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.