Hill Garden ~ First Week of August

An August update on the Hill Garden succession planting. 

The last update was in mid-July, with Rosa 'The Fairy' in full swing.
Very soon after the daisies were finished (see July), they were cut down to their second or third set of leaves. Cutting them this way might encourage them to make a second flush of bloom later this month.

Soon the Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) started bursting on top of the Hill.   I have had success in sowing it myself from seed, probably since it is one of the easier plants to grow. It has really filled in this year. It was given the "chelsea chop" (or herbaceous pruning to those of us State-side) around the end of June to encourage it to bloom a bit later and have mulitple stems. It worked great this year!

Hidden amongst the coneflowers are half-a-dozen very small Russian sage plants (Perovskia atriplicifolia 'Little Spire'). So far, I am not thrilled with this plant because it is so slow growing. Maybe all Perovskia are slow growing? (Christine, any help??)  Perhaps it is just because it is a dwarf? Or maybe because it is part of a succession and therefore has to compete a little bit for its sunshine earlier in the season?


I do love how its blue flowers look in front of the large leaves of Canna 'King Humbert' (rather funny name, huh?). These cannas were potted up in my basement in April, sat for a while in their pots on the Hill while I thought about adding them (ok, they sat for a couple of months), and were just officially planted last week. I like them a lot here.

 That is it for now. The roses are recouping on the hill side; the lambs ears are regrouping from having their languidly lolling flower spikes cut down to stubs (a good mulching was needed after that yucky job).
Waiting to see what the rest of the summer brings!