Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – August 2018

I wasn’t expecting to have many blooms left in August for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day thanks to the hot month of July with very little rain. But, thanks to some very tough and forgiving plants, as well as some end of season clearance purchases from Moore and Moore Garden Center, I still have some blooms, and the pollinators are still loving my garden – beautiful or not! What is Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day? See my previous post!

If you need a tough-as-nails plant, you should strongly consider Black-eyed Susans. They have survived through the lack of rain we have seen in July and August, and look as good as ever!

Somehow, the coreopsis has bloomed for a second time, and the second blooming has been even better than the first! It’s amazing what plants do well with basically zero attention.

Other plants have been reblooming as well – my dahlias, magnolia tree,  and clematis vine.

Incrediball hydrangeas from Wayside Gardens have also become a favorite in my garden. I am hoping that next year they will grow even larger!

Lastly, I need to show off some new editions thanks to a clearance sale. I have always loved lantanas, and in particular, have loved the varieties with pink, orange, and yellow flowers.  While my front yard garden is mostly monochromatic, I have always wanted to branch out with color choices. In comes the lantana. While color theory generally suggests using complementary or analogous colors, in learning about using the color wheel in gardening (written about in a previous post), I learned that there were warm color schemes and cool color schemes. My favorite varieties of lantana have pink, orange, and yellow flowers. If those colors can work on a single plant, then I figured they could certainly work as a color scheme for a whole bed.

So, I began imagining what this bed would look like, and what plants it might have. I planted some butterfly weed from seed for orange colors and to attract butterflies; I scoped out garden centers and big box stores for clearances. Moore and Moore Garden Center came in clutch. Not only did they have many plants in my chosen color scheme, they also had an abundance of hardy lantana plants. I bought every single lantana they had along with many other plants like a hardy hibiscus plant with HUGE flowers, five peonies, and canna lilies. I am currently in the process of creating a new bed in the back for all these flowers!

I am excited about this work in progress in the back yard, and I have some plans for the front as well. Hopefully it will start to cool off soon. I don’t want to do major garden work in 90 degree heat plus humidity. I hope you are enjoying the blooms in your garden right now and get some ideas for what plants are blooming at this time of year. What plants are blooming in your garden this month?