My peonies will be opening up soon

Bracteantha, H. Let's Dance Sky View, noid lacecap (any guesses?) that was existing, H. quercifolia Gatsby Moon, Canna Durban.

@Markay MD-Zone 7B, take a look at Black Beauty for your unknown lily.

@indianagardengirl close! But, a different Orienpet. I dug back in my purchase records and it is Scheherazade.

My favorite daylily - Hyperion

coneflower snuggled up to Clematis ”Abundance”. coneflower is 5 ’ tall because the clematis is watered weekly

clematis ”Abundance”

Maybe Little Quickfire

veronica Luke Skywalker

hydrangea querqfolia “Alice” low on blooms this year .

is a pretty sight when the winterberries ripen in back and polygonaum throws its red flowers

phlox carolina ”Minnie Pearl”

short, mildew free ; ealier than paniculatas

Quickfire

Is this Blue Billow?

lady in Red, i thought, but thats incorrect.

now i have no idea. do you?

My favorite dwarf daisy, Cream Puff

Cream Puff with Durandii clematis, Moody Blues Veronica and Samantha campanula

I've been talking up how happy I am with Pennisestum 'Hamelin' that I've had for 20 years, and there it was with the last of the sun on it when I went out tonight... Love it!

The Lilies are finally open... a little breezy out there so it might not be as sharp as I'd like....very fragrant!

These were new this year. I'm not as fond of it as the next one....

All of them are fragrant. I'd really like a companion plant...

Hollyhock just starting to open.... I don't usually grow them thinking they will get rust, but so far they look pretty clean....

I started writing this post last Saturday morning and then got distracted. This is an old Doublefile Viburnum shrub – variety unknown - which was overrun with vines and whatnot when the area was cleared years ago. This year it had wonderful flowers in the spring and subsequently wonderful berries. I thought that by the end of the weekend all the berries would be gone eaten by Gray Catbirds – they are half gone in the Saturday picture. This morning, I think there may be a few berries left - I am sorry I didn’t get a photo in full fruit.

Saturday July 12, 2025

Monday July 14, 2025

What lovely garden photos, everybody!

Diggerdee, Love your evening shots +++ I have a white garden 'area' out my kitchen window and it has been popping a bit in the twilight hours ( I live in the 'land of the midnight sun' , so we miss out on summer dark nights, but I love it!)

perenall, your garden is amazing, I admire your filipendula - I've had mine for 15 years (I think it's 'rubra'?)and it seems to be everywhere all at once, but never in a sweet clump like yours

MarieTulin, lovely winterberry and polygonatum combo looking forward to seeing it in its maturity - and your mulch is so well done, really sets it all off

Here goes, hope not too much !

Here's my husband rejuvenating a weedy area - he's the gardener now !

I think of my peonies as substitute roses in a way (the moose leave them alone)

(A tough season, my Itohs did survive but won't bloom this year )

Tail end of the blue poppy era

I think this geranium is 'splish splash' variety, I find it cute and stalwart

I'm trying to up my hosta game, this one catches my eye each morning

Still needing to clean out this area, but things are healthy !

Yarrow is always a favorite, I have red and a few other colors too (spittlebugs also like them, darn it)

And a 'Lauren's Grape' poppy opened up, they are one of my favorite self seeders (another favorite, borage, to come)

I ordered a number of geraniums from https://www.geraniaceae.com but I've neglected to keep track and lost some of them but this lovely color of purple one

is well established

I love columbines, they just pop up on their own

And I really appreciate these dianthus, just conveniently establishing themselves right in the weedy pathway

Raymond

i love Doublefiles A big old one might be the species but there are many cultivars. my priblem is keeping them watered during exceptionally dry hot spells. They wilt readily and such a big item limp as a rag is a sad sight.

i was sure my 15 year old 15 ft specimen died during last summers drought but it resprouted from the roots and is a couple of feet tall.now.

the question remains whether i want ( or am able to ) keep up with watering.

i have Mariessi, ShoshoniI, , Summer Snowflske ( not impressief yet) and Popcorn, which is special. i have coveted a pink flowered variety but theres no room.

