Photographed July 14-16, 2000
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Circle Garden: The oranges and purples of June have given way to pinks and blues. Dominating the show are Pink and Cream Yarrow, Purple Coneflower in pink and white and the blue tinges of Russian Sage. Sprinkled througout are blue batchelor buttons, Nigella, stocks and purple verbena. On the left, the orange remnants of wallflower and marigold are visible. And every once and awhile, one of those orange poppies blooms! |
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Circle Garden, close up: A view of the Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia). Tucked amongst the Pink Yarrow (Achillea) are the blue flowers of Love in a Mist (Nigella) with their green whiskers (see below for a close-up) |
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View from the Bench: It's a jungle out there! A newly added garden bench allows us to actually sit and enjoy the view. This shot looks across four different beds, which are separtated by paths. |
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Clary Sage: This is the second year I've had clary sage blooming. A biennial, it seems to be perpetuating itself. The original plant was given to me by Gail Lang. It has made a huge show twice, and already new little seedlings are getting ready for next year. In the foreground are purple larkspur (which I can't get enough of) and in the back is Rose Campion (garden mullein, Lychnis coronaria), just starting to pass, another gift from the garden of Alicia Russel Smith. The newly added bench is visible here. |
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Electric Blue, Lemon Yellow and Creamy White: This football-shaped bed contains a blue Delphinium, Gooseneck loostrife (Lysimachia clethroides) and a clear lemon yellow daylily. The first two were purchased at Monson town garden sales, the last was a gift from a friend. Wasps and other insects really love the loosestrife (see the Garden Creatures page). The large white flower head in the background is a garden heliotrope (Valeriana)- it makes the whole garden smell heavenly! |
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The Gardener at Work: These days most of the necessary work consists of deadheading and pulling out plants which have passed or succumbed to pests. A few plants that were crowded out have also been moved into new empty spaces. I'm adding compost and plan to fertilize with liquid fish emulsion too. |
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Black Eyed Susans: The yellow flowers of this volunteer plant (which started to grow last year), are exhibiting some strange developmental mutants! In honor of Bastille Day, red and white poppies and a blue batchelor button are creating a French flag in the background. |
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Volunteer Soldiers: This army of sunflowers arose entirely by self seeding from last year's crop. I only thinned the seedlings as they came up. They are all small, multibranching sunflowers. Each plant has flowers with slightly different markings. This is the view from the street -the garden behind is almost entirely obscured. |
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Sunflowers Close up: These sunflowers along the trellis (also volunteers!) show some of the pattern variation found in each plant. |
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Salpiglossis: (Painted toungue, Salpiglossis sinuata). Some plants, once you meet them, just have to be grown each year ! These annuals were purchased from Ledgecrest Nursery in Mansfield, CT. They are all variegated like this, but show varying combinations of yellow, red, purple and brown. Another plant introduced to me by ARS, they are unbelievable. |
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| Selected Singles, above: (click on each image to see a larger version of the picture). Far left: Purple larkspur against chartruese oregano. Top row: Sunflower, Purple Coneflower, Coreopsis. Second row: Rose Ensign morning glories (Convovulvus tricolor), Sidalcea Party Girl and Globe Thistle (Echinops), Love in a Mist (Nigella). Third row: Tall purple mallow , mutant Rudbeckia, Lemon yellow lily. Far right: Stock (Matthiola) |
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Photographs by Olga Zhaxybayeva
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