Love, Joy and Peas: August 2015

Friday, August 28, 2015

Dahlia, Marigolds, Zinnia, Butterfly Bush and Friend

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" It's been really hot but the flowers are still going strong, and I'm thankful.

I love these bicolor French marigolds that I grew from seed. They are getting so large I might have to stake some of them.

I've already had to stake a bunch of the giant zinnias (also grown from seed) and some of the plants are so tall they reach my shoulders. In the photo above you can see a giant bright pink zinnia just opening up and, in the background, a light pink that is fully open. I often see golden finches, butterflies, moths and bees enjoying the giant zinnias.

This is another potted butterfly bush (I featured a white one last week). I love the bright orange centers and the lilac colored petals. We do plan to put them in the ground once things start cooling down so they have time to establish deeper roots before winter.

Some of the African marigolds (also grown from seed) have grown nearly as tall as the giant zinnias. It's really exciting to see so many pretty flowers on plants I grew from seed. I love all flowers but the ones grown from seed are extra special.

Thank you for joining me on this week's mini garden tour! May God bless you!

Which photo(s) did you like best from today's post? Someone mentioned that she'd like to see the results posted and I thought it was a great idea. So I'm going to start listing the vote totals in the comments of the floral Friday posts and will count votes shared here, in Facebook and other forums. I'll aim to give the vote totals for the previous week on the same day I do the new week's post (for example, today I'll post the vote totals for last week's post in that post's comment section) so that gives you about a week to vote. I'd love to hear from you anytime though! Feel free to share!

Related posts:
Raindrops on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/10/raindrops-on-roses-azalea-camellia.html
Marigolds and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/06/shasta-daisies-coreopsis-sweet-peas.html
Mystery flowers and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/06/sunflower-day-lilies-vinca-and-mystery.html

Friday, August 21, 2015

Lantana, Zinnia, Dahlias, and Butterfly Bush Flowers

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" The lantanas are great drought-tolerant butterfly-attracting plants. I like this white with yellow center one but the bright multicolored and straight yellow flowers are nice too.

I think the zinnias are the stars of our garden this year and love that I grew most of them (including the one pictured above) from seed. The birds and butterflies love them too.

Dahlia blooms are still trickling in here and there.

The butterfly bushes are doing great; even the ones in pots. We didn't intend to grow any in pots but the soil where we planned to put them this spring turned out to be riddled with tree roots so four bushes are in pots until my hard working husband can get to clear out spots for them.

The "sights of summer" dahlia is currently the most prolific of the larger dahlias. It's nice to have a few big blooms. Next year I think we'll go back to the dinnerplate dahlias though. We seemed to get a whole lot more flowers from them. But we appreciate all flowers as they bloom.

Thank you for joining me on this week's mini garden tour! May God bless you!

Which photo(s) did you like best? Do you have any tips for keeping dahlias happy all summer? I'd love to hear them!

Related posts:
Cute critters on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/06/cute-critters-on-flowers.html
Raindrops on butterfly bush and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/10/raindrops-on-roses-azalea-camellia.html
Colorful lantana: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/06/zinnia-vinca-coreopsis-geranium-and.html

Friday, August 14, 2015

Rose, Zinnia, Dahlia, Salvia and Obedient Plant Flowers

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" The roses look especially nice with dew or raindrops on their velvety petals.

The zinnias are doing great and I think this little pink one with light green petals around the center is especially cute.

Dahlia production has slowed so they probably need fertilizer but this pretty yellow and red bicolor dahlia still has a few blooms.

This week our blue hummingbird-attracting salvia started blooming. I haven't seen a hummingbird on it yet but we have a few that visit our feeders and I hope they notice these flowers too.

The obedient plants are blooming nicely and often are covered in bees and a scattering of butterflies.

It's a pretty time of the year for Maryland flower gardening and I do love our flowers. Hope you enjoy this week's photos! May God bless you!

Related posts:
Fun flowers and insects: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/09/flowers-freeloaders-and-funkiness-for.html
Dahlias and butterfly flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/07/dahlias-day-lilies-butterfly-weed-and.html
Raindrops and flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/08/chrysanthemum-obedient-plant-tithonia.html

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Brookside Gardens' Wings of Fancy Butterfly Exhibit

Happy wild Wednesday! My dear husband took me to Brookside Gardens' Wings of Fancy butterfly exhibit and we had a great time watching these beautiful creatures dance all around us.

They have a great variety of butterflies and many were active but some rested too.

Some, like the one above, fed on the many beautiful flowers in the exhibit.

It was like a giant indoor butterfly garden with local and exotic butterflies.

This is one I've seen in my own garden but never on such a big, pretty leaf before.

Of course, the best part is if one of these beautiful butterflies lands on you. This kind man let me take his photo with the butterfly on his shoulder. The big butterfly stayed on his shoulder for at least 5 minutes too.

Usually at least one lands on me but I'd used some strongly scented peppermint hand sanitizer and I guess that serves as butterfly repellent and I didn't notice any this visit. I'll be sure to be peppermint free if we go next year.

Hearty thanks to my husband for taking me, to my new friend for allowing his photo to be taken and to the volunteers who staff the butterfly exhibit! May God bless them and may He bless you too!

Related posts:
Dragonfly & butterflies: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/dragonfly-and-butterflies-on-flowers-at.html
Butterfly blessings: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/01/happy-new-year-blessings-butterflies.html
Butterfly art: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/10/butterfly-art-by-denise-arvaneh.html

Friday, August 7, 2015

Summer Roses, Golden Sundrops, Dahlia, Joe Pye Weed and Day Lily

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" Happy August too! The weeds are having a field day but thankfully the flowers are still more noticeable. I think this is one of our "Senior Prom" roses, the first group of rose bushes we planted after we moved here.

Our golden sundrops (also known as heliopsis summer sun) are still going strong and when I'm behind in deadheading them the golden finches feed on them. By God's grace, in late September/early October I plan to stop deadheading them and let them set plenty of seeds for the birds over the winter.

The magic sunrise dahlia is still my favorite this year but all of the dahlias are beautiful.

Two weeks ago I posted a photo of our little Joe pye weed at the budding stage and now it's in full bloom and the bees are enjoying it.

The pretty yellow Stella d'Oro reblooming day lilies are usually our first to flower in the spring and now that most of the big ones are done they've started blooming again, which I definitely appreciate. If we are blessed, they will bloom on and off through first frost. One of my super kind neighbors was getting rid of a clump of them this week so we have a new one to add to our collection (thank you!).

Thank you for joining me. May God bless you this August and always!

Related posts:
Joe pye weed buds: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/07/sunrise-zinnia-pink-rose-sunrise-dahlia.html
Sunflower, day lilies and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/06/sunflower-day-lilies-vinca-and-mystery.html
Raindrops on dahlias and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/09/sparkling-chrysanthemums-dahlias-zinnia.html