Marie

The Doublefile in the photos is 1 of 4 uncovered when the area was cleared – the others are alive and kicking as they say. It is hard to get back any Doublefile shape now – so I mostly get rid of water sprouts and dead branches. These shrubs are quite old – we moved into this house in 2010. Fortunately, these Viburnums are on the downhill side of the property, so they retain some water. I also have Mariesii which is lovely and a Pink Viburnum 'Molly Schroeder' which is also lovely but was planted in the wrong location and really needs to me moved or scrapped. Last summer was very dry in my neck of the woods – SE PA – so there was lots of hand watering stuff. I have drip irrigation in many parts of my garden but not all. Last summer I used a combination of a 100’ expandable hose (very light weight) with a battery-operated water timer (easy to set time) attached to some watering device that can deliver water slowly. It was easy to drag this around where needed. BTW – most of the expandable hoses are junk and will eventually leak but I was pulling mine over grassy areas and didn’t care about small leaks.

If you get up early and sneak a photo of Calycanthus ‘Venus’ waking up, you may get the photo before those ‘black spots’ appear. I got one today. Also, Calycanthus ‘Hartlage Wine’ pushed out another flower.

Calycanthus 'Venus'

Calycanthus ‘Hartlage Wine’

"Fire Light' Panicle Hydrangea - some morning fog

Few different liatris varieties I put in last year. A lot of flopping. Not sure if they get stronger after a few years or I’ll need to stake them. Also Mary Todd daylily and a lily that wasn’t in bloom when I got it. Neighbors had a bunch on the curb.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - Tulip Poplar stump

Black Beauty lily opening now, for comparison to Markay’s Scheherazade. About 30 buds on one bulb.

@indianagardengirl How long has that lily been in the ground? It's gorgeous and really producing.

Very pretty Black Beauty lily. Mine have not even colored up on the buds, and they usually bloom in August. The rest of my lilies are pretty much done already. Brief bloom period. I still have a couple of Casa Blancas too.

Lat62 - Love your new gardener! [g] Looks like a keeper!

James - do you have an aster flowering already with that monarch on it?

Raymond, I have the Hartlage Wine but I think I’d rather have the Venus. The red flowers really don’t show up very well and are pretty small.

Last season the rabbits had a field day with a lot of shrubs and perennials and I ended up cutting back my Calycanthus to the ground and the Clethra ‘Hummingbird’ AND I cut back Oakleaf Hydrangea to the ground simply because it had a lot of older branches and really needed rejuvenating.

It’s a little scary cutting shrubs back to the ground…lol. You wonder, will they really come back? They all came back with vigor. Very surprised. Not sure how to keep the rabbits away from them. They have such a large footprint, I’d hate to put wire fencing around them.

Clethra coming back

Calycanthus...

Oakleaf Hydrangea very interesting how many shoots are replacing what was a central trunk...

Tiger Lily

Rabbits made a mess of June Hosta.... I'm afraid to neaten it up thinking they'll have better access to the center of the plant. [g]

I think this is 'Cinderella' Asclepias ..

Tomatoes

and more Tomatoes - they're loving the hot weather...

@SeniorBalloon, I’ve had that lily for a long time, maybe 15 years? It’s actually a little shy of buds this year, and I’m planning to move late this fall. Currently too close to a large Silver Maple. I’ve had more than 50 buds in past years.

The monarch has been hanging around on the liatris ! Didn’t see many on my milkweed this year

I have so many comments and some pictures to upload, but no time now! But HAD to post to say Raymond, that Venus is just lovely! I have been so torn on my shrub, debating - for a couple of years, actually! - whether to take it out because of those darn black spots that are there 99.99% of the time. But when you get a bloom like that, how can you rip it out? So gorgeous!

As always, thanks for sharing everyone! Love to see everyone's gardens! Going back out into mine now. Lol maybe today I can finally finish "spring clean-up" - my gosh I am SOOOO behind!

:)

Dee

I need to catch up on the posts here. The weather has gone from constant rain and cold to very hot, so my summer gardens are just getting started.

