August Gardening ~ Garden Blogger's Bloom Day August 2016

The Hot Border in August

    Hello all! August this year has brought some much needed rain, which has largely improved the garden.  Yes, there is more blight on the tomatoes. But everything else is really greened up and looking less tired than it did in July. The big pruning/dead leafing in July has done its job to create a nicer garden picture that will carry us through the autumn.

More Winter Scenes at Havenwood

Feather reed grass topped in light snow in front of our pillar arborvitaes and honey-brick house.

Rose 'Scepter d' Isle'

Rose 'Scepter d' Isle' with the amazing feather reed grass, Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster', in front of our dark arbor vitae and Pieris japonica.

Autumn Scenes at Havenwood

Dew drops on the last of the blue annual love-in-mist, Nigella 'Moody Blues' in the Rose Garden.

The Woodland in August

Blue and purple hydrangeas in my Hydrangea bed. Only ericaceous mulches for these lovelies! (pine needles... oak leaves... no mushroom compost.)

Shade Garden Treasures for Spring

Yellow Rhododendron 'Capistrano' with Japanese Forest grass (Hakonechloa macra aureola) in the Woodland at Havenwood.

One of the first things I often hear from people who love gardens, is that they cannot have flowers as they "have shade." But there are so many wonderful plants for the shade! Plants for dry shade and for damp shade. Here are just a few that have been blooming in our shade gardens in Pennsylvania...

Havenwood ~ GBBD October 2014

Native asters, Doellingeria umbellata, flowering away at our new garden this autumn.

Welcome to my new garden in Pennsylvania, zone 5 for the autumn!

I have been hard at work this year to put in many new garden area according to my garden master plan (see it here). Before getting to bulb planting yesterday, I took a walk around to capture some of the little fall flowers that are already blooming away here at Havenwood...

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD November 2013

Our Rose in November snow.

Welcome to my garden in November!

We had a week of snow here in Pennsylvania. One bright morning, I went out for a walk to see the unusual sights that come from having snow this early in the year...

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ October 2013 GBBD

The Hill Garden with Canna 'King Humbert', Echinacea purpurea, Berberis purpurea, and glorious yellow maples (Acer) leaves for autumn.

Welcome to my small town Pennsylvania garden in October!

I would be delighted to show you around our corner here in US zone 5. The foliage colors are intensifying this month, though they have not yet reached their climax. Our first frost is still on its way this year. Hurray for a few more weeks with tender plants in the garden! The begonias, cannas, dahlias and annuals are still adding their pretty bit to the mix. Come talk a walk around...

View of the Driveway Garden this morning...

October in the Driveway Garden at Gilmore Gardens.

While we were getting ready for homeschool this morning, I galnced out of the kitchen window. This pretty scene was perfectly lit by the morning sun. I thought I would share it with you today as well! :)

The Driveway Garden at the end of September

Pink Sedum 'Autumn Joy', white flowered flat-topped aster (Doellingeria umbellata), double purple Aster hybrida 'Peter III', purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and white striped grass Miscanthus sinensis 'Dixieland' in the Driveway Garden this week.

September is slipping away and October is arriving here in Pennsylvania.
Here is one pretty scene between our car and door in our Driveway garden this week...

Shade Path Garden in September

Begonias, northern sea oats, Japanese forest grass and Sedum 'Frosty Morn' front our Shade Path this week... and native flat-topped asters are a white haze down its length.

See more of our Shade Path garden on our map.
Have a great weekend!
~Julie

Phipps Conservatory in Fall

Dahlias at Phipps for fall.

My family took a little trip to Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, PA last week. Phipps has some lovely outdoor gardens for this time of year! These photos were all taken in the Children's garden, which sits between two wings of the old glasshouses....

(They are actually embarking on the enormous effort of restoration in the old glasshouses this summer. I am glad not to be caring for those exposed, old palm trees as the temps plunge into the 40s at night!)

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ September 2013 GBBD

Blooms and foliage in my zone 5 garden for September.

Welcome to Pennsylvania in September!

We have had quite a variety of weather in the past weeks. One day it is unbearably hot and dry with the temperature over 86 degrees F (30 C). The next day we are all in winter coats at the damp morning soccer game in 40 degrees F (4 C). Despite all of that drama, the garden is still blooming on...

Stan Hywet's Three-Acre Great Garden ~ Part 1

Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens in Akron, Ohio

The Great Garden at Stan Hywet in Ohio encompasses three acres to the north of the Hall. It includes a Cutting garden (for fresh and dried flower arrangements for the Hall), a Rose garden, and Mixed borders that surround generous lawns. The Birch Allee acts as a loose background along one side of the Great garden. Also, it provides some wonderful views of the Seiberlings' Tudor-revival hall.

Visit to Stan Hywet in Akron, Ohio ~ The Waterlily Pool

Waterlily pool at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens

My husband and I just returned from a wonderful weekend away in nearby Akron, Ohio. We visited Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens which is considered "one of the finest examples of Tudor Revival architecture in America" (ref). The Hall was patterned after Ockwell’s Manor in Berkshire, Compton Wynyates in Warwickshire and Haddon Hall in Derbyshire by architect Charles S. Schneider.

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 June 2013

Our Shade Path Garden full of yellow perennial foxgloves, Digitalis grandiflora.

Welcome to Pennsylvania for Garden Blogger Bloom Day!
There are lots of flowers to see this weekend around our small, town garden. Come take a walk around...

Pink Rose and Purple Clematis Combination for June

In our Driveway garden, an old pink rose bush makes a wonderful host for purple Clematis 'Etoile Violette'.

June is underway and the roses are blooming here in Pennsylvania. Our Driveway Garden is covered in pink and blue this week, with a bit of white thrown in to lighten the color palette.

When we bought our home, we inherited an old rose bush by the back corner of our house... and one to match it across the driveway. It blooms its socks off once and year, and then needs quite a bit of pruning to keep it in line. A newer rose would give more for repeat bloom, but the light fragrance and pink color make it worth keeping. And even better yet is the combination that happens when Clematis 'Etoile Violette' blooms along with it. The clematis it is planted at the roses feet and it appreciates the cool shade the rose provides. It easily grabs a hold on to the rose brambles and pulls itself to the sun.

Around the perimeter of this rose, which is 5 feet high and 6 feet wide (1.6 m x 2m), there is ground cover of variegated deadnettle (Lamium maculatum), evergreen moss phlox (Phlox subulata), and yellow-blooming Sedum 'Acre'.

Chanticleer ~ Gravel & Ruin Gardens

Tulipa 'Rem's Favourite' and white Allium neapolitanum framed by pillar Arborvitae look down on a pergola covered in Wisteria sinensis 'Amethyst' ~ the Gravel Garden at Chanticleer.

We are continuing our tour of Chanticleer gardens in Wayne, PA, USA.  Last April, the Gravel Garden and Ruin gardens were clothed in tulips, alliums, grape hyacinths and daffodils for my visit... And they make me remember why spring is my favorite season!