Late Summer in the Front Garden
Wednesday, August 14, 2013 at 3:30PM We have had rain almost every day in August thus far. The vapors of summer have settled over us like a warm wet towel. Yesterday I was able to get out to my dripping garden.
A view from inside the front garden.It wasn't raining at the time, but when I returned to the house I was damp. I didn't mind. The rain has moderated our usually high summer temperatures, and the plants are loving the moisture. The garden feels mellow and ripe, like the golden figs I picked the other day. My little White Marseilles fig tree produced a total of four figs this year. They were very sweet, and Lou and I gobbled them up. I hope my potted tree will grow bigger and produce a larger harvest next year.
In the front garden, Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' is putting on a show. Its chartreuse tinted white blooms glow along the hydrangea walk, where earlier blooming hydrangeas have faded.
Another plant that is gives a reliable punch to the summer garden every year is Canna Lily 'Tropicana'. I have loved it from the first moment I saw it. It was the plant that began to nudge me toward the tropical side of my semitropical climate.
Farther down inside my front garden is the peculiar Voodoo plant. I think it may be mature enough next year to bloom. I am looking forward to that! Meanwhile, I enjoy its tomato-like foliage and its creepy patterned stems, which feel like human flesh!
A summer view of a rustic birdhouse inside the front garden:
Summertime, and the living is easy!
Finally, here are some simple summer flowers:
May these August days bring you many blessings. Deborah
Reader Comments (16)
Canna Tropicana has beautiful foliage, it has always been one of my fave foliage plants. Your garden is looking lovely at this time of year. I love rain in summer and so do the plants.
Hi Deb
How's that hip healing? It seems as if you are getting more mobile, which is great.
We could use some of your rain! My garden has been drying out badly between thunderstorms and my plants have suffered.
I really will have to get a Hydrangea 'Limelight'. I keep seeing them everywhere and they are lovely!!
Take care and enjoy your humidity.
Your seasons have been the opposite of mine; we had lots of rain in May and June and unusual heat in July, but August has graced us with dry, sunny days and cool nights -- great gardening weather! It's good to see that you are out walking around in the garden. I love your photos of the canna leaves.
Love the shots of the backlit Canna Lilies! Your garden looks very happy. Mine is getting a bit dry, but fortunately we've been cooler than normal, so the plants are doing OK. Beautiful post--it almost looks fake it's so beautiful! You captured the plants at a magical moment!
Great photos as usual That canna is really colorful and just beautiful! Jeannine
A lovely post Debs, and those figs must have been lovely indeed!
Voodoo plant and Canna Tropicana, very exotic and certainly does add a little spice to your already beautiful garden :)
Wishing you a smooth and continuous recovery! Keep enjoying the garden!
A "warm wet towel" really evokes the feeling in your wet garden this year! Your voodoo plant is scaring me -- both your description of it and the fact that one showed up growing 15 feet away from the plant and yours have not yet bloomed. yikes.
your garden looks beautiful Deb, I think going the semi-tropical way is possibly better for your area, I think it is easier on both the gardener and the plants to choose plants that suit the condidtions in the garden, there are lots of plants I would love that need hotter drier conditions than I have, and, with beautiufl foliage plants like your canna and your banana plant what a wonderful choice you have, Frances
Good to see you and your garden are enjoying the moisture, hope your hip is improving daily and you can wander further into your garden each day.
Your garden always looks so peaceful! The photos of the back-lit Cannas are fantastic and may convince me to reconsider them as well. I hope you're healing well and can spend more time in the garden as fall approaches.
As usual, everything looks gorgeous - especially Tropicana, one of my all time favorites. The foliage alone is worth it. By the way, I think you should be praying for your voodoo lily NOT to bloom. I have had the dubious pleasure of smelling it in bloom and it reeks, to put it politely! It looks quite nice without the flowers.
Beautiful plants, I would love to have a voodoo plant, I don't know if it will grow in Ms.
We have the opposite weather...cooler but dry. I just love your lush garden and it really has grown....
I do hope the damp isn't aggrivating your hip and that you're progressing well Debs. Although I hate humidity I can see it has a wonderful effect on the garden; yours is lush and green and mine is scorched. 'Ripe' is the feeling everything gives and a kind of stillness from the heat. Interesting about that Voodoo plant popping up, will it survive the winter in the ground?
I love the stems of your Voodoo plant, they almost don't look real! I also enjoyed the stroll through your lush green garden. I'm envious of your rain. It's so dry, and dusty here this summer, you can almost hear the ground gasp. Hopefully our rain will return soon, and the garden can heave a sigh of relief.
We had a lot of rain earlier in the summer, but now we are back to our usual dry spell. But it always feels like it has been raining with the humidity of a midwestern summer! I'm always dripping. LOL