Nice, party music. simple & classic

do you remember the name of the short black eyed susan in front.?

@Marie Tulin Boston burbs z 6a, sorry I don’t know the name. A co-worker dug some of her excess and gave it to me about 10 years ago.

It’s a gorgeous cool day here and there are all different bees and butterflies and dragonflies everywhere:

The mimosa tree in the background is on the opposit side of the road. My garden slopes down to the road. The roses are Easy Does It and South Africa. The airy white blooms are Euphorbia corallata. There is slso so yellow Patrina, and Rudbeckia blooming and Uproar Rose Zinnias which are outstanding performers.

Phlox Jeana and the rose Sweet Mademoiselle.

Bronze leaf fennel, Ruellia humilis, liatris, lance-leaf coreopsis, and Andropogon gerardii ‘Blackhawks’ which had stayed very upright despite thunderstorms.

Do waterlilies count?

Astilboides with angelica in an area it's hard to keep up but these giants seem to take care of themselves and maybe not be bothered by weeds too much

I grew this from seed years ago, primula florindae, I think , from plantworld seeds

My persicaria polymorpha is coming along nicely in another wild area

@lat62 is the large leafed plant in the first pic a darmera peltata? That primula is beautiful.

Planted 50 or so gladiolus and they are just starting to bloom.

Senior Balloon, it is astilboides tabularis, common astilboides - very robust and getting bigger each year

@lat62 Very interesting plant. We had some darmera planted by our pond and it did very well for a few years, but is petering out (no idea why). I thought this might be a good replacement, but read it can be a rather aggressive spreader. Is that your experience?

@SeniorBalloon - Not so far, this might be the first year I got a flower stalk - I'll trim that off now that I know about the spreading - or is it by rhizomes ? I'd better look into that, I have so many aggressive plants nowadays it's been hard.

Hmmm, editing to add after a brief look-see I'm not finding the info about it being aggressive spreading, care to share ? I think I've had mine for 3 or 4 years and it just spreads as a clump so far .

This is Margaret Roach, I trust her generally (although it's 8 years old :))!

https://awaytogarden.com/a-plant-id-order-astilboides-tabularis/comment-page-2/#comments

@lat62 Mine was a reddit poster, so your reference seems better. They said it was huge and sprouts up everywhere. Hard to know what they think is huge as well as the meaning of "sprouts up everywhere".

I am leery to add anything to the garden that will become a maintenance issue and am probably over cautious.

EDIT TO ADD: In reading more I found several entries that said it was not invasive, but will make more of itself each year. Not unusual for many plants. Have you had a need to trim it back? Was it hard to dig out?

@SeniorBalloon I have not tried to move it - I can try to take a picture of its stems, it's in an out of the way place for me and can grow as big as it wants to :)

These are its stems, if you can make sense out of this picture :)

It's almost pure shade and I don't try to weed over there near the property line

Here is a closeup of its flower, only one stalk and I don't remember it flowering before - kind of pretty - I really like this plant but I totally understand your caution :)

Persacaria amplexicaulis 'Firetail'

Loving the great pics!

I finally got a few photos uploaded.

Daylilies, most NOID (or the names are somewhere on my old hard drive!)

This one below I think is Scene Stealer. LOVE the color, but the shape is a bit odd

Finally some hope for my few remaining lilies! Much less damage this year from the lily leaf beetle, and I actually have some blooms without damage. I might even buy some new lilies!

cimicifuga/actea racemosa

My old cutting garden has been taken over by reseeders, and I have a love-hate relationship with it. It's kind of a hot mess (especially now that the blooms are fading and the days are hot) but at the same time I get so much joy out of it. I have tried for weeks to capture on my camera what I see in front of me, and it's so hard - it just looks messy in the photos. But here are a couple that at least make it look halfway decent lol

Nigella has passed and reseeded larkspur rules supreme. A few digitalis grandiflora, and some serendipitously placed apricot-colored daylilies that I put in the bed "temporarily" three years ago. There's a bird bath in there too, and a few stray Queen Anne's Lace. Color is so much more vibrant in real life - LOVE this larkspur!

