready, I will be happy to trade!
Tracy

Poison, don't ever NOT post pictures, let us see ALLLLLLL!!! PLEASE!!!! I LOVE your flower pictures!!!

We'll wait until we get back into the upper eighties. Don't know about you but we have a couple of weeks of mid 90's in our forecast with little to no chance of rain...not good news for the drought. I am going to start a new picture thread. This one is getting hard to load.

We have been having similar weather here. We finally have rain today. It has been steady for the last 6 hours. We needed it. It had been about 2-3 weeks since the last good soaker. We have a well and it really worries me when we don't get much rainfall. The other day I was running the sprinkler while I was getting ready for the catering job. I jumped in the shower really quick and the water just stopped coming out after 5 minutes. Told the kids to turn off the hose and finally got water back in the shower. The days of running multiple water systems are gone for us. Worrisome.