Summer Blooms: GBBD, July 2014

I’m a bit late with my bloom day post, but this is one that I definitely don’t want to miss. In my Maine garden, even in a year when flowers are blooming later than normal, mid-July is a time when summer flowers burst into bloom. Each morning’s tour of the garden brings new delights.

Daylily (Hemerocallis) season has begun in earnest, with ten of the more than forty different varieties that I grow currently in bloom. The first daylily to flower was the early rebloomer, ‘Happy Returns,’ which is currently gracing the back slope along with a velvety red daylily and the first flowers of Platycodon grandiflorus (balloon flower) ‘Sentimental Blue.’

The circular bed at the turn into the driveway, which has suffered somewhat from close encounters with construction vehicles, also features an early daylily , an unnamed neon gold seedling from the Barth breeding program. Most of the flowers blooming with this are in more pastel shades that allow the daylily to take center stage. I especially love this combination of Geranium x ‘Brookside’ and Alchemilla mollis (Lady’s Mantle).

The holding area at the side of the house, where I put plants that needed to be moved out of harm’s way during construction and that will eventually go back into a new front garden, is a riot of color. Several daylilies are blooming here, as are five different colors of Tradescantia, an unidentified pink lily, Heuchera ‘Raspberry Regal’, Heliopsis helianthoides (false sunflower) and a pale pink astilbe. I would not normally plant all these different colors together, but I’m enjoying the effect. I especially love the combination of strong yellow and pink.

In the back garden, only one flower bed, the blue and yellow border, has daylilies in bloom at this point. (Both the deck border and the fence border have varieties that will bloom later.) The first daylily to bloom here was another early rebloomer, ‘Boothbay Harbor Gold.’ This was soon joined by the large fragrant flowers of ‘Alna Pride.’ Many more varieties, all in shades of yellow, will join them in the days to come. These daylilies are accompanied by tall spires of delphinium, which have begun to bloom, and by the strong yellows of Heliopsis helianthoides and Coreopsis verticillata ‘Golden Showers.’

Although the blue and yellow border will soon take center stage in the back, the deck border still has more happening. Varieties of Astilbe are the most prominent flowers here. I am particularly happy to see the pale pink blooms of ‘Betsy Cuperus,’ which is thriving after being relocated last year. And my favorite Astilbe flowers are always those of ‘Ostrich Plume.’

In the fence border, in addition to the flowers of Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis), tradescantia, and geranium – all which have been blooming for several weeks – clematis ‘Comtesse de Bouchaud’ is now blooming on the fence, and the first flowers of the tall Rudbeckia x ‘Herbstsonne’ have just begun to bloom.

In the back by the woods, the serenity garden seems like a calm oasis of foliage. A closer look, however, finds a number of flowers in bloom, including the bold magenta of Geranium x ‘Patricia,’ the pale pink of Astrantia major, and the first flowers of Deinanthe cerulea (false hydrangea).

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is hosted on the 15th of each month by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Visit her blog for links to what’s in bloom this month in gardens of many climes.