Category Archives: bloom day

garden bloggers bloom day is the 15th of each month

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: November 2020

We finally got a killing frost a couple days back, followed by high winds and rain today. Up until then, though, a few blooms were hanging in there in my Zone 6 garden.

The nasturtiums kept on keeping on right up until the temps dropped below freezing.

Even after the frost, this volunteer zebra mallow was perky and colorful. Not until today’s high winds did it start to look like it was done for the season.

I’ve already blogged about Crocus sativus a couple of times, so I’ll just note that I managed to harvest saffron threads from six crocuses before the frost. Eighteen saffron threads should be enough to make one recipe of something delicious. Hopefully I’ll get more blooms (and a bigger saffron harvest) after they’ve settled in for a year.

Indoors, the Thanksgiving cactus is almost in bloom, and a couple of kalanchoes are providing orange and fuchsia accents… but I’ll save photos of those for next month, when the outdoors is bereft of blooms to share.

Thanks as always to Carol Michel for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of each month! As Elizabeth Lawrence said, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.”

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: October 2020

Last week was the first light frost of autumn in my Zone 6 garden. While these photos were taken before the frost, most of the blooms actually held up well.

photo: bee on orange flower

Although I already made mention of this in last month’s Bloom Day post, I really have to thank Nan Ondra of Hayefield for making her seeds available online. This Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia) is seriously my new favorite annual, with dozens of blooms on many branched stems reaching six feet tall and nearly as wide. I hadn’t thought of orange as a color I’d want more of in my borders, but this plant changed my mind bigtime.

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: September 2020

These photos were all taken on September 15th, although it took a bit longer than anticipated for me to actually sit down and post them.

  • The sedum I moved to this container a few years back really seems to like it here.
  • This potted kalanchoe lives outside until it gets too chilly… which will be soon.
  • I bought Zahara Coral Rose Zinnia seeds from Jung Seed some three years ago. This zinnia is my kind of annual — I fully intend to broaden my zinnia horizons in 2021.
  • David Austin Heritage English Rose produced several bloom flushes this year, and is finally almost the size she was before the Polar Vortex of several years back.
  • Maypop (aka passion flower vine) is crazy invasive, but so beautiful.
  • I might have let the Maypop vines get a little out of hand this summer.
  • Dortmund climbing rose is stalwart and steady, year after year.
  • I regularly “edit” this stand of goldenrod, right up until autumn. Then, when they show their colors, I’m glad to have missed a few.
  • The purple Rose of Sharon didn’t make it through this past winter. I was (sort of) pleased to see purplish volunteers popping up by the white one. Before long, I may need to start pruning these into a hedge.
  • This No-ID miniature rose is a trooper. She always is the first and the last in bloom, and her flowers open pink and mature to white.
  • Amur honeysuckle is fruiting. I really need to prune this bad boy.
  • I bought some Mexican sunflower seeds from Nan Ondra’s Etsy shop earlier this year. A+ will grow again! Fuzzy bumbles and hummingbirds alike adore these bright pops of orange.
  • This volunteer Zebra Mallow seems to like living next to September Charm anemone.
  • The panicle hydrangea never fails to impress.
  • To play off the colors of the dwarf Japanese maple by the sunroom, I started some nasturtiums — John Scheepers Bloody Mary mix. I think this is a winning combination.

Thanks as always to Carol Michel for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of each month! As Elizabeth Lawrence said, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.”

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: August 2020

I took the following photos on Bloom Day, which is the 15th of the month — after which I realized that I’d (temporarily) lost my mojo for processing digital photos on my desktop computer, since I’m so accustomed to uploading them via my phone. Silly HEIC image format, throwing a wrench into the works…

At any rate, here they are… mostly so Future Me can remember what was in bloom in August 2020.

This was my first year starting Mexican sunflowers, and I really adore their pop of color!
I have no idea what this volunteer might be. It made itself a home next to my anemone, and I actually quite like it. If it’s a perennial, it may get relocated somewhere more appropriate, though.
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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: July 2020

Blooms always seem to be scarce in the heat of mid-July — especially when deer have eaten the lilies. I think some deer-resistant, drought-loving native plants are in my future.

I do love the blooms on the hostas.
Heritage English rose will keep blooming in flushes as long as I keep deadheading.
Everybody loves the milkweed, from fuzzy bumbles to hummingbirds to caterpillars.
Gooseneck loosestrife can be a bit aggressive at times, but I don’t mind much.

As always, many thanks to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day on the 15th of every month!