The Blooms At That Old House

What is in bloom now, in late July, at That Old House?



Join the fun at A Southern Daydreamer, for Outdoor Wednesday, hosted by blogger Susan. Click on the blog title or here to find more stories and some great pics!

(By the way, Susan shows Gazania in an amazing full display of blooms in her post today.

Why don't mine do that? My Gazania like to keep their blooms hidden.)

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Last week, I discovered that what I thought were old iris leaves just hanging out, waiting for the axe to fall, were, in fact, fresh green gladiolus leaves, just hanging out waiting for their flowers to pop.

And pop they did!

I really like this color, with the dark border; so pretty in pink.
(Calling the real gardeners: is that called a picotee edge?)

Sadly, some heavy wind and rain felled a couple of the spikes, so they will be nipped and moved into That Old House;
she loves getting gussied up with fresh flowers.

Nearby, the trusty cosmos:

and amazingly prolific hibiscus are still pumping out the blooms.

Up along the driveway, it's rioting daisies:

On the stone wall side, the daisies are collapsing under their own weight:

Ack! Weeds! Cover your eyes.

I love over-the-top, devil-may-care Rudbeckia; we've got them all over the place:

They are doing their best to choke out this blue hydrangea;

Perhaps this poor guy needs a new home come fall:

The purple and lavender hydrangea are blooming, also, up above the stone wall:

And a tomato is happily ripening.

We don't have too many tomato plants but they are all Fertile Myrtles.

(Oops -- the Myrtle plants growing in the border are filing a protest over the unauthorized use of their name.
Never allow your garden plants to unionize. They get ideas.)

Also along the stone border -- some old-fashioned phlox:

Phlox. That's a funny name.
Who came up with that for such a pretty flower?
Phlox. Phlox. Nope, doesn't get any better.

"Honey, get the paper towels! Dion's phloxing on the good rug!"

Is there another name for these guys?

Up on top of the border, on the driveway level, the "Autumn Joy" sedum is looking like anemic broccoli.
With this sedum, that's a good thing; it will reward us in the fall.

I never much liked wax begonias, till I realized how amazingly easy these scrappy little things are, and how they can suffer brutal gardening abuse and neglect and still look like this:

Oops. I think I just confessed to brutal gardening abuse and neglect. Guilty.

One more outdoor shot, this one from Sunday:

We went to a family baptism on Long Island.

That's baby Andrew, at the party afterward, hanging onto Uncle Howard.

And I guess it is Great-Uncle Howard, actually. Yikes.
My great uncles smoked stinky cigars and wore their pants hiked up under their nipples.



I think Dion is telling me it is time to leave the computer, and give him a treat.
He may be right. Enjoy your Wednesday! -- Cass