2019  HIKING, ULTRA-WALKING,

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Superstition Mountains at sunset, from Lost Dutchman State Park in Arizona

 

   
 
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   SPRING & SUMMER BLOOM UPDATE IN OUR YARD, p. 2

FRIDAY, JULY 19

 
 

Continued from the previous page.

MAY:  FLOURISHING ROSES & MORE

I've had better luck with Drift and Knockout roses than the Encore azaleas I showcased on the previous page. Because they have far exceeded my expectations, I keep adding more!

Since we moved to this minimally-landscaped half-acre property in early spring 2017 we've planted a total of about four dozen rose bushes. In April I added another seven Drifts and Knockouts in a bare spot on one side of our house.


Knockout rose

Both varieties are well-suited for our warm, humid, mostly-sunny climate. They have grown very fast, produce a lot of pretty flowers, and bloom continuously from April to December.

They do require some maintenance but not a lot -- monthly fertilization when they're flowering, dead-heading spent blooms so they re-bloom faster, and additional water when we don't get enough rain. The Knockouts can be pruned in early winter but it isn't really necessary. I've never pruned the Drifts, which are lower and serve as beautiful groundcovers.

Here are some photos of the pink and red roses in the back yard:


Pink and double pink Drift roses on one side of the yard   (5-2-19)


Single pink Drift roses produce a variety of colors on each bush.  (5-2-19)


Double pink Drift roses  (5-2-19)

Above and below:  pink Knockouts, pink and red Drifts on the other side of the back yard  (5-2-19)

 


Red Drift roses


Red and pink Drift roses

Above and below:  one of two kinds of pink Knockout roses in this bed

We have mature peach Drift roses on either side of the front yard near the tall Lorapetalum shrubs, all planted by the previous owners.

I planted peach Drifts in the new landscape island last spring to match the existing rose bushes, and chose taller coordinating pink Knockouts behind them:

 Above and below:  The roses filled in the space even more by mid-summer.   (5-2-19)

 

 

Peach Drift roses (above + two photos below)

 

I just can't say enough about these roses! I love 'em and we often get compliments from neighbors and visitors. They will continue to bloom until the first really hard frost and/or snowfall in December.

Other things that were in bloom in May included the Encore azaleas and bearded irises featured on the previous page, some new Hilda Niblett azaleas, and three colors of spiderwort:


Hilda Niblett azalea is a low-growing,
variegated pink, one-and-done bloomer  (5-17-19)

Above and below:  two of the colors of spidorwort we have; peak bloom was 
in May but they continued blooming throughout the summer.  (5-2-19)

JUNE & JULY:  SUMMER FLOWERS

Daylilies and hydrangeas also began blooming at the end of May but were at their peak in June.

We have various colors of daylilies that were planted in the spring of 2017, so this is their third summer to bloom. They have gotten large enough that I probably should divide them this fall.

Here are some of the colors:


There are a few more clumps of daylilies than shown here.  (7-1-19)


The pale salmon-colored daylilies are my favorites.  (5-24-19)

Above and below:  popular Stella d'Oro daylilies  (5-15-19)

 

Our five mature, light blue hydrangea shrubs bloom for about two months:

 

June is also the time of year when the lantana bushes have a huge growth spurt. 

I prune the branches of the Miss Huff lantanas back to about eight inches long after the leaves die in late fall and cover them with pine needles or straw over the winter. The branches sprout in early spring:

They magically grow back to 8-10 feet wide and 6-7 feet high by mid-summer and the five shrubs become one big mass of leaves and flowers, as shown in the following pictures.

This spring I planted three groundcover-type Chapel Hill Gold lantanas in front of the taller Miss Huffs. They spread to about three feet wide by the end of July but stayed under a foot tall, as expected:


June 1:  some growth on the Miss Huff lantanas, marked in orange, and the new groundcover lantanas in front, marked in yellow.


By the end of July both types of lantana had grown considerably!
One of the yellow groundcover lantanas is off to the left.


I love the variety of yellow-orange-pink-and-purple colors in the Miss Huff flower clusters. (7-1-19)

Butterflies love those little clusters of flowers, too:

There is a lot to be said for Miss Huff lantanas:

They are deciduous but keep coming back the next year if the pruned branches are protected under a layer of mulch during the winter where temperatures get below freezing. They don't require any other maintenance. They like full sun and don't need a lot of watering. They attract butterflies.

And did I mention they can get really big??? That's plus in the space where I planted ours.

SURPRISE!!

Mother Nature gave us a couple of unexpected bonuses this summer in our back yard. That's one of the fun things about gardening!

During June I noticed an interesting "weed" growing near the bearded irises. It's definitely not something I planted. The leaves reminded me of lupines, which I love, so I let it keep growing out of curiosity.

Lo and behold, it turned out to be a three-foot tall cleome with four branches and four large, very beautiful and airy flower clusters:

 

I love it! I've never had one and don't even remember ever seeing one before. I had to do an internet search to identify it.

I also have no idea where it came from -- airborne from a good distance, apparently, because none of the neighbors near us has one. The closest cleome we've seen on our walks is at least half a mile away as the crow flies.

It bloomed from early July to mid-August and a baby plant came up nearby; it didn't get large enough to bloom. I hope both stems will come back again next spring, but I need to move them to a better location.

A more fleeting surprise that's not a flower but an interesting coral-like growth is this mushroom that came up in the woods by our back fence in August:

Haven't seen anything quite like that before, either.

It was about eight inches in diameter; the elephant's ear next to it is small. The fungus turned brown and dried up a few days later when we didn't get much rain, so I'm glad I took pictures as soon as I saw it.

So, lots of things in our yard to keep me busy and happy. I haven't even talked about the veggie-herb garden . . . three kinds of tomatoes, a bunch of strawberries, basil, rosemary, and oregano.

The only thing that would make me enjoy gardening more is more consistent rainfall and fewer mosquitoes in the summer. I'm a mosquito magnet.

Next entry"We came for the puppies; we stayed for the mission:volunteering at the Warrior Canine Connection service dog organization in Maryland 

(Puppies. Need I say more???)

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, Casey-Girl, and Holly-Pup

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© 2019 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil

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