It’s been a dry summer after a wet spring. I’ve had to water the vegetable garden about every day for the last month and I’ve even started watering the peach trees this last week (they will be ready to pick in a week or so). Temperatures have been moderate, with highs the first 15 days of August averaging about 83F (range from 73-88F) and lows averaging 54F (range from 46-64F).

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The garden is chock full of monarch caterpillars on the milkweed this summer (and some milkweed tussock moth caterpillars, and milkweed beetles), along with quite a few swallowtail caterpillars on the dill, fennel, and Queen Anne’s Lace. I’ll be posting photos of those soon, along with other caterpillars, butterflies, and moths. But now, on to the blooms!

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The blooms that H I G H L I G H T my August garden include:

YARROW (Achillea spp.)

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MILKWEEDS (Asclepias syriaca, top left, and pink A. incarnata)

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JOE PYE WEED (Eutrochium purpureum) Even though it is really just starting to bloom, it’s got an out-sized presence in the border. (Male monarch butterfly in top photo.)

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VERONICASTRUM virginicum ‘Fascination’ (culver root), which is waning now but puts on quite a show for a few weeks and is covered in bumblebees, honeybees, flower flies, and wasps. Here it is (purple) waving around with echinacea and maidengrass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracilimus’).

And with a swallowtail, monarch, meadowhawk dragonfly (either cherry-faced or ruby),  bumblebee, and, I think, a honey bee.

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CROCOSMIA ‘Lucifer’

Crocosmia attracts hummingbirds.

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ECHINACEA (coneflower), and I don’t have a record of most of the varieties. This one enticed a duskywing butterfly (Erynnis sp).

And this one a monarch (Danaus plexippus; another male).

And a painted lady (Vanessa cardui).

I wish I knew what the orange-pink one is. The varieties I’ve planted at one time or another include ‘White Swan’ and ‘Primadona White’ (both whites of course), as well as ‘Pow Wow Wild Berry,’ ‘Magnus Pink,’ ‘Bravado,’ ‘Purple Emperor,’ and some unnamed plant sale and given-by-friends varieties.

 

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DAYLILIES

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BEE BALM (Monarda didyma) Both hummingbirds and clearwing moths go for this dreamy flower. And of course all kinds of bees.

Here are two hummingbird clearwing moths (Hemaris thysbe) hovering over some bee balm.

One hummingbird clearwing, olive green and rust.

And a snowberry clearwing moth (Hemaris diffinis), which is black and yellow.

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PHLOX. I don’t know who these are — they came from friends or volunteered.

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QUEEN ANNE’S LACE (unbidden)

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BONUS: Here’s a little collage of some other bloomers I’m fond of right now.

From top left, clockwise: Inula helenium (elecampane or horseheal), 2 photos; hawkweed in the lawn; green gladiolus with buddleia; Kirengeshoma palmata (yellow waxbells) flower; purple morning glory; two hosta flowers, the second of which is ‘June Fever’; then above the morning glory, it’s black-eyed Susans; tansy; hydrangea (the only bloom on the large plant); anise hyssop; and a purple heath or heather.

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Come back in September, when these two will have bloomed!

Clethra alnifolia ‘Ruby Spice’ (summersweet)

Gentiana asclepiadea (willow gentian)

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“O Lord, grant that in some way it may rain every day, say from about midnight until three o’clock in the morning, but, you see, it must be gentle and warm so that it can soak in; grant that at the same time it would not rain on campion, alyssum, helianthemum, lavender, and the others which you in your infinite wisdom know are drought loving plants – I will write their names on a paper if you like – and grant that the sun may shine the whole day long, but not everywhere (not for instance, on spiraea, or on gentian, plantain lily, and rhododendron), and not too much; that there may be plenty of dew and little wind, enough worms, no plant-lice and snails, no mildew, and that once a week thin liquid manure and guano may fall from heaven.  Amen.” ― Karel Čapek, The Gardener’s Year, 1929 

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.