Same garden in the evening - love this photo because the colors pop more than in the daytime photos. This is closer to what the colors look like when you are standing in front of the garden, even in the afternoon.

By the way, there is a stand of echinacea in there - someone above I think mentioned how well their echinacea are doing, and mine too are having a good year. I'm disappointed that some of what was supposed to be Green Twister(?) are straight pink but they are doing so well I forgive them!

That's it for me for now!

:)

Dee

Dee, your lilies are beautiful! I love the evening pic too!

Wait, I know, it’s Ageratum – an annual - but I grew this variety 'Blue Mink’ from seed last year 2024 – and planted several in this very spot (SE PA). It reseeded and came back in 2025 right where it was originally planted – I can’t complain.

Ageratum - Dwarf - Blue Mink

Thanks Markay!

Wow, raymond, those are great! I've never had ageratum reseed, at least not like that! Isn't it great when things work out like that?

:)

Dee

Gorgeous everyone!! I have pretty poor pics. It has been so hot I have not been taking pics at the perfect times.

Filipendula ulmaria Variegata

Daylily Voodoo Dancer

Daylily Marmalade

Black Arrowhead

Destined to See

El Desperado

Free Wheelin'

Lavender Jean Davis

A couple more.

Heliopsis Summer Sun

Leucanthemum Becky & friends

Phlox

Macleaya

Astilbe Color Flash Lime

L. Becky in a different area

New bed planted late last fall.

Eryngium Blue Hobbit. I don't usually care for scaled down versions but this is a cutie.

Too much going on here. obviously lol, but have to give a shout out to canna cannova red. constant blossoms all summer long wow

Taking a page out of Dee’s book, here are some evening pics.

Moonflower

Echinacea Fragrant Angel and ageratum

Earth Angel Rose

The scent is amazing….

party-music, I always smell my phlox before I see them lol. Just so wonderful, aren't they?

Markay I was just eyeing Earth Angel in a sale email yesterday, and you are convincing me i should think a bit harder about one! Love the moonflower! I grew some years ago, but haven't done so recently. I think I just missed most of the blooms so I stopped buying the seeds. They are indeed lovely though!

:)

Dee

Once again I have a dozen pics on my phone but need to get them to my computer to post!

Dee, Earth Angel is a favorite of mine, but this has not been it’s best year. It prefererred last years drought and persistenly windy weather to this summer‘s non-stop heat and humidity!

Party-music50, what phlox is that? I’ve been thinking of adding some to my garden.

debra

one last photo for July, the blue poppy has been outstanding for me this year

THANKS for this thread and Happy August!

And I want to find out how to use my arnica

Ok, now that it's August, I guess I should post a couple of July photos! Still haven't gotten them all uploaded to my computer but here's a few:

I'm really enjoying my few lilies, even if they are leaning over in a mess of weeds and even if they still have some lily leaf beetle damage. This is the best they've done in almost 15 years!

Gosh my phone takes such lousy pictures. Everything is washed out and pale. The phlox here is much brighter although the daisies really are in need of deadheading lol! I had a very large rose bush fall over on the phlox early this year so I am glad to see the phlox fought through the canopy and bloomed!

Another rather washed-out photo. The daylilies behind the liatris are quite an unusual color!

Dahlias starting to bloom:

Sisa

American Dawn. Was rather disappointed in this last year when I first got it. It looked very similar to Great Silence in all the catalogs, but in real life the colors were much more muted and muddied. It's looking slightly better this year (and lots more yellow in it too) and I need to stop comparing it to GS lol.

Great Silence - so hard to capture the "glow" of this dahlia! Definitely my favorite!

This one is a few days old

This DARK red is not only darker in real life, but it's looking a bit purplish here. I've never seen such a dark bloom - wondering about the green in it too. Dug around for the label in the soil but couldn't find it. Will have to look again when I have more time.

I THINK this is Bridezilla. Might be I Do. When my daughter got married I did her flower arrangements and stupid me never labeled the dahlias. Me, who labels and saves everything. So now I have a bunch of very similar whites and pinks and I can only guess lol...

:)

Dee