Tea Olive time

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could embed fragrance in a blog? The Tea Olive bush (Osmanthus frangrans) is not an impressive shrub. It has tiny white flowers in late spring and again in late summer. But what a marvelous fragrance! You can drive around town, or walk down any street in west Raleigh right now, and smell this wonderful scent. My tea olive bushes are small, and I hope to keep them from getting too large.

I also have a hollyhock blooming. I've been trying to get them to grow for three years, with no success. They did beautifully at our last house. I don't know why they have done so poorly here. But, here is the first bloom.

What is this?

I try very hard to note the names of everything I plant. Once in a while I miss something. This beautiful purple plant is one. I think it is in the aster family, but I can't find a name! I will take a cutting to work, where hopefully another gardener will know what it is. It certainly is beautiful, with small clusters of flowers and mint like leaves.

The other plant, with the fuchsia and yellow flowers is a four o'clock. I swore I would never grow these again! At our last house I was constantly digging up the invasive tubers. But, on the south side of our house the soil is bad and I decided to plant things that would need very little attention. The four o'clock are doing well, but not being very invasive.

We are having delightfully cool weather right now. Rare for early September, but I hope that we can do some significant yard work on Monday after a quick trip to Asheville for the Labor Day weekend.

I found it! Actually one of my coworkers knew. This is Ageratum houstonianum, sometimes called bluemink. It is an annual, re-seeder. I have no idea where it came from. Perhaps it was a donation from a nice bird.

Maintenance

My garden work for the last month has been maintenance. Pulling weeds, deadheading, pruning, cutting grass. The weather has been good, not terribly hot, and wet enough to keep things growing.

Some of my new plants have been no-shows. In particular, my Naked Ladies, also called magic lilies. (Lycoris sp.) I see them blooming around the neighborhood now, but no sign of mine. They are such great plants, because they have bright pink flowers on top of long, leafless stems.

The light purple plant with the bumblebee is an Obedient Plant (Physotegia virginiana). I planted two last year, and they are spreading nicely. They can be invasive, so I'll have to keep an eye on them.

The elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) is huge in this location. I have another one else where in the yard, that is very small. I now know where to plant them.

This last purple plant was a gift in early summer. It is a Bluebeard (Caryopteris x clandonensis). It seems to like this location, on the south side of the house. That area still needs lots of work. This is planted among coneflowers, black-eyed susans and four o'clocks.

The great blue heron has been back this weekend. All the fish are now in hiding (or gone?).

Red Hot!

Both the temperature and the kniphofia "Red Hot Poker". What a fabulous plant. These were given to me last spring, but, as expected, they did not bloom last year. This year they are putting on quite a show. What a dramatic addition to the garden.

The other plant is another garden phlox which I planted last year as well. So pretty.

This weekend is our first blazing hot spell of the summer. We should see 100 today. Fortunately we have had lots of rain, so everything should survive this short lived intense heat.

In full bloom

I couldn't resist all the photos in this post.

I try to do as much organic gardening as possible. I use very few chemicals. The exception is for poison ivy. Round-up here we come! The nasty stuff in this photo has already been sprayed twice, and it is still green! But, I will keep at it.

I thought a photo of some of our fish would be fun. I really thought the pond was empty of them. We were given some nice size fish in March. We may have still had some, or those five have been very prolific. The great blue heron is aware of the arrivals. He visited today.

The pink and white flowers are Peppermint phlox. I planted it last fall. What a delightful plant. I have also posted a white crinum lily, a purple stokes aster and liatrus, which are the tall, spiky purple flowers.

Exciting new plants

Last year my next door neighbors had this Elephant Ear, Colocasia 'Coffee Cup' in their yard. I was very impressed with it. Much to my surprise (and theirs, I think) not only did it winter over, but it came back with offshoots this year. So, he gave me one. As it grows, the leaves will curl up, forming a cup. They fill with water when it rains, and birds will drink out of the. So, here is mine.

I planted the beebalm last year, but it did not bloom. I was expecting bright red flowers, so I was very surprised to see fuchsia blooms. It is very pretty, and mixes well with the rose campion.

This is the second year this amaryllis has bloomed. It has not grown near as tall this year. Also blooming are the pond flags (iris), pinks, peonies, veronica (speedwell), climbing roses.

Blooming today

Here are some pictures of what is blooming today. I have been surprised by the three different shades of spiderwort. They are much more robust than in previous years. Also the first of the rose campion (it is the small magenta flower with the soft gray/green leaves) is a bit early.