Late July Blooms in My Flower Garden
My flower cutting garden continues to produce beautiful blooms.
This cutting garden has developed so well over the last couple of seasons. I really enjoy comparing its progress from year to year, and seeing where I need to add more plants to improve the display. This time of year, I have many hollyhocks, Shasta daisies, balloon flowers, Black-Eyed Susans, asters, and more. There is always something new to see every time I walk through this space.
Enjoy these recent photos.
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- My flower cutting garden delights all who visit. It’s filled with so many colorful blooms – pinks, yellows, blues. I hope your garden is also doing wonderfully this season.
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- Myosotis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. One may know them as forget-me-nots or Scorpion grasses – charming, five-petaled, blue blooms with yellow centers that flower from May through October.
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- If you follow me on social media, Instagram @MarthaStewart48, you have probably seen some of the poppies growing in my garden. Poppies produce open flowers that come in many colors from white and gray to crimson red.
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- Here is a pretty pink poppy. Poppies are an attractive, easy to grow flower in both annual and perennial varieties. They require very little care, whether they are sown from seed or planted when young – they just need full sun and well-drained soil.
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- Calendula has daisy-like bright orange or yellow flowers and pale green leaves. Commonly called the pot marigold, Calendula officinalis, the calendula flower is historically used for medicinal and culinary purposes.
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- Like most herbs, calendulas are adaptable and do not require a lot of maintenance. They can be grown in containers or in the garden bed with full sun to shade conditions.
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- The Japanese iris, Iris ensata, is an easy-to-care-for flower that loves wet conditions. This flowering perennial is available in a range of colors, including shades of purple, blue and white, with attractive medium green foliage. Our irises have done so well this summer – I love this deep purple and yellow variety.
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- This is nigella. This feathery annual is also known as Love-in-a-Mist, Fennel flower, Wild fennel, and Devil-in-a-Bush. It has a unique tangle of ferny, fennel-like foliage that forms a mist around the flowers.
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- Phlox has superb heat and mildew resistance. This is a tall and upright grower that’s great for the back of the border, or even planted at the edge of the garden among the shrubs. Phlox also comes in a range of colors from pure white to lavender to even red and grows happily in most parts of the country. If properly planted and sited, phlox is largely pest and disease free too – a perfect perennial.
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- This is a balloon flower, Platycodon grandiflorus. Balloon flowers get their name from the unopened buds, which swell up prior to opening and resemble little hot-air balloons.
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- And the opened flowers resemble those of bellflowers, and while most often deep blue or purple, white and pink varieties are also available.
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- I grow many different asters. Asters are also called Starworts, Michaelmas Daisies, or Frost Flowers. They need little in the way of maintenance – they just need deadheading for more blooms the following season.
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- Here is one in light cream. Asters come in a great variety of colors including white, red, orange and various shades of pink and purple, making them one of the most popular flowers for use in floral arrangements.
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- And here is one of many gerbera daisies in the garden. Gerbera daisies are commonly grown for their bright and cheerful daisy-like flowers. They originate from South Africa and come in various sizes and colors including pink, yellow, salmon, orange and white, with flower sizes anywhere from two to five inches across.
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- The bee balm plant is a North American native, thriving in woodland areas. Also known by its botanical name of Monarda, bee balm is very attractive to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The bee balm flower has an open, daisy-like shape, with tubular petals in shades of red, pink, purple and white. Bee balm plants are perennial, so they will come back year after year.
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- Easy to grow, vigorous and long flowering, Malope is another must-have cutting garden staple. This is Malope Trifida ‘Vulcan’. It has big trumpet-shaped silky flowers in red-magenta-pink with a stunning green star at the base of the flower.
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- Shasta daisy flowers provide perky summer blooms, offering the look of the traditional daisy along with evergreen foliage. They are low maintenance and great for filling in bare spots in the landscape.
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- This is Alcea rosea, also known as the hollyhock. These plants can reach five to eight-feet tall and up to about four feet across.
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- The hollyhock is rust-resistant, very hardy and can easily continue flowering until the first frost.
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- And of course, here is one of many lilies. I also have lilies along the winding pergola, outside my Winter House kitchen, in the sunken garden behind my Summer House and right in front of my main greenhouse. My collection of lilies is a combination of Oriental, Asiatic, trumpet, and Orienpet lilies.
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- And here is Blackie, enjoying his view from the center of my Flower Garden under the arbors covered in climbing roses. What flowers are blooming where you are? Share your comments below.
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