Tag Archives: foxglove

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – September 2013

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It is cold, cloudy, and drizzling this September Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, but that didn’t stop me from snapping some photos to share. Here is what is blooming on the Lot right now.

Last Bloom Day I posted a photo of the plumbago beginning to bloom. It is still blooming this month, but some of the nights had been cool enough the foliage is beginning to change.

Plumbago

The mum is beginning to slowly open up. There is only this one hardy mum on the Lot so it has fallen victim to a mum-pruning experiment this season. On the left side of the plant, I pruned it back in late spring. This is supposed to cause the plant to be more compact and have fewer but larger flowers. On the right, I didn’t prune at all and let the plant do it’s natural thing. I’m anxious to see how it turns out when in full bloom.

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Here is a set of raggedy-tag black-eyed susan underneath the backyard rose bush. The plant blooming last month in the main back bed is finished, but this one is still going. It’s a bit chewed up and fading, but it still adds a bright splash of color to the increasingly overcast days.

Black Eyed Susan

These coneflowers are still going strong in the front, south bed. I continue to deadhead, and they continue to send up new flower stalks.

Coneflowers

Here is a foxglove new to the Lot this year. I’ve made an effort to move some of the more toxic flowers out of the back yard where the four-footed garden helpers work. Since we lost our foxglove from last year, this new one was planted outside the gate on the east side of the house. Foxglove usually blooms at the beginning of summer, so I’m hoping this plant is just slightly disoriented and not sick.

Foxglove

Having tended a garden for several years now, I’m beginning to get a feel as to which plants signal the changing of the seasons. When I think of our zone moving into fall, I think of blooming sedum and toad lilies. First here is a new toad lily, blooming it’s first time on the Lot. This plant is also very toxic to pets, so it’s a neighbor to the new foxglove. Isn’t it dainty?

Toad Lily

And here comes the many varieties of sedum blooming right now. I love these plants because they are so hardy, don’t flinch at the scalding summer sun, can grow in poor soil with little water, are pollinator magnets, and offer almost cotton-candy like clouds of color when everything else seems to be winding down for the season.

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Also blooming: many versions of coreopsis, gaura, tall garden phlox, rose campion, and blanket flowers. Be sure to check out May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming in everyone else’s garden!

Bites & Blemishes

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One thing I’ve found very annoying about gardening is the fact that plants get sick. I know, there is no such thing as easy, non-maintenance gardening. I am also willing to work for beautiful plants. But, it doesn’t change the fact I fret and even get grumpy about plants being chomped on or made ill.

Both the catnip and the foxglove are showing such signs. I snapped pictures so I can try to puzzle out what’s going on with them once I was back to the computer. With the catnip, I’m thinking a combo of the wet spring and dense foliage is causing a type of mildew/blemishes on the leaves. I don’t know yet what is stressing the foxglove. At first I thought it may be some frost damage from a cold snap we had after the plant had sent out it’s first new shoots. Now I think it’s some kind of insect. Will have to research it more.
Edelweiss are budding in the back bed and yellow day lilies are going to open any day in the sidewalk bed. The forget-me-not seedlings are well on their way in Loki’s bed and the moonflower seedlings and new black barlow columbine in the gate bed are growing well. The rose bush in the southwest bed bloomed! The flowers are a very pale pink that turn almost to white after opening.
Also, this week I brought home some different types of ground cover from a co-worker’s garden. Our lot now has some vinca, chameleon plant and bishop’s weed.

Fieldtrip : John Ball Park

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My Better Half and I took a stroll this evening through John Ball Park. I believe volunteers from MSU’s master gardener program care for the landscaped sections of the park. As a result, it’s always a lovely place to visit with it’s very own rose garden.

As mentioned before, I do not know much about the care of roses. That’ll have to change because boy, oh boy, are some of those plants pretty. I snapped photos of the different roses in the park so I can identify them at a later date. Maybe, once educated a bit more in their care, I will purchase some for our lot.
There are also some nice “berms,” simple, circular beds whose soil is slightly raised above ground level, at the park. In one of the free gardening seminars I attended, the presenter spoke of how to construct them. I may reserve the idea of a raised bed just for a little vegetable patch. To create changes in elevation on our lot (which is very much needed), I could give a few berms a try.
Other things blooming on the lot: peonies in the sidewalk bed (pink with frills), little red roses in the front bed, the coral bells in Loki’s bed,  nasturtium, Jupiter’s beard, foxglove and rose campion in the back bed, the nicotiana in the fence bed, and the spiderwort and bachelors button in the alleybed. The lavender and hollyhock both are budding.