Garden Bloggers Bloom Day ~ July 2016

Lily 'Honeymoon' shining under blue skies with the blue larkspar

Welcome to Havenwood! Our one-acre garden in Pennsylvania zone 5 is bursting with all the high summer favorites for July. It has been a beautiful summer around here! It has been unusually dry, but it is hard to complain as the temperatures in the 80s everyday make it perfect for pool going with the kids. :) I need to get out and do a bit more watering, but this is surely one of the most pleasant jobs in the garden.

July at Havenwood ~ GBBD July 2015

The Rose Garden

Hello all! Welcome to our Pennsylvania garden in July! Come take a look around...

A munching bunny story...

I am pleased to feature a story on WMG today written by my hubby, James! You will soon see where he got his inspiration when you read the introduction. Read the rest over at the parenting site that he writes for regularly, the Story Warren.

In a cozy hole in a big old garden behind a big old house lived the most excited young rabbit in the world. His name was Smudge, and he was not born in the big old garden, which is why he was so excited to live there now.

Smudge was born several doors up the street, where the lawn was specially treated to be sure nothing grew but grass. There was little to eat there, and Smudge and all his brothers and sisters were sent away as soon as they could hop, to find places for themselves in the wide world.

Read more here >>

Have a great weekend!
~Julie

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD July 2013

The Hill Garden this week with purple coneflowers in bloom.

Take a walk around our garden this July to see what is blooming in the heat!

It has been nearly 90 degrees (32 C) everyday this week and very dry. Watering needs to happen every other day for my veggies and containers, which gives me an opprotunity to walk (slowly!) around and appreciate the flowers that thrive during these sultry summer days.

Lilies by the Driveway

Dwarf Asiatic lilies blooming on the edge of our Driveway Garden this week.

Lilies are one of the fragrant joys of the garden in July! We have quite a few here and there this year. These dwarf, pink lilies are always a favorite by our walk from the back door to the car.

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD July 2012

Lavender and purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) in the Driveway Garden for July

Welcome to Pennsylvania in July! It has been a hot dry summer here this year, as it has been in most of the US. My gardens have had very little supplementary watering this season. Everything was looking tired around the edges until we had a garden clean-up this past weekend.

Driveway Garden at the end of June

Driveway Garden in June: Asiatic Lily 'Rosella’s Dream', Geranium 'Orion', Lavender, Allium sphaerocephalon

Summer is in full swing around here in PA! It has been hot and the hose has been out more than once for the kids and the new perennials which are barely hanging on through this heat.  It has been a warm summer for sure and quite dry. I am a bit sorry for my garden, though really I am mostly enjoying that it is not a cold and gloomy summer like it is some years.

Gardening in Pennsylvania~ June GBBD 2012

The Driveway Garden: Lavender, pink lilies, lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) and blue fescue (Festuca 'Elijah Blue').

Welcome to our small garden in Pennsylvania, zone 5. We are still quite a bit ahead for the year in our bloom cycle. Many flowers are blooming now that usually wait until July. The lilies are just getting started, as are the daylilies (Hemerocallis).  Some roses are finishing their bloom, though Rosa 'The Fairy' is just beginning. And there are Clematis vines blooming everywhere.  Here is the quick tour at Gilmore Gardens...

Clematis 'Lil' Nell' growing on the back gate, and the steps, and the banister... I love it. Such a dainty white and pink striped flower.

Asiatic Lily 'Rosella’s Dream'

I added Asiatic Lily 'Rosella’s Dream' two years ago as a pink accent over the cloud of blue from Geranium 'Orion'. (I wrote about it just last week.)  

They have been a terrific pair at the top of the Driveway Garden. The geraniums start at the beginning of June and these lilies burst the last week of June.

 They are settled right around the new trellis from the spring.

Seen in front of the green garage door.

Lily 'Rosella's Dream' lasted for a couple of weeks. It was very hot and dry here and hardly a drop of rain. I just trimmed the tops off the lilies (now mid-July) to prevent them from using energy on seed making, but I left the stalks for their brilliant yellow foliage in the fall.

 View down the length of the Driveway Garden to the sidewalk.

More lilies to come this summer...
Oriental Lily 'Casa Blanca' will be blooming in this garden any day now. 

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day ~ July 2011

Welcome to the Mid-Summer edition of Gilmore Gardens!

