6 on Saturday – 27JUL2024

Chris Mousseau

I braved hordes of hungry mosquitoes earlier this morning, in between swimming and gymnastics events being broadcast from Paris, to snap a few photos in my yarden, joining Jim at Garden Ruminations in this weekly worldwide roundup of What’s Happening in your Garden. We’ve had just a few drops of rain this week – the clouds that caused major flooding just a few hours away having passed north of us – contributing to this July being one of the wettest on record. The garden is, generally, reflecting the deep soaking it’s had and the rain barrels are full, thankfully, as there’s nothing but heat and sunshine in the long range forecast.

My Rose of Sharon – Hibiscus syriacus – is a good example of what a bloom will look like given enough rain. Last year, most years, in fact, the flowers were maybe two thirds this size.

I sowed Zinnia seeds directly into the cutting garden at the end of May. Earwigs and maybe a few small slugs approved, eating away as the seeds sprouted, leaving just three or four survivors. One is finally blooming:

Oriental lilies – lilies in general, including Hemerocallis – are ending now in my garden but I wanted to include this shot of the Oriental Lilium ‘Playtime’ – it’s that gorgeous:

There are various Liatris species out there in the world, some native to Canada and some not. I can’t tell them apart. I collect seeds from this one every year and spread them about:

Rudbeckia – Black Eyed Susan – is now blooming, both R. hirta and R. fulgida are native here, differentiated (to my eye) by the shape of their leaves, and can be somewhat aggressive, spreading by seed or stolen (mainly R. fulgida). And although native, they’re not at all drought tolerant. In years past I’ve had wide swaths of them turn crispy and brown by the end of July; this year, they’re all very happy!

Finally, a true wildflower, something that just appeared and something many consider a weed – the biennial evening primrose – Oenothera biennis. There’s a few with central stems stretching to six feet – two metres – this year, although generally they’re shorter than that. Individual flowers open in the evening and die back at some point the following day. I pull up quite a few each spring, as the first year leafy rosettes appear, otherwise they’d happily take over the world, but like to leave a few.

The Olympics are inspiring me – I’m off for a run before it gets too hot. Have a great weekend everyone!

18 Comments

  1. Nice to see the happy flowers in your ‘yarden’ 😁 What a playful looking Lily! Few hungry mosquitoes here, because Plymouth County has been fogging, by truck, twice in 3 days 😡, 4th time total, and aerial spraying in a few weeks. The ‘wigs are leaving my new, large Dahlia alone…and I think the semi-devoured one is slowly making a come-back. First Monarch caterpillar made a chrysalis in the habitat yesterday afternoon. Hope you had a great run.

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    1. It was a hot and sweaty run – just what summer is all about! Your mosquito population must be horrendous to warrant municipal spraying. I’ve heard of that happening in some northern communities where mosquitos and black flies can be horrible – and some cities have sprayed catch-basins etc when the threat of west Nile disease is there. Happy about your dahlia!!

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  2. I’m partial to evening primrose, and yes, they self-seed in my yard. I keep them to a just a handful, and really enjoy the goldfinches that come and ravage the pods for seeds.

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  4. Isn’t rain amazing? I could really use some. The shrub Althea is beautiful, but the lilies stole my heart. I have thrown out so many liatris seed to no avail, I shall enjoy yours from afar.

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  5. Rose of Sharon is doing very well in my garden. I have a white variety that also has a white throat. Unusual. My liatris attracts butterflies and goldfinches.

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  6. Oenothera biennis creeps into east Texas, although different species are more common in my area. Does the Hibiscus syriacus come in pink as well? I seem to remember a friend who had both pink and white. Perhaps he had two shrubs, rather than both colors appearing on the same plant.

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    1. They come in a variety of colours, and bi-colours, so it’s quite possible your friend had one with a pink and white flower, but not a single shrub with both pink and white, separate, flowers.

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  8. Rose of Sharon naturalizes, or at least grows from feral seed, in some situations here. I get the impression that it prefers chaparral climates, although it does like irrigation. It certainly looks happy there though. It looked just as happy in the Pacific Northwest. It sort of makes me wonder.

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  9. The rain has given your garden a new lease of life! The Rudbeckia look great – mine also finally did well after a few years of struggling in dry summers. I love Evening Primrose, and the Liatris is something I should try.

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