What's Blooming This Month? July 2014

It's Garden Blogger Bloom Day! On the 15th of each month, we garden bloggers like to show off what's blooming and growing in our gardens. Here on Long Island, zone 7, things are blooming all over and some still recovering from my sour mulch disaster. Read more about that here. 

Below are a few favorites from my garden this month:

Hemerocallis Purple d'Oro

This lovely purple daylily has a bright yellow center and crinkled edges on the petals. 

Thankfully these chartreuse colored coral bells are recovering from the mulch disaster. The wispy pink blooms held above the bright foliage brightens up this shady spot under the viburnum.

Courtesy of my four budding artists, I acquired some yard art for my garden and nestled them among the variegated Liriope. 

And these Annabelle hydrangeas are blooming so profusely this year! They look like big snowballs. 

Even though the flowers have faded from the viburnum shrubs, the red berries have started to take form and look like subtle flowers themselves. 

The Endless Summer hydrangeas were not too badly affected by this winter's bitter cold and are now pushing out beautiful blue blooms, some tinged with purple. 

My sea of Black-eyed Susans are on the cusp of blooming. 

I love their form contrast to the tall, wispy Russian Sage and color contrast to the bright pink Echinacea.

New this year: Echinacea 'Cherry Brandy'

More cheery Rudbeckias! 

So there you go! My garden in July. What's blooming in your garden? Do you have any of the same plants? I'd love to hear from you!

Many thanks to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this month's GBBD! 

Tall, yellow flowers of Rudbeckia

The August garden is lit up by many bright, cheery Rudbeckias but one I am particularly fond of is Rudbeckia 'Herbstonne' (also called Rudbeckia 'Autumn Sun').

It grows to a height of 4-7 feet and each flower is about 4 inches wide. The yellow petals droop downward from a green center cone. 

It's striking in a large grouping and makes a wonderful backdrop to any perennial border, given its height and dark green foliage. And it blooms from late summer to fall!

Colorful & Whimsical on Fire Island

The minute you step off the ferry boat onto Fire Island you truly feel like you are in a different world. The sidewalks are filled with people walking in flip flops, kids riding in wagons or couples riding bikes with baskets full of groceries.

On a recent weekend in Ocean Beach, I came across these two beauties:

I love how the owner nestled the fish among varying shades of blue stones to make it look like the little fishing statue-boy is really sitting along a shimmering pond.  The larger stones intermixed with the contrasting green foliage is really beautiful.

These mushrooms are actually solar lights but look so pretty settled among the yellow and pink Snapdragons in this front garden. The "Imagine" stone in the back adds to the personality of the garden. 

Deer walk the paths on Fire Island as frequently as the people do, so it is not uncommon to see some beautiful gardens kept safe behind tall fences to keep the nibbling creatures out. To have a garden outside a fence, you certainly have to use deer resistant plants or just be really creative with something unique!