After a week of rather intensive pruning and planting, the garden is ready for its start into high summer.

   The Cherry Corner garden is in its warm/hot stage, with a half-dozen different varieties of daylilies (Hemerocallis), and annual bedding filling in the front margin where the grape hyacinths began in the spring.  Heuchera 'Palace Purple' and Lysimachia punctata 'Alexander' both play the important role of grounding the daylilies, giving them a place to appear their best. Their mounded foliage also covers for the somewhat crazed fountain foliage of the Hemerocallis.

Double version of Hemerocallis fulva

Hemerocallis 'Autumn Minaret' is beautifully scented. Something like Lily of the Valley, to my nose anyway.

Unnamed red daylily

The first of the Rudebekia, Black-eyed Susans.

Close-up of Cherry Corner's annual planting.

View from Cherry Corner toward the Hill Garden

View over the Front Walk

 The Front Walk is getting its summer make-over. Red dahlias have been added already, as well as some annuals to fill in for the growing Japanese anemone plants. A few allium christophii heads still sparkle here as the nepeta is also finishing up its first bloom, awaiting a hair cut. Red-leaved cannas will soon be added. Red annuals by the front steps keep the hot colors going along the whole front of the house.

Rather a nice July 4th combination: Allium christophii, Nepeta 'Walker's Low' and red dahlias.

From the front steps to Cherry Corner.

View from Cherry Corner to the Shade Path

When transitioning from the hot summer bedding to toward the cool green backyard, the Shade Path is a good intermediary step.

The Shade Path has had its foxglove cleaning for the year, moving on to its next display.  After a few years of not being happy with the summer bedding here, I decided to try two shades of pink this year. Darked-leaved begonias with a light pink flower and magenta impatients go well with the light purple Hosta flowers. I prefer to plant my annuals in large groups or swaths, instead of in a row.

Hydrangea quercifolia blooming in front of Hostas

Close-up of Hosta, Impatients and Begonias. Japanese forest grass Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' at left.

View from the sidewalk toward the back yard. Clematis 'Lil Nell' on the gate.

Hydrangea quercifolia

White variegated Hosta and hardy ivy by the back steps.

Clematis 'Lil Nell' seed pods on the gate.

Now on to the real business of July: relaxing! What would a garden be without a green place to rest in on a hot summer's day? This is our little outdoor living room for the summer. Sometimes it has a baby pool and sprinkler, sometimes just a hammock and some library books. Having dessert by the fountain is my personal favorite. And anything is better with a few flowers!

Gerbera daisy in the pot with an asparagus fern. An overwintering success story! (Finally!!)

Thalictrum pubescens (or a meadow rue very similar) in our Back Woodland.

Geranium 'Rozanne' in the Driveway garden.

 Hope you find a cool spot to enjoy this July!

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting GBBD!

See more of Gilmore Gardens: 
The Hill Garden in July (Roses!)
Foliage Follow-up for July (More green spaces)

July Scenes from the Front Woodland

The Front Woodland is in the sidewalk strip at Gilmore Gardens. It is just a couple of years old, but is filling out quite nicely this year. It has progressed from the daffodils of April, to the foxgloves and irises of May/June, to the daylily display of July.

A baby tulip tree can be seen sprouting up in the middle of the daylilies (above), which will give shade and balance our tall house when the old maples are gone.

These daylilies have all grown from one large clump that came from my husband's childhood home. They are the common orange daylily (Hemerocallis fulva) which you may see along country roads at this time of year. 

Here they are planted with Hemerocallis 'Stella d' Oro' and across the sidewalk from the blue catmint, Nepeta 'Walker's Low'.

I like the combination of colors here more this year than I did last year. Last year I was ready to rip out this whole lot of orange flowers. I guess I have stretch my color boundaries, especially in not minding that a few pink geranium flowers pop up in this area from time to time!

It makes for a much nicer walk along the sidewalk, anyway. Quite colorful.

Most pitiful flower in my garden this year...

One evening, my husband said, "What is this pretty little flower?"

Hmm... a foxtail lily (Eremurus Ruiter-Hybrid White Beauty Favourite). 
It is supposed to look like this:

Photo from Crocus, a nursery in the UK

   
And there were supposed to be three of them.
I think I will have to try that again someday... when I am not feeling so sore about it.