What’s Blooming in Serendipity Gardens?

It’s mid-July, and the peak blooming time is almost here for Serendipity Gardens.

Nevertheless, sitting in the back yard swing and looking across the garden, the predominant color you see is green. My husband had this vantage point a few days ago, and he said to me, “What’s blooming in the garden? All I see is green!”

I said, “Let me show you.” We began a walk around the garden, looking for beauty. We wound up finding well over 20 plants blooming away, and a few others, such as white Phlox David, getting ready to do so. True, some of the blooms were small, and some were behind other, showier plants, but they were beautiful nevertheless.

Having a wide variety of plants that bloom at different times is one good way to attract wildlife to the garden. Here is a partial list of what’s in flower now in Serendipity Gardens: day lilies, roses, black-eyed Susans, yarrow (Moonbeam and Paprika), salvia, hostas, veronica, balloon flowers, liatris, perennial geraniums, catmint, bee balm, morning glory, potentilla, phlomis, lilies, sedum, thyme, nasturtium, lavender, coreopsis, campanula, poker plant, and Stokes aster.

Here are a few photos, with brief comments about each.

This is Stokes aster, in front, combined with still viable lady’s mantle blossoms (green froth) and some sort of purple veronica. The Stokes Aster is blooming a bit early this year. Usually, the lady’s mantle is no longer blooming when it puts on its show. The combination is very pleasing to me, however.

The good news about these plants is that, with the exception of the lady’s mantle, these flowers respond well to dead-heading. Both the purple spikes and the asters will bloom again, so long as the used up flowers are cut back, all the way to late summer and early fall.

This plant is my all-tiime favorite, baptisia. It has gorgeous blue spikes of bloom in early June, which then create these interesting seed pods. From a distance, they look almost like flowers. Better yet, as the weather cools, the seed pods will turn black. It’s good to leave this plant standing in the winter, and also good to cut the spikes back by a third to keep them upright. Baptisia offers spectacular beauty for a few weeks, and then a more subtle beauty the rest of the year.

I’ve had this plant for several years. It has never had any pest problems except for two years ago. In the very hot summer, it suffered an attack from the Genista broom moth, which did severe damage before I became aware. In the end, I had to cut the stalks to the ground. But the plant apparently suffered no lasting damage from that episode.

This surprising group of plants seems to work really well together. Part of the reason why I named my garden Serendipity is because surprising things happen frequently. The plants are, from left, clockwise: thyme, Siberian iris foliage, purple coneflower foliage, coreopsis, a sedge, and lavender. These were planted at different times, and even by different people, but, aided by Mother Nature, they have melded together into a very pleasing sight.

Here is some bee balm, sharing space with black-eyed Susans and the seed heads of allium. This photo makes me feel a bit sad, actually, since this scene is usually buzzing with bees. The second year I had them, the bees were so numerous that it actually felt a bit dangerous to walk among the flowers. This year, for the variety of reasons that comprise the plight of bees, there are very few. The flowers are as crazy-looking and sweet-smelling as ever, though. This photo was taken from a bench that allows garden visitors a good view of these spectacular flowers.

Finally, the purple cone flowers are starting to put on their show. I have these in several places, offering their wonderful seed heads to resident gold finches and any other interested consumers who stop by for a taste.

As my husband and I explore what’s blooming in Serendipity Gardens, I wonder. What’s blooming in yours?

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