July Garden

The month of July provided more magical moments and photo opportunities in my garden. I am still struggling to learn the features in my camera. It is user friendly enough but retaining information is another matter!





Impatiens balsamina is a self seeding annual bestowing bright purple, dark and light pink flowers until Fall. Rather than having terminal blooms, the flowers are at the node (base of the leaf). I seem to recollect seeing these flowers growing in the Philippines.










This Easter lily (a type of an Asiatic Lily) was planted from a potted lily last year. I was not sure if it would be hardy enough for this (planting) Zone so it was a pleasant surprise to see the blooms just as the other lilies had their show. The bulbs are generally shipped from a southern U.S. State but grown in green houses here in Ontario.





This cosmos is one of my favorite annual because it provides interesting foliage color and texture besides providing a steady supply of color throughout the summer. There are white and light pink ones as well.









My friend Arlene had given me a clump of her Chinese lantern (Physallis franchetii). The flowers are not showy but it does demonstrate an example of a flower with fused petals.










Last Fall, I had planted some bulbs with interesting characteristic such as "fall bloomer" or "late spring bloom". This beautiful 2 toned periwinkle blue, however, bloomed for about a week, in mid July, almost all at once. Unfortunately, the label faded and I haven't the chance to research its identity!













The bright, dazzling zinnias are the tropical flavor in my garden. Grown from a seed packet given out at the Green Living Show last April, each bloom is like a Christmas gift when it finally reveals its color: raspberry pink, apricot orange, mango yellow (my flavor colors). Yumm.














This bonus plant came with an acquired clump of Rudbeckia; I'm still reluctant to name it. It looks like it belongs to the genus Rudbeckia (black-eyed susan) but it also looks like a Helianthus (sunflower).









The pale lavender Hosta blooms are usually insignificant but this year, all my Hostas are just begging to be recognized!

















When I found out that Coreopsis have a poor seed germination rate, I splurged and purchased 2 species: C. verticillata (yellow blooms) and C. rosea (pink blooms).










Here is a Coreopsis cultivar that I had acquired from the Garden Club Plant Sale in the Spring; I think it is the 'Early Sunrise' variety. Notice the difference between this lanced-leaf with fluffy golden yellow blooms and the one above.









This is a Canadian native plant that was given to me by Ed, a fellow gardener and the leader of our bicycle group, the Roaming Riders. It is the Queen of the Prairie (Filapendula rubra). Ed assured me that this plant will readily multiply by roots (and most likely, if I don't disturb the soil around it, reseeds itself generously just by looking at the inflorescence. The bees just love this.












One of the few perennials that was already here in the garden when we moved in, is this Asiatic Lily. There were a few plants clumped together last summer so I separated the bulbs last fall and ended up with about 8 plants with 3-5 blooms each plant this summer. Blooming before the zinnias, they were the garden brighteners during the height of their short blooming period. Definitely a keeper.

Trail surprises

Today's bicycle trip to Paris, ON offered panoramic views of Ontario's wildflowers. The substantial rain we've had since the beginning of the summer has provided us (trail walkers and bicycle riders) with endless samples of wildflowers. Although my knowledge of wildflowers is very limited, I am learning more (and actually remembering the names) this year.

Besides the purple flowers of chicory and mint, the tall, white aromatic Queen Anne's Lace are also predominant this time of the year; but, the yellow flower heads of tansy and Rudbeckia really outshine them all.

As I started focusing on the Rudbeckias or the Black-eyed Susans, I discovered that there are many species out there in the wild!
The above species are less than 30 cm (1 ft) right by the trail.
These lemon yellow coneflower-type of Rudbeckia are about 60 cm. tall About 4-5 ft., these have wider leaves; beautiful with the purplish thistle in the background.
Another coneflower-type; golden yellow with a darker band towards the center
Two short varieties shown here; the wider petaled one is the most common in this trail

As we headed home, a soft rain began to fall so my attention quickly changed to pedaling harder to get home quicker. But Mother Nature had another way of slowing us down: 3 deers crossed our path!

Only 2 deer of them were within the camera's range

Mystery Plant: Solved!

I have a habit of rescuing plants from Plant Sale leftovers or from people's garden "thinnings" and divisions or even the trash can at one of the RBG greenhouses!

Well, the latter happened as I stopped by to see what the volunteers do at the Potting Shed for the annuals (plants) as opposed to the perennials where I volunteered at the beginning of the year. Annual seedlings were being potted but as a certain number is reached, the rest of the seedlings are discarded. That's when I came to the scene.

A handful of seedlings with 2-3 leaves as long as half my thumb, they grew rather mysteriously as the picture collage shows. They didn't look anything I've ever grown in my garden. In fact, they look absolutely alien to me: the wavy leaves, the winged, hairy stems, the flower buds. All these parts developed painstakingly slow. Making an identification wasn't apparent to me until the flowers blossomed into these papery clusters of purple flowers, spotted with white flowers.

These plants are called statice (Limonium sinuatum): the same flowers the Mennonites sold at the St. Jacob's Farmers' Market and that's how I recognized them. They make great cutting flowers and dried flowers.

This was a fun project . It was fortuitous that I had known the flower from previous exposure so the identification was not too difficult at the end. With the use of the internet, confirmation and learning the botanical name was a cinch.

Party time! (aka Family Reunion, Filipino-style)

The Asuncion/Coloma Family reunion was a three-day affair commencing on 4th of July at my cousin Roy's residence in Plymouth, Michigan. It was his birthday. Cousins (first, once- removed, second cousins), aunts & uncles attended by the dozen. They came as far as Georgia, Indiana, Ontario. It was a magical day held by the poolside: continuous sun, food, & music.

There were some serious card and mah-jong games happening with the older generation. My generation vied for the highest Karaoke score , ate and visited and ate some more. The youngest generation hanged (hung?) around or in the pool. There was some line dancing by the poolside but somehow I missed that. The heat and the grapefruit Bacardi Breezer must have prevented me from joining that particular activity.

Day 2: Belle Isle Park, Detroit, Michigan on the Detroit River. More sun, food, games, excursion to the Botanical Gardens. Several collections are housed in the greenhouse: palm, ferns, cacti and succulents. We did a lot of oooohhhing and aaaaahhhing: the specimens were spectacular. Free admission, too!


Still Day 2; GM Renaissance Tour, Downtown Detroit. A whole new and interesting way of looking at the classic Downtown Detroit is taking the monorail tour for 50 cents. A very reasonable type of entertainment for young and old alike.

The party continued on the following day by celebrating cousin Myrna's 25th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, we did not stay for that celebration. My body was calling for a time break by that time.

This type of family reunion is only held every 2 years so I always look forward to attending in order to catch up with who's who and what's what.