I find myself at the beach for this Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day, but before leaving I snapped a few shots of the flowering activity around our hillside. The gentian pictured above is a vigorous spreader in the Alpine bed that is a reliable harbinger of fall. The feathery insides of the flower make it one of the prettiest flowers I know.
The rest of the yard is dominated by the hardy annuals and sturdy perennials that can make it through a dry Maryland summer. A great example is the state flower, Black-eyed Susans, that dominates our front bed.
In the vegetable garden we often grow Mexican Sunflower (Sithonia) which are very attractive to butterflies.
There a number of plants that deserve special praise for returning one or more times during the summer.
The salvia is not supposed to be hardy in our area, but it has returned reliably for 5 years now.
The two lobelias, red and blue, are winners for an August garden.
Amongst the shrubs, the Hydrangea ‘Limelight makes a long and lovely showing.
From the greenhouse a number of the formosa lilies are in full flower.
And the small Herbertia texensis is putting out it’s complex flowers.
Let me close, because the beach is calling, with a wildlife image from the garden. I found this remarkably lovely caterpillar on a tree peony leaf.