Blooming Now - July

Every 15th of the month, Carol, at May Dreams Gardens, hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - basically, a wonderful carnival of flowers with links to lots of blogs.  And, every 15th of the month, I'm either too busy to remember, or the gardens are in a lull (for example, May 15th, I had lots of wilted columbines).  This month, I'm busy, but I'm going to post anyway because the gardens are beautiful right now - and we had a (relatively) cool day to enjoy them yesterday.  Warning:  this post is very long...

Lily - one of my favorite flowers of the entire year - for obvious reasons!


 

Lily with her companions (coneflowers, sage, and phlox (way in the background)).

 

Balloon flower (Platycodon)

In older son's bed.  We don't remember the name of this one, and the tag is long gone.  We call it "Martian plant."  It's invasive and keeps spreading to his sister's flower bed.  She ruthlessly weeds it out of her bed.


Stargazer Lily.  I've been going through a lily phase the last few years, and I've been gradually adding them to the beds.  This lily is joined by a bee balm.



I don't remember their name (dear husband is out of town - he's the one that's good with names).  The small pink flowers are "Million Bells."  And, a stray black-eyed susan.


A double bloom on a balloon flower.



This white hibiscus grows under and through everything else, and, just when I start wondering if it will come back again, it spreads out into open spaces and blooms (and blooms, and blooms, and...).  The hibiscus is joined by black-eyed-susans, marigolds, coneflowers, a light purple Egyptian Lily, and the low growing Green and Gold. 



Pink and white spider flower (cleome), white phlox, the ever-present black-eyed-susans, a coneflower, and a red (to-be-filled-in-when-dear-husband-gets-home).



We had a cold front come through yesterday morning, leaving us with beautiful clear (i.e. not-humid) evening light on the beds in the front yard.



The orange cosmos come up in the front bed every summer - which is wonderful since most of the other annuals I've tried in that bed hate it! (bright, NC sun from about 8 am until sunset).


Red ruellia with nasturtium leaves

 
Lilies in the side bed.


A better view of the Egyptian lily (front), with coneflowers, sage, and... my favorite lily.


It will be nice when dear husband gets home (grin).

Click here for this month's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

Comments

[Muum]

I love those stargazer lilies, too, and your first pic of the white w/ freckles lily is spectacular!

[Carrie K.]

Beautiful! Glad your back's some better, too.

[Carol, May Dreams Gardens]

This post might be long, but it is beautiful. You have a lot of great blooms. Thanks for joining us for bloom day.

[Moominpapa]

Sweetheart - I don't know the name of that last blue flower either!

And I hope you won't mind when some of those same late evening sunlight photos show up on my blog, with different commentary. That was a gorgeous evening - my favorite outdoor hour in July so far.

[M Light]

Thank you, all!