August Garden Notes

August has been a really busy month. We have dug, divided and replanted one main bed of daylilies in our garden. The daylilies in this bed were so crowded that this years bloom on the most crowded ones was less than in the past. In order to make the spacing between the plants greater we had to create a new bed to hold them. We put back in the garden bed at least three or four fans and planted the  extra fans in another area in order to offer them for sale next spring.  Rainfall has been scarce this month which helped us get as many moved as we did, but it also meant dragging hoses and watering the all the beds.

We still have a few more that need to be divided this fall if possible, there is the mulch that needs to be put down and the rest of the daylily beds need a final cleanup. I want to cut the foliage back so there will be less of the old foliage to remove in the spring. Sooo, September looks as if it too will be busy. There has been little time to photograph the garden, since we used the early morning and late evening hours as much as possible to do most of the renovation.  I hope to soon be able to get back out with the camera, so that I can  show some before and after shots of the bed that we redid.

 The lack of rain is definitely creating fewer rebloom scapes but there were a few that  were blooming this past weekend. A couple of those blooming are

'Worth It All'

'Circle of Fire'

This is the first year bloom for both of these plants in my garden.  I am looking forward to more blooms on them next year.



Beauty without Blooms

The season of lots of daylilies in bloom has passed for my garden. There are a few re bloom scapes appearing in the garden but for the most part they are finished and I am ready to start the cleanup process and redo some of the most crowded beds. There is still color in the garden even without the daylilies. I planted this caladium in the with the hosta. The very first leaves that emerged were promptly eaten off by the deer or rabbits. I sprinkled the foliage that was left with red pepper and either they didn't like the taste of this plant or the red pepper worked.

I love the variegated foliage of the Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' It is planted in front of some oaf leaf hydrangeas and really adds a spot of brightness to the bed. Although it will have blooms the foliage is what I like about this plant.

Wax Begonia's

Wax begonia's make great edging plants. I have used them several places in the garden such as along this walkway leading from the side yard toward the front of the house. They will provide color here until the first killing frost which for our garden is usually mid October.

This spring I planted a couple of wire hanging baskets with wax begonia's. I don't usually have good luck with hanging containers. I don't get them watered often enough and by this time of year they are usually in pretty sad shape. I am pleased with the way these have managed to survive this hot dry summer that we are having, but there have been other problems to contend with...

The deer seem to like them too. They evidently found this one to be quite delectable. This picture was taken a couple of weeks after I moved them to a different location in the garden, one that is closer to the house.

The plants were eaten off so close to the soil line that I wasn't sure that they would live, but they seem to be growing fine and I hope they will be full of flowers for the rest of the summer.

Canna

The canna's are still blooming. They seem to be one of the humming birds's favorite sources of nectar in the garden. This is a plant that I never thought about growing here because I thought they had to be lifted in the fall. A few years ago someone mentioned they couldn't get rid of them so I had to experiment. I planted a few tubers in October with no special protection. Those same plants are still returning year after year.

I have added a couple of the dwarf varieties this year, we will see if they are as winter hardy as the red one. Both of these dwarf are planted close to the pond. I got these tubers at an end of season sale so I won't be too disappointed if they don't return.

'Pink Praise'

I still have a few daylilies blooming and I am beginning to see some rebloom scapes on a few of them. I hope that there will be more late blooms if the tempatures cool a little.