Iechris's Perennial Bed garden

My Joe Pye Weed, which is supposed to bloom in late summer, is already budded up. It has grown taller this year than it did last year and I really need to see about staking it.

I got this really nice photo of one of my Harlequin’s blooms lying on a pot of creeping Jenny that is hanging out near by. They look so good together and it was totally and accident. I think I’m going to try to plant one of the small pots of creeping Jenny near the Butterfly Bush.

Two blooms are open on one plant, with a third getting ready to open. They are looking good, but I wish they weren’t facing the wall of the house so much. Oh well…

My alyssum had pretty much been doing not much of anything for a while and had even gone largely out of bloom. I’ve sprayed it a few times with some fertilizer and I don’t know if that has helped, but at least on the left hand side it is really going now. It has almost totally filled in its area and is now blooming really well.

The right side has not taken off as much, though some clumps are starting to bloom again and some of them have increased in size. So far, I’ve been pretty happy with this plant and will probably use it again next year.

I tend to have a lot of problems getting good pictures of white or light colored flowers, so I’m always happy when one turns out. This was taken a few days ago and these blooms are starting to fade, but I have another bloom cluster that is getting ready to open. I had read that ‘David’ is supposed to smell like cloves and went out this evening and sniffed, but didn’t really smell anything. I’ll check again when the new blooms open.

I took two photos to show what my perennial beds look like in July 2008. The left hand side has more diversity, with the wallflower STILL blooming, a few coneflowers, phlox David and a ‘Lavender Perfection’ dahlia all in bloom. The flossflower is also doing better on the side, I think it gets a bit more sun, and is thicker and in bloom.

The right hand side is a bit denser with coneflowers, because this is where they were originally planted. It has has ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum in bloom a bit early and some Joe Pye weed that has gotten very tall this year and is about to bloom. The flossflower on this side isn’t doing as well. It is smaller and out of bloom. I’m not sure if it does not get enough sun or what.

The first ‘Lavender Perfection’ bloom is now fully open and another bloom on the same plant is just starting to open. They are very beautiful and seem to be doing a bit better than my dahlis did last year.