Fertilizer Friday - Some new color in the garden.

The weeks of summer are flying by fast.  I start losing track of what day is what and before I know it, it's Friday.  Not worrying about the day of the week is nice during summer vacation with the kids, but before long we'll be getting up very early as my oldest daughter starts Junior High in just over a month.  I've been noticing that the days are getting shorter and so we're trying to get the most out of what's left of summer. 
I've noticed other bloggers mentioning that this time of the summer they aren't always very happy with how their gardens are looking, either from heat or just that it's an in between time in the garden.  I've been feeling a bit of that myself now that so many annuals like Poppies and Larkspur that had added so much color are finished, there are some very bare looking places.  And so my plan for the weekend will be to rework the bed behind the pond again trying to give it more structure so that when that there's something going on between bloom times of flowers.

Tiger Lily

I will definitely be adding more of these next year, the yellow ones as well.

 Penstemon 'Red Rocks'

I had moved this one from the backyard earlier this year, it took awhile to recover but is now blooming like crazy.

 Lupine

A Lupine seedling from the white flowered one in my front yard.

 Water Lily 'Sioux'

The water lilies sure were late in getting started this year.  There were two flowers, both smaller than the usual size.  I see at least one more bud coming up.

 Persian Cornflower (Centaurea dealbata)

This is the longest this has ever bloomed.  Normally it blooms for a few weeks then is finished.  It's been a couple of months of flowers so far.

 Monarda 'Coral Reef'

This Monarda is usually the last one to bloom.

Fertilizer Friday is hosted by Tootsie Time every Friday.  To see what flowers she and other gardeners are flaunting this week, or to join in yourself, stop by her blog. 

Happy Friday!

Lot's of new blooms for Fertilizer Friday.

I love days like yesterday where walking through the garden I found quite a few new flowers blooming. This is why June is my favorite month in my garden. It's a constant surprise of new flowers opening, many of them are my favorites. The rain held off yesterday and after dinner I found myself going out to cut a few Peonies and that turning into a weeding session. I had scissors and a handful of Peonies in one hand while I crouched down and weeded with the other.

Peony 'Sorbet' was new last year and has just one flower this year. I can't wait until it's more established and I have more flowers from it.

I noticed something interesting about this Peony 'Festiva Maxima' this year. It's normally very white with a few petals edged in dark pink. This year most of the flowers are light pink. I wonder if it has anything to do with all the rain we've had. I have a white rose ('Iceberg') that turns pink when we've had a lot of rain. Updated to add that I just read about cool Springs causing 'Iceberg' roses to take on a pink color, I wonder if that's what happened with this Peony as well.

Geranium 'Rozanne' has it's first bloom. I planted two last year, but only one survived.

Penstemons are another favorite of mine. This is 'Red Rocks'.

Penstemon 'Catherine de la Mar'

Deutzia 'Pink a Boo' is loved by the bees.

My first Breadseed Poppy has bloomed. The color is a much more vibrant, deep red than shows in the picture.

Foxgloves have just started blooming. I've got them coming up everywhere. I love how the bees climb inside the flowers.

The rain really beat up my English roses and turned them into brown mush, but the others all seemed to handle the rain well. This is 'Honey Perfume', the colors of this continually change as it ages.

Rose 'Julia Child'

After seeing how well the flowers were doing it made up for all the weeds that have been growing because of all the rain. I am hoping that early next week I'll be able to really weed and start redoing one of the front shade beds. Once I get a project in my mind, I can't wait to get out and start digging!

To see who else is "flaunting their flowers" on this Fertilizer Friday visit Tootise Time.