Today is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, sponsored by Carol at May Dreams Garden. Here in the dog days of Autumn the blooms in my garden are somewhat sparse. Nonetheless, I accept Carol’s invitation to show what is giving us a lift right now.
The hydrangeas are all but finished for the year. This may be the remains of the last blossom on the ‘Blushing Bride.’
While the hydrangeas are fading, the variegated lirope is beginning to show its lovely lavender flower stalks. The ‘White Swan’ coneflower is making a comeback from the rabbits. Our one dwarf crape myrtle is also drawing to a close, but it has experienced the best bloom year ever.
Brightness in the garden is contributed by the last blooming hostas, marigolds, mandevilla, and ‘Radicans’ gardenia.
Our purple crape myrtle ‘Catawba’ is also fading, the blossoms fading to seed, but it is still a commanding presence in the garden.
Deadheading garden phlox brings the reward of a second flush of blooms. I anticipate having phlox in bloom for weeks ahead so long as I continue to be diligent about cutting off the spent blooms.
Visit Carol to see what she and others are showing from their gardens this month.
http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/2015/08/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-august-2015.html
A Walk in the Garden 
great post…so much useful information I can take from it!
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Thanks. It’s nice to know I’ve been helpful.
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Nice color still John. Hard to believe how quickly we’re heading into fall.
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Thank you, Susie. We’re having a few degrees cooler now. There’s hope for a nice fall.
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Autumn is coming too quickly, but you have some beautiful flowers still. I really must get some phlox for the garden here, yours are adding a nice splash of colour.
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Thanks, Pauline. Phlox are wonderful…if you can keep the critters away.
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I have a single blooming gardenia too, plus a new scape of hotsa booms–the only new flowers in the past month! Your garden is quite colorful!
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Thank you, Marian. I just wish it weren’t so spotty…a blossom here and one there. No big splash of color to catch your eye. As the saying goes, “Wait till next year.”
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A beautiful garden regardless of the time of year. These photos will help see us through a cold winter that is in our future.
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Thanks, Stepheny. I most surely will be looking at these pics over the winter.
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I tried deadheading my phlox as last year (as you suggest) and was rewarded like you with a second wave of blooms. I can’t seem to get a third wave though.
Ray
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I get a third set of blooms just sporadically. I think it’s still worth the effort to keep deadheading…I like them clean anyway.
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