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Saturday, July 26, 2014

Continuing Bloom Perennials, July 26, 2014

Welcome to my garden, for continuing bloom there are various perennials coming into bloom. Daylilies are still blooming, and a few roses.   Today I am linking with-

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman

Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally

Here is part of my newest garden bed, with a very vigorous hardy kiwi trying to invade on the right.  Achillea 'Cassis' in front, my most successful allium, Elephant Garlic, whose balls are visited by hummingbirds, Liatris spicata, and a red daylily-

Achillea 'Cassis' with Rozanne behind-

Liatris spicata-

It must be sunny because the Blue Pimpernel, also known as Poor Man's Weatherglass, is open-

Another very different Achillea, '

Love Parade'-

A new annual with an intensely red flower, loved by hummingbirds, Petunia exserta, here in a planter with ageratum-


A magnificent Tiger moth visitor, the shaggy mane hints at its woolly bear origins-

And my early heirloom wax bean, Pisarecka Zlutoluske-

What has visited your garden lately?     Hannah

or cameras are macro

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.


Sunday, July 20, 2014

Continuing Bloom Perennials, July 20, 2014

July is flying on by, some of the plants I started from seed under lights the end of last November are starting to bloom.

Today I am linking with-

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman

Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally

 wildflower Coreopsis 'Sunburst'-

A favorite annual I grew last year, Browallia americana, here with a new Dahlia bloom-


This year I also grew a different species with a larger flower and shorter plant, good for edgings and containers, Browallia speciosa-

Another seemingly near perfect short edger with lovely puff flowers, Ageratum 'Diamond Blue'-

Crocosmia 'Lucifer' is blooming, it is the closest thing I have to a sensationally flaming hot tropical plant; but mine always gets too tall and flops, even without watering and feeding, so I have to tie it up-



My tomatoes were also started under lights, a little later than usual this year but making fruits, Rio Grande-

San Marzano-

Black Pear-

I picked the 2 squash from last week, a cucumber, and some peas and beans this week, so the gardening season is underway, what are you picking now?      -Hannah

                                                     or cameras are macro

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Hybridizing Daylilies, Vegetables July 13, 2014

Welcome to my Garden Blogger's Bloom Day post, to see What's Blooming Now at gardens around the world join others at May Dreams Gardens hosted by Carol.   In addition to flowers featured today there are also some roses left, Crocosmia 'Lucifer', annuals Petunia, Browallia, Ageratum, Marigold, 3 Clematis, Daphne 'Lawrence Crocker' surprising me with a second bloom, Daphne 'Summer Ice' with very long bloom season, Rozanne and other hardy geraniums.  Today I am also linking with-

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman

Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally

The lovely Hydrangea Endless Summer, which I hope will fill the void left by freezing out of all my blue Hydrangea macrophyllas.

A velvety red daylily-

A dramatic eye zone, Daring Deception-

I was gone on the 15th swimming in a pond with my grandkids and teaching their music lessons, and went out today and found lots of new or unseen flowers so am adding some, Malva alcea fastigiata, which comes up and takes care of itself every year-

Coreopsis 'Sunburst', just blooming after being started last Nov. 25 under lights-

Crocosmia 'Lucifer' which looks great in other people's yards but gets too tall and flops for me-

And now featuring some daylilies I hybridized and grew from seed, back in my wild and crazy daylily days.  At one point I had 380 varieties- discards from a couple of collectors, some from my daylily club sales, and some from internet companies and trades.  These were mostly $5 and below type daylilies, meaning older but some great daylilies, as I couldn't afford the expensive ones, new and snazzy.    At the time I had beds I could get weeded, in nice rows all on maps so I knew what they were.   Then I was gone for the month of June for the births of my 2 grandsons, many weeds set seed, and it's been all downhill from there, textbook chaos and entrophy.  But that is why I like the productivity of growing vegetables, I can control the chaos more in annual crops where I can pretty much clear the ground and get a clean start every year.

