Early July Blooms in My Flower Garden

July 5, 2018

I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day. I spent this July 4th at my Bedford, New York farm where all my gardens are just exploding with beautiful flowers, especially in my cutting garden.

It takes a lot of time to maintain a flower cutting garden this large - we're constantly weeding and watering, particularly during these warm summer months. Today is expected to be another scorcher here in the Northeast, but my flowers are just bursting with color. In only a few years, this space has really developed into one of the most eye-catching areas of Cantitoe Corners.

Right now we have lots with poppies, lilies, rudbeckia, and shasta daisies - enjoy these photos.

: All these flowers are thriving in my cutting garden – there is always something new to see every time I walk through the beds.

: Hard not to love these dainty violets. Violets are a genus of spring flowering plants in the family Violaceae. There are about 400 to 500 species of violets in the genus. Violets are native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere and are also distributed in Hawaii, Australia, and the Andes in South America. Violets typically have heart-shaped leaves, and asymmetrical flowers. Flower colors vary from shades of blue, yellow, white and cream.

: Lupines are attractive and spiky, reaching one to four feet in height. Lupine flowers may be annual and last only for a season or perennial, returning for a few years in the same spot in which they were planted. The lupine plant grows from a long taproot and loves full-sun.

: Here is a delphinium just beginning to bloom. Delphinium flowers have showy, spiky blooms on tall, sometimes towering stems. Blue is the most common color, but numerous hybrids are available in shades of pink, lavender, red, white and yellow.

: A close relative of the delphinium is the larkspur. With airy stalks of blue blossoms, larkspur adds a gracefulness to any garden. When planting larkspur, choose well-drained soil. Larkspur doesn’t like to stay wet for long periods of time, but does need consistent moisture, especially when flowering.

: 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.

: 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.

: Here is a Japanese iris in white and yellow. This summer-blooming iris opens flowers from June into July. The blooms feature traditional iris flower characteristics, such as upright standard petals in the center and dangling falls petals beneath.

: There are numerous types of dianthus – most have pink, red, or white flowers with notched petals. The plants are small and usually between six and 18-inches tall.

: Dianthus flowers belong to a family of plants which includes carnations and are characterized by their spicy fragrance. Dianthus plants may be found as a hardy annual, biennial or perennial and most often used in borders or potted displays.

: Aster flowers may reach three to four feet or can be compact and mounding. Asters need little in the way of maintenance – they just need deadheading for more blooms the following season.

: Poppies produce open flowers that come in many colors from crimson red to pale pink. Poppies require very little care, whether they are sown from seed or planted when young – they just need full sun and well-drained soil.

: Poppies are an attractive, easy to grow flower in both annual and perennial varieties, and they come in nearly every color of the rainbow.

: 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.

: I have an abundance of shasta daisies this season – they always look so cheerful, especially when planted in large groups.

: There are so many flowers blooming including this Alcea rosea, also known as hollyhock. These plants can reach five to eight-feet tall and up to about four feet across.

: The purple hollyhock, Alcea rosea ‘Halo Purple’, is rust resistant and can grow up to seven feet tall bearing numerous five-inch blooms. This hollyhock is very hardy and can easily continue flowering until the first frost.

: This is a petunia hybrid, ‘Supertunia Priscilla’. It features lavender double blooms with purple veins and has a spread of 18 to 24 inches, and a height of eight to 10 inches. Bred by Proven Winners, I sold this variety for a limited time along with products from my Gardening Collection on QVC.

: These are the showy flower heads of rudbeckia. Rudbeckia’s bright, summer-blooming flowers give the best effect when planted in masses in a border or wildflower meadow.

: In general, rudbeckias are relatively drought-tolerant and disease-resistant. Flower colors include yellow and gold, and the plants grow two to six feet tall, depending on the variety.

: Morning glories are annual climbers with slender stems, heart-shaped leaves, and trumpet-shaped flowers of pink, purple-blue, magenta, or white. The vine grows quickly—up to 15-feet in one season.

: Achillea millefolium, commonly known as yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is a hardy perennial with fernlike leaves and colorful blooms. The large, flat-topped flower clusters are perfect for cutting and drying.

: Clary sage, Salvia sclarea, has a history of use as a medicinal, flavoring agent. The plant is an herb in the genus Salvia. It is primarily grown in the temperate areas of the world and is a short-lived herbaceous perennial or biennial. More commonly known as Cleareye or Eye bright, clary sage herb is easy to grow and adds an ornamental display of flowers to the herb garden.

: Butterfly Weed is a bright orange showy native wildflower that’s easy to grow, cold hardy, and does well in poor, dry soils. Long-lasting clusters of small, flat-topped flowers are crowned with a yellow, sun-kissed “corona” and blooms from June through August. Butterfly Weed is an important nectar source for Monarch butterflies and its leaves provide essential food for developing Monarch caterpillars.

: And here is one of many kinds of lilies that bloom in my flower garden. I also have lilies along my winding pergola, outside my Winter House kitchen and in the sunken garden behind my Summer House. My collection of lilies is a combination of Oriental, Asiatic, trumpet, and Orienpet lilies.