Red Days of Summer

Each year I select a color for an accent and red was my choice this year.  I'm enjoying seeing it from the kitchen.  I've done pastels before and they are pretty but this stronger color catches the eye more.  Red also looks good as the fall season starts.

These impatiens really bulked up a lot recently.  The plant tag reads Super Elfin Red. 

All those hostas you see around the perimeter I planted the year we put this together.  

I dug them out real early in the spring and split them up.  I replanted quickly and kept them watered and they took right off. 

You can read about the garden patio beginnings in the link below: 

Patio Garden Beginnings  

Little by little it's developed into what we have now. 

These impatiens have a nice shimmer to them.  I tried to capture it with this picture- if you look closely at the flower you'll notice what seems like a shimmer of gold on them.

I love the yellow color Hakone or Japanese Forest grass color looks with the red impatiens.

My hostas and day lilies are blooming.  I leave the hosta flowers (some cut them off) because I like them and the hummingbirds do too!

My favorite daylily called "Sunday Gloves".  

 A quick check in on the "forgotten garden" area.  There are some day lilies that should be blooming any day now too.

 The Mardi Gras Helenium, Sneezeweed is finally blooming.  I think it's a real cute flower!

 More cone flowers blooming with the Tuscan Sun, Heliopsis 

 I love this cone- it's a raspberry red color and keeps getting prettier as it matures.

I thought these cones were long gone.   There used to be more of them but it never was a very strong grower.  This one is called Sundown.  It came from a series called Big Sky.  

Do you think I like red? 😉

  

While we were gone on our short trip the Zagreb Coreopsis went into full bloom and so did the Shasta Daisies and more Cone Flowers (Little Annie)

My galvanized watering can planter has been doing great! These geraniums are called Patriot, Soft pink.  I put white Bacopa with them to drape along the sides. 

By the garage I have little planter full of white alyssum, vinca vine and Dipladenia (mandevilla family) I love the tropical look of this plant and how it blooms consistently.

Love their pretty flowers- so summery!

 These (Calliope) geraniums seemed to take so long to get blooming but now they're really going for it!

Fuchsia color with red mix- they seem to glow.

 The fairy garden is more secluded now with the big Annabelle hydrangea hanging over top!

 This flower head is absolutely huge!

Ha ha- my hobby decided to be a reference for the size! 

Thanks for joining me.

I'm linking up to Gardens Galore 

Late Summer Gardens

 Boy time is flying past too quickly.

 I just love these Cone Flowers (Echinacea) These are called Secret Affiar from the Secret Series.  There are similar versions by other suppliers but I happen to think this one is  the best I've seen.  They have an added bonus of a light scent too!  The yellow flowers are a Heliopsis called Tuscan Sun.  The white flowers are another variety of Cone Flowers.  

This is from 2014 when I planted these.

The lilacs have gotten a lot bigger and I've lost all the lilies you can see on the right.

This is it in 2016

The Cones on the right are weak mainly because of the big blue spruce nearby that creates too much shade for them.  The Russian Sage struggles too looking for more sun.  There is a Helenium plant (Sneezeweed) on the left that's just about done blooming.  I was ready to dig all this out and forget it because it looked pretty crappy early on this summer.  We gave it more attention with the sprinkler and it kicked right in gear and got going.  

 I refer to this as my "forgotten garden" because it is hidden by the big blue spruce.  

 There is a small plant growing by the spruce that I'm convinced I planted many years ago and has come back from extinction.   If you recognize the leaf and know what it is let me know!

This hibiscus- Rose of Sharon is blooming a little bit earlier than previous years.  I looked back at a couple of older posts and it showed it blooming as late as September 12th.  It will look a little fuller in the coming week.

 I cut this Limelight Hydrangea back quite severely last year because it had become quite wide and interfered with getting by it when Dan mows the lawn.  I wasn't sure how it would react but as you can see it did great.  The center seems to have grown tall and left a middle area with few blooms.  

It was very sunny and I used the spruce tree to get away from the glare but it made for a darker shot of the hydrangeas.  This one gets a fair amount of sun as compared to the ones out back.

I'm going to cut a bunch of these blocking the path and send my daughter home with them when she visits this weekend.  

In November of 2011 I purchased this little Christmas Cactus.

It's done a lot of growing and I decided it needs to be transplanted it into a larger pot.  I ordered the pot on-line and it's quite a bit larger.  I am going to re-pot it right away so it can get comfortable before it comes back in the house.  I've kept it outdoors all summer in the shade and it's healthy as can be.  The planter is a bit large but the plant should be able to survive in it for many years to come.

These are the last of the hostas that are flowering.  The hummingbirds enjoy them so I let them grow.  I took this in the evening.

 Everything is kind of shaggy now.  The plants are at their fullest.  The Annabelle hydrangeas have turned green and are just about perfect to cut and dry.  The boots found a new spot to hang out. 

You'll find me sitting here in the evenings relaxing and watching the sprinkler watering the plants.  It's been a wonderful summer here.  We've had a fair amount of hot days and warm nights but no complaints!  

Spring into Summer 2010

 I took a steady amount of pictures this spring and summer of my gardens.  I put this video together from some of those pictures I captured.....turn on your volume and listen to the music too!

 
This is so compressed it's best viewed this way rather than full screen....
This was created by using pictures I took with a digital camera and applied them to a program called iMovie on my iMac computer- the quality is much better than it shows here, blogger compresses it so much it's a little fuzzy looking. 
Music is from a CD called Garden Thyme, song title is Heartline