Summer Flowers in the Garden

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Been awhile since I have done any blog posts...The summer garden is filled with colors. The glads are continuing to bloom in radiant colors this summer.

                                          Don't you like this sweet little red yarrow flower?

                              This perrenial is quite tall and seems to blow in the wind.

A few of the many daylilies in the garden and this one came from the farmer's market.

Quite a few lilies came from the gardens of the Southwest Virginia Museum plant sale.

White lavender just waiting to be harvested. Lavender seems to thrive in rock filled soil here.

              St. John's Wort is flowering and cascades about five feet down a garden slope.

I believe this is a hummingbird moth. Took the photo pretty quickly to capture the moth.

      One of the many hydrangeas blooming in the yard. It is a very large blue blossom~!

                               I call this the hummingbird vine. It must be a cousin to kudzu.

View from a small portion of the garden off the deck in the back yard. The sunflower is a volunteer from the bird feeders above.

                                      The deep rich colors of summer really brighten up the gardens.

Stroll Through the Mountain Garden

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 After all the rain, the sun came out. She is not playing hide and seek today. I thought I would share with you some of the flowers blooming and growing around the gardens. This lovely day lily came from the Southwest Virginia Museum's annual plant sale last year. There are two of these red double lilies in this garden and two mystery lilies which have not bloomed. I call them mystery because when you purchase the lilies you do not know what color they are.

 The echinchea is especially pink this year in the herb garden in front of the green house. I took out all the St. John's Wort early in the spring to transplant it near a butterfly bush and so many herbs flourished this year.

Black eyed susans are all over the yard. They are especially abundant next to the mailbox. After the blossoms fade, I will broadcast the seeds throughout the yard. The early fuzzy leaves help to identify the plant and keep the lawnmower at bay. These are growing amid Japanese anemone.

 Isn't this pretty? My sister calls it grandfather's beard. Do you know another name for it? I planted several of these and two are blooming. Maybe next year, there will be several more.

If you look closely, you can see a flying critter. I am not sure of the name of this, but is flies as fast as a hummingbird. Three of them were enjoying the nectar of the butterfly bush.

 These lilies were also from the Museum sale. They are a darker red orange than the road lily. It is called the road lily because it blooms all along the sides of the road. This garden bed has several different varieties of lilies as well as several mole holes. When next spring comes, I suspect the bulb population will be a lot less in this garden bed.

 Jasmine blooming next to a sculpture of a little girl. The jasmine is now three years old. I keep it inside where it actually blooms in the winter.

I found the bottle tree at Gardener's Supply. The butterfly sculpture moves just a bit. There are lilies just about ready to bloom in between the butterflies. I hope you enjoyed this stroll through my gardens on this sunny morning in July.

Unexpected Surprises

 I had just come up the steps from walking around the garden after  deadheading the day lilies. If they are not taken off the plant, the Japanese Beetles are a bit too fond of them. I looked down and saw a turtle. Off I went to get the camera. Here it is under the steps leading up to the upper deck of the house. The turtle wandered off into the yard right after the picture was taken. Probably in the woods this morning.

 A few of the day lilies at the corner of the house in different stages of opening. These came from the Southwest Virginia Museum.

 The hydrangeas are really full of blue flowers this year.

The butterfly bushes are beginning to bloom. This is one of several along the front wall.

Before daylilies open

 The moon glow pulled me awake this morning. I watched the moon shadows across the worn red wooden floor of the kitchen. After making blueberry muffins with fresh berries from the farmer's market, I cut a pineapple. All the fragrances and the compost material drew me into the garden. The sun had come up. The sky was clean blue. Not even a single cloud adorns the mountain sky this morning.

 I noticed the day lilies were just beginning to open. One year for an art swap, I took photos of the lilies about every thirty minutes. These lilies will be fully opened by the time this blog is written. At the close of the day, they will have drooped their weary heads. They are in most of the gardens around the house. Several folks living in the valley grown day lilies. The ones in the first photo are from the garden at the Southwest Virginia Museum here in Big Stone Gap from the annual plant sale.

 St. Francis, a favorite Saint of our family, aged from years in the gardens watches over the raised garden bed. This year we have tomatoes, basil, nasturtiums, peppers, marigolds, and lots of peas.

If you look closely,  you just might be able to find a bee among the lavender. I planted five new plants around a Miss Kim lilac last week. The green house in town is closing for the season and has all their plants marked for clearance. I went on Monday for more lavender to border the other Miss Kim lilac. I also got some creeping thyme to fill in the downhill herb bed. By now the butterflies are around the lavender plants, reminding me today is the day to make paper.