Summer Garden Blooms Around the Potting Shed

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a garden update.

Join for a stroll with me around the Potting Shed.

Make sure to grab something cold to drink,

it’s hot outside!

Like most of the country, July has been a hot and steamy month in North Carolina!

While other garden flowers are fading and struggling in our mid 90 degree temps,

Limelight Hydrangeas don’t mind the heat and humidity, and the large

white blooms provide an illusion of ‘cool’ in the garden on hot summer days.

‘Limelight’ is a paniculata hydrangea with panicle-shaped flower heads that grow 6 to 12 inches long.

Unlike other hydrangea varieties, they are drought tolerant, preferring part to full sun.

Garden Height:  72 – 96 Inches

Spread:  72 – 96 Inches

Limelight Hydrangeas are hardy in zones 3 – 9 (we’re zone 7b).

For new gardeners, a USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners

and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location.

If you don’t know your gardening zone, you can find a USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

and look up your zone by zipcode, here.

Cleome or spider flower is an old-fashioned annual that blooms from mid summer to fall

and attracts hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

Older varieties have spiny stems and will reseed

while newer varieties are thornless and sterile.

This is Señorita Rosalita, a favorite variety of cleome that is

thornless, sterile (and not sticky!), producing 12-18” tall plants.

Chaste Tree (Vitex) has been buzzing with bees. . . 

It’s fast growing,15 to 20 feet tall with a spread of 10 to 15 feet in USDA zones 5 –  9.

The clusters of purple flowers are magnets for bees and butterflies. . .

It does requiring frequent pruning to keep it in check and I read that it’s

considered to have invasive tendencies in areas such as Texas,

where it has been planted extensively for landscaping.

Check out what is also drawn to the purple flowers of the Chaste tree . . .

the dreaded Japanese Beetle!

We were out of town for a week and came back to find the

Japanese Beetles had moved in and taken up residence

on the roses while we were away.

Eeek. . .skeletonized leaves and decimated roses!

Shocking and scary to see, compared to how they looked in May. . .

Japanese Beetle recommended methods of treatment are spraying affected plants

with a pyrethrin-based insecticide or using neem oil.

Neem oil works best if applied at the first sign of Japanese Beetles,

rather than a week later when you return home to a full blown infestation!

Pyrethrin naturally occurs in chrysanthemum flowers and is considered to be one of the best

biodegradable insecticides, but pyrethroids are one of two main groups of pesticides that

contribute to colony collapse disorder in bees, where worker honeybees disappear,

leaving the queen and other members of the hive to die.

 I get rid of them the safe, albeit slow way, plucking

 them off the roses and dropping them in a bucket

of soapy water, which suffocates them.

While it doesn’t make a drop in the bucket in the beetle population, (pun intended :)

it is satisfying to pluck the offenders off and dispose of them in the soapy water.

It’s an easier chore first thing in the morning with the beetles are slower moving,

allowing you to shake them off your shrubs, if you don’t want to hand pick them.

The daylilies are waning. . . *sniff*. . .and almost bloomed out. . .

Peak season for daylilies in our zone 7b garden is mid-June.

You can see them at their peak in bloom, HERE.

Crapemyrtles have been buzzing bees. . .

I can’t remember them being so full of bees before. . .bees of all kinds, honey bees,

bumble bees, and mason bees.

Mrs. Powers Tuteur needed a paint touch up after 4 years in the elements. . .

Here’s a little Christmas in July flashback of how she looked with

some tartan ribbon and planted in some fresh cut greenery

with some jingle bells on her cast iron tendrils. . .

I highly recommend Krylon Fusion All-In-One Spray Paint!

It bonds to difficult surfaces without sanding or priming, including plastic,

wood, metal, PVC, tile and more.

I used Krylon Fusion Satin Black and gave her several coats

and she was as good or better than new!

Mrs. Powers is planted among some zinnias that blooming and attracting butterflies. . .

A favorite of Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly. . .

 Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) is living up to its namesake

and attracting an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly.

This is a female Tiger Swallowtail distinguished from the male by

the iridescent blue on the lower wings.

How is your garden growing?

Hope you’re finding a way to stay cool. ♥

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 Between Naps on the Porch