Early Autumn Flowers & Foliage

Dramatic dahlia square: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!"

Pretty bicolor dahlia: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

 I'm really thankful to have a few more giant dahlias to enjoy before frost hits.

Fall foliage: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

The dahlias are making a nice comeback but other than that not much new is happening in our garden, flower wise. Rather than just share two photos this week, photos three through five in this post were taken at the US National Arboretum to give you some variety. 

Dramatic hydrangea: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

 I love this unusual hydrangea and expect that it will remain pretty as it dries for winter.

Purple sheen flower: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

One of the more unusual late summer/early autumn flowers is the purple sheen, which is usually covered in bees. Other names for it (from the tag at the Arboretum) include: "Erygium leaveworthii," "Leavensworth's eryngo," and "apiaceae."

We have one more chrysanthemum that hasn't bloomed yet but after that "this week in my Maryland garden" will likely be on hiatus until spring. Unless something exciting and unexpected happens. You never know!

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you this autumn and always!

Related posts:
Fancy dahlia with bee: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/10/neat-flowers-bees-and-sun-effects.html
Fall foliage and capitol columns: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/11/fall-foliage-and-capitol-columns-photos.html
Tree foliage: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/11/fall-foliage-at-us-national-arboretum.html

Coreopsis, Zinnia, Hydrangea, Dahlia and Golden Sundrop Flower Photos

Bee on red coreopsis: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" I had so many "critter on flower" pictures that I'm saving some for the next "wild Wednesday" post so be sure to come back for those. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy today's pretty blooms. The red coreopsis are still going strong and the bees are enjoying the sea of flowers.

Giant orange zinnia: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

I was super excited to see our first giant zinnia bloom. After falling in love with the giant red zinnias at the National Arboretum last year, I bought a seed packet that was supposed to produce only red flowers in hopes of having some of my own. Even though this one is clearly orange (and not red), I love it. Since this flower opened I've seen another from the seed packet with white blooms. I think more than 20 of the seeds sprouted so there are at least 18 more changes for an actual red zinnia.

Baby hydrangea: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

Last year I don't think our hydrangeas produced any flowers so I was thrilled to see flower heads forming this year. This is our very first bloom of the year (it's just starting to open).

Miniature dahlia: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

The miniature dahlias I planted earlier this spring are producing another rush of flowers.

Heliopsis (golden sundrops): Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

And the heliopsis plants (also called golden sundrops) are producing a lot of bright yellow flowers which have been atracting golden finches. Usually I deadhead flowers this early in the season but I've been leaving spent blooms on these because I like watching the finches feed on them.

That's all for this week's mini flower garden tour. Thank you for visiting! May God bless you!

Related posts:
Giant dahlias: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/08/four-dahlias-and-dianthus-for-floral.html
Sunflowers and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/07/sunflowers-dahlias-marigolds-verbena.html
Bright dahlias: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/10/delightful-dahlia-close-up-photos.html

Bright Blooming Flowers and Tiny Peppers: This Week in My Maryland Garden

This is my favorite of our garden's day lilies. I think it's an "El Dorado" day lily and we got it from a catalog many years ago. We originally purchased six. One died in the first winter. The rest had survived until this spring's excavation but I won't know for sure how many we have know until all the day lilies have bloomed this year (in our hurry to save our plants we didn't have the time to tag them). Right now it looks like we have three survivors. If you like day lilies you can see a whole bunch of beautiful photos here.

I've been trying to get a decent photo of our red and yellow bicolor dahlia since we planted it but this is the best so far. It wasn't labeled as a dwarf plant but it's only about six inches high so I think that's what we got. The flowers are pretty enough that I don't mind though. You can see our yellow dahlia here.

I'm not sure why blogger isn't letting me put any words between the cosmos and pepper plants (could be the problem is with me and not blogger though for all I know) but this is an open bloom on the orange cosmos we grew from seed. You can see the first not quite opened bloom here and the whole plant in context here.

Next up is my husband's miniature pepper plants. He knows what kind of peppers they are but I don't. They're cute though. He has two of these plants.

Last week I posted a photo of our blue hydrangea and here's one that seems to be undecided as to whether it's going blue or pink. I thought the raindrops on the petals were pretty.

Although eventually I'll do a separate post about this (when I have more posts up) I'd love to introduce you to my newest blog, the benign neglect gardening journal. It's part garden journal, part tips and tricks on saving money, effort and the environment while enjoying your garden. Here's the link: http://bngardening.blogspot.com/.

May God bless you and may your gardening (physical and proverbial) be fruitful!

Hydrangeas, Cosmos, Primrose and Day Lilies: This Week in My Maryland Garden

Our hydrangeas are blooming in our shady back yard this week. Hopefully the flowers will turn even more blue as they mature.

This is our first cosmos flower of the year. It's just starting to open up. I love that we started this plant from seed. It makes it even more precious.

I believe this is an evening primrose. These flowering plants are climbing up our variegated rose bush, lilacs and fence.

Here's our first regular day lily bloom of the year. It's a sweet pale yellow and I love the frilly edges. In an earlier post we showed you our Stella d'Oro reblooming day lily, which was the first of any kind to bloom this year. The rebloomers are still flowering and should continue blooming through frost this fall.

This is our variegated rose bush (the one that has the evening primrose, above, climbing up it). Every flower is slightly different and I enjoy seeing the various patterns that emerge.

Hope you enjoyed this week's floral photo tour of our Maryland garden! May God bless you!

Which was your favorite photo of the post? What's blooming in your area? Do you have any flower gardening secrets to share? I'd love to hear from you!