In and Around the Garden

Here are a few of my favorite flowers blooming in and around my garden this summer.

The flowers in the photo above include Salvia Blue, yellow Festival Gerbera Daisies, and pink Pentas. They rise from a small rectangle concrete planter outside a floor-to-ceiling window. Every season I fill the planter with colorful annuals, easily seen from inside the house. Normally, I choose flowers with a matching color in the petal or center. I have to say, I like the combination, especially the pop of yellow.

In my back patio, Coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) adds a mix of leaf pattern and color. No need for anything else as it would be too busy. A shade-loving annual, mine, however, gets part-afternoon sun. Even on triple digit days, it does well as long as I keep it watered.

Above, in the perennial garden, a volunteer grapevine has popped up between the potato vines and the Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida), also a volunteer. It will be interesting to see what type of grapevine this is, and if it will produce.

On the other side of the garden is another Black-Eyed Susan with yellow centers (above). Purchased last year at Lowe’s, I asked the nurseryman for the plant’s name. (I hate it when there’s no label.) He said, “It’s a new Black-Eyed Susan but with a yellow center.” Hoping to find a label, I looked for them this year in several nurseries. No luck. I searched the internet for information. No luck. Maybe it didn’t go over so well. Unlike its sister, the stems aren’t strong enough to hold up the flower heads, so staking is required.

Tomorrow, I’ll share an oversized plant and veggie you won’t want to miss.