I labeled the pollinated blooms with the name of the pollen parent, and started the seeds by planting them in pots that I kept in a refrigerator or cold garage until they sprouted, since chilling helps daylily seeds germinate.   One entire bed is all seedlings I grew, mostly from Erin Farmer as one parent, a clown of a daylily with white midribs, and narrow petals, many of the flowers have this characteristic-



The whole bed-

An unusual round form, a bicolor, perhaps my favorite of the group-

In a clump-

Another unusual seedling, a gold spider-

Meanwhile Beauty plums are getting ripe, a predictably heavy crop this year after lots of winter snow.  Beauty is a very soft plum but lovely cooked, I make beef gelatin with stevia for sweetener and a little almond extract-

First peas of the season, planted a little late, Sugar Snap Sprint, with an edible pod, hence the name, I don't see the point in shelling peas when I can eat the whole thing; I also planted Super Sugar Snap which gets taller but the rabbits found them and nibbled them down so it will take them a while to recover and make peas-

One of my rows of squash, this year I'm growing Cocozelle, Striped Zucchini, Crookneck, mixed Scallops, and Delicata, the cucumbers are on the right growing up a trellis, on the left are overwintered kale plants going to seed-

First award for earliest fruit set goes to Cocozelle-

Pretty plant, the abundant green is sheep sorrel, I spared it since it is edible but it knows no bounds-

Winner of largest plant award, usually my first to bear, Crookneck, with wonderful buttery flavor-

Winner of widest plant, Striped Zucchini, wait until you see how big the fruit gets-

And winner of cutest plant, isn't it adorable, I haven't grown it before but I fell in love with the fruits last fall, Delicata, which is getting ready to vine out-

I've been enamoured of the small Sweat bees with metallic green head and thorax since I first discovered them this spring, I was surprised to see them pollinating squash blossoms- 

And I was even more surprised to find myself in a swarm of them because I had discovered a number of their underground nesting mounds, here's one taking off from the hole in the dirt, the ones returning to the nest are golden with pollen on their hind legs-

Here an assortment of pole beans, and runner beans with the red flowers, I saw hummingbirds visiting them today- they actually think I grow them just for them, imagine!   I was surprised to see the hummer visiting my Alliums, Elephant Garlic, too.   Bush beans and some cole family plants are in the front-

Insuk's Wang Kong, above, a wonderful runner bean from Korea, named after the gracious Korean woman who brought it over, it sets better in heat than most runner beans-

I searched my seed sources for gynecious and parthenocarpic cucumbers last fall, and bought a few, they have the advantage of mostly female flowers or flowers that set fruit without being pollinated, so the yield is higher than plants that require pollination and have a lot of male flowers.  Diva is earliest-

And also Dasher-

I run soaker hoses down the rows, and mulch with composted grass clippings to retain the water better and keep down the weeds.   Other cucumbers I'm growing are Cool Breeze, Eureka, Tanja, and new to me, a melon with a cucumber parent, Gold Bar, I usually can't grow melons because they need too much heat, so I thought I would see if they could set fruit, the plants are rather wimpy so far.

Well, I hope you can make some room for some edible plants in your garden, Hannah

                                                      or cameras are macro

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.



Sunday, July 6, 2014

Daylilies- Here Today, Gone Tomorrow July 5, 2014

Today I am linking with-

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman

Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Fourth of July, we went to a couple of parties and watched my son explode some fireworks for the grandkids.   How about those bare feet.   Ouch.



Daylilies are the current stars of my garden.  In the round and ruffled category-

My favorite red, the camera can't seem to catch the depth of the red-


Another red, in a bagel shape, Scarlet Orbit-

The Blue Pimpernels recovered from being munched by the deer-

One of those carefree plants that seed themselves around arranged themselves nicely along the driveway, Lychnis coronaria, not native in this part of the US-


A native plant, fireweed, that also made itself comfortable in this spot,

Meanwhile, the Blueberries are getting ripe, along with raspberries, currants, and soon plums-                                          

Roses continue to bloom, early bloomer Zephirine Drouhin here with the fourth Clematis, jackmanii-

Ah, summer!   I am enjoying everything except the little stumps of my bean plants left by the rabbits.   I, like Blackbeard, must say Argggh.    Hannah

                                                     or cameras are macro

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.