Top 10 Blooms in my Mid-Summer Garden

I'm joining Chloris at The Blooming Garden in featuring my top 10 blooms this August.  August isn't a month I usually associate with flowers but, as mentioned in my earlier Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post, judicious applications of extra water this year have had a major input on the floral output.  We haven't received our August water bill so I'm not yet feeling as terribly guilty as I'm afraid I may feel soon.

Winnowing down the flowers in my garden to 10 selections wasn't easy.  The sheer volume of bloom was a major factor in my choices.  The current condition of the flowers was another, as was their photogenic qualities, but ultimately it's an emotional decision.

Rosa 'Medallion' was an easy choice because it surprised me by making its first appearance of the year by blooming en masse.  Roses here usually bloom best in spring before our temperatures soar, if they bloom at all.  I had very few rose blooms last year and even fewer this spring after the lowest winter rain levels I've ever measured.

I inherited 2 'Medallion' rose shrubs with the garden.  Of the paltry number of rose bushes I have, these had once been the most reliable spring bloomers but they didn't bloom at all this spring and they lost all of their foliage to a combination of rust and the nuclear heat that hit in early July.  They leafed out again after repeated deep watering sessions but I hadn't really expected them to bloom in mid-summer even after I saw a few buds forming.  Then I came home from a trip last weekend to find this!  This may not be a lot of roses for some of you but it's a mass of bloom in my garden.

Heteromeles arbutifolia was another surprise.  If this tree-sized shrub was blooming a week ago, I hadn't noticed it but now the blooms can't be missed.

The common name for this plant is Toyon.  It's been selected as the official native plant for the city of Los Angeles.  This one balances atop a steep slope on our property's boundary line and I estimate it's 15 feet tall.  The flowers will be followed by a plentiful supply of red berries.  The berries, although toxic for humans, are consumed by mockingbirds, robins, and cedar waxwings, as well as coyotes.

My dahlias were another obvious choice as a favorite but which one can be said to rule my cutting garden is another question altogether.  Each and every one deserves recognition.  Could you pick just one?

'Loverboy' (upper left) is flashy semi-cactus variety.  'Otto's Thrill' (upper right), a dinnerplate variety, has been the most prolific bloomer thus far, although it's quickly being overtaken by the smaller, semi-cactus 'Terracotta' (lower left).  Dinnerplate 'Strawberry Ice' (lower right) is new on the scene.

But it's 'Punkin Spice' that keeps drawing my eye.  I don't remember that it impressed me as much last year but this year every bloom is a glowing orb.  It's classified as an informal decorative type but the flowers are as large (or larger) than any in the dinnerplate class.

The zinnias in the cutting garden also came on with a bang this month but there is one, grown from seed rather than plugs from the local garden center, that impresses me every time I see it.

This is Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Giant Salmon Rose'.  Each bloom is perfect.

Have I forgotten my Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) you might ask?  Of course not but, like choosing a favorite dahlia, the Eustomas that draw my eye shift from one week to another.

A week ago, it was the delicate green-flowered variety (left) that won my heart.  A new variety, 'Mint Cocoa' (right) has been a favorite with commentators and I admit I'm impressed by how well it's performed this year.  My biggest issue with it is that its unusual color doesn't mix well with most of the flowers surrounding it.  I'll need to find a better placement for it next year.

Eustoma grandiflorum 'Black Pearl' wins my thumb's up for late August.  It's blooming on last year's plants.  Last year I found its performance disappointing but it's a happier plant in its second year.  The flowers are tighter and more heavily petaled than most of the other varieties of Eustoma growing in my garden.  Its shape and growth habit closely resemble that of 'Mint Cocoa'.

A number of more common flowering plants make up the rest of my mid-summer bloom list.

This is the native California aster, Symphyotrichum chilense.  I put in 2 plants in 2015 but, if you looked at the bed it's growing in, you might think there were a half dozen or more plants there.  It spreads by rhizomes and is a little more exuberant than I'd expected but it's the only aster I've ever considered a success here.

Plumbago is VERY common here.  From my home office window, I can see a large mass of it in bloom across the canyon.  It's blooming up the street and I see masses of the blue flowers along the road every time I leave my neighborhood.  My plants, Plumbago auriculata 'Imperial Blue', are better behaved in large pots outside my lath (shade) house.  

Lantana 'Samantha' is having a banner year.  I love the cheerful yellow flowers but the variegated foliage is its main attraction.  It makes me think of Ceanothus 'Diamond Heights', a plant I've killed at least 3 times, but in contrast this Lantana is easy to grow and happy here.

Gaillardia 'Fanfare Citronella' in the same bed as the Lantana is another current favorite.  While the flower stems are annoyingly short, the flowers are prolific and of course loved by bees.

I've got as many as a half dozen varieties of Abelia in my garden, all of which I love, but at the moment this older variety, Abelia grandiflora 'Edward Goucher' is what's grabbing my attention.  The 2 large shrubs came with the garden and, unlike the varieties I've introduced, there's no variegation in the foliage of these but they do pump out the blooms!  I cut the 2 shrubs back hard in late winter and I've been rewarded this year with lots of long flowering stems.  When the flowers drop, they leave behind reddish bracts just as pretty as the flowers themselves.

Could you distill the bloomers in your garden down to just 10 plants?  Visit Chloris to find her list.


All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party