In most summers, we would be at the height of flower and fruit production. The roses and peonies would be at their best, the veggies in the garden would be thriving, and we would have an abundance of strawberries and rhubarb . Well, this summer is different.
Our garden beans are finally setting out new leaves after the hail storm last week. The rhubarb was shredded by the hail, and it has been pulled and cut back. The strawberries that we just planted in May survived the hail, and are in their first year of setting out runners. We are clipping the flowers off to stimulate runner production, and there will be no fruit until next year.
Depending on where the flowers and shrubs were planted, they either were shredded or are in full bloom. Prior to the hail, Grover Cleveland, our earliest and most lovely peony, was in bloom.
I love his very deep red color, which is rare in peonies. Grover was hailed out. We also have some Japanese peonies in the front yard, which are spare and ascetic and a contrast with more traditional peonies. They were protected from the hail by the house.
We planted more traditional peonies in the church garden a couple of years ago, and they were protected from the hail by some Siberian elms.
I am happy that our raspberry bed was protected from the hail, and we anticipate a stunning raspberry harvest in a month or so. They are only a few feet from the rhubarb, but they were protected by the hail by our neighbors’ awful ash trees. How ironic!
What are your favorite summer flowers? If you were to redo your yard, what would you plant or change? Any good raspberry recipes?
Trail Baboon 
Really Awsome Post.i love flower.
some days ago i am also created blog about flower – but now i am running on digital marketing -http://digitaldaudul.com/
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My few flowers, all in pots, were set back by those days of high winds but are now thriving. The fields and lawns need rain in this area.
Do not like raspberries. Maybe from all those hours picking wild raspberries, which do not grow in abundance in welcoming places. When my mother had brought her raspberry transplants to full fruition I was about 10-11. Same with her strawberries. That was a delight for Cleo and I. Couple years later Cleo was allowed pick and sell off raspberries because the crop was so large.
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My early coffee times on patio are close to bugless. Must be the dryness.
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ideal days season extended because of scarcity of bugs
tomorrow is july with minimum bugs
never seen it before
(i knocked on wood)
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My wife has a green thumb so we’ve always had lots of flowers. I suppose roses and daylilies are two faves. Tulips in the spring. But I’m not a flower aficionado. I just appreciate the color and the life.
Oof, where to begin with landscape redesign! Because we’re the first owners of our house, we started from scratch with landscaping, save for the trees already on the property. TWenty years later, most plants, shrubs and trees have outgrown their space. Our Kasota sandstone “walkways are cracked and getting overgrown by the turf encroaching and the pavers sinking deeper into the earth. Lilacs are way too big for their own good and will get cut back severely. If it were me only, I’d simplify, go almost totally perennials, Had two trees taken down yesterday because one was overhanging the house too much and the other was leaning more and more east as the other trees grew and blocked its light access. I’d have more rock garden areas, especially where grass struggles to grow under the huge cottonwood. We have bricks laid end to end that delineate the lawn from the garden and those are sinking as well. Mulch and rocks keep flowing out onto the lawn after a rain or just because rocks like to wander, I guess. š
Bottom line, I’d hire a pro to redesign the whole shebang to be simple, low-maintenance, but still attractive. Talking my wife into that? A whole nother story.
Chris in Owatonna
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iād be happy to help out if you get the ok
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We both might be dead by the time I get the okay. Or my wife goes first. But then I’d probably move to a smaller place. š
Chris
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Rise and Shine Baboons,
I cannot pick a favorite. In each part of the summer there are flowers that just make me so happy. In the early part of the flower season the irises out-bloomed themselves. This was especially true of the frilly orange irises of which there were so many and they lasted a long time. Last year due to the early heat and drought, they had not done much at all.
Next up the sunflowers which are looking great so far. Five days after my hip surgery I took my walker out to the cold frame (with Louās help) and planted my sunflowers and other stuff. The sunflowers and zinnias launched themselves out of the dirt and are looking great. We are just trying to keep the rabbits off of the flowers outside the big garden which is fenced.
We found a deer, a lovely little doe, eating all our raspberry canes this spring. As a result almost the entire patch had to issue new canes from the ground up which means our early crop will not be. Raspberry liqueur is my favorite (but then all raspberries are my favorite).
Take a quart jar and fill it with raspberries. Add 1 c. Sugar, then add vodka to the top of the jar. Let is steep for six weeks, turning it regularly to absorb the sugar. At the end of the six weeks strain it. We sip this over ice and use it on vanilla ice cream and as a sauce on Gooey Almond Cake.
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Ooh, thanks for this recipe.
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Peonies–flowers that are past their prime before they are in their prime. Bug-infested. Droopy. But somehow the essence of flowers.
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Fragrant!
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bug infested is required
without ants crawling all over them they wouldnāt happen
i love peonies
my favorite is hibiscus
i love iris and roses of all variations
but i have hostas as my number 1 favorite not because of flowers but because of foliage
second is daylillies all the varieties make me smile endlessly
iāve always wanted to become a perennial grower on a big scale maybe i can start that now
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I always have plants to share.
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I canāt choose a favorite flower. They do some much for us, from the earliest spring ephemerals to the latest coneflowers, liatris, and sunflowers
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Whoops! I wasnāt done and WP apparently decided for me!
Anyway, Iām not allowed to alter the landscape here. Itās attractive in a very traditional, conformist way, but I would like it to be a little more wild and unkempt. Iād at least like a butterfly garden or two. Iād also like more natives in the landscape plantings. If I had my way, I would fire the guy who comes around with a chainsaw every year and tries to make every single tree look the same, like lollipops. When I saw him coming around in March, I told him firmly to keep his saws and trimmers off of the Northern pin oak outside my front door. I must have made my point because he moved on to do his butchery to other trees. He has made the Japanese tree lilac on the west side of my driveway look like a spatula.
I think I have a Chocolate Torte cake recipe with raspberry topping. I donāt really make it very often. Iām going to try Jacqueās raspberry liqueur recipe. Thanks, Jacque!
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That deep red peony above is right up there for favorites…
I like the spring ephemerals – of which I’ve only had two – bloodroot and virginia bluebells… I used to see several more (trillium, rue anemone…) at Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. Here I’ve been to a couple of places across into Wisconsin to see Pasque flowers, etc.
I think I have a Raspberry Clafouti recipe somewhere – I hope we get more raspberries this year – we’ve been getting lots of leaves, but few berries, the past couple of years.
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The on-line photos of the Grover Cleveland peony don’t do it justice. It is a very old fashioned peony, and there are lots of places that sell them.
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We got ours from a Canadian Niagra Penninsula greenhouse.
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https://www.thespruce.com/growing-spring-flowering-ephemerals-1403569
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I had some trout lilies and dogtooth violets at one time, but they faded away. The bloodroot comes back reliably.
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I enjoy peonyās. And snapdragons.
Thatās about it for flowers I know the name ofā¦ everything else is a daisy. š
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Or petunia
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I’m fond of lots of flowers. Love the irises and daffodiles and tulips in the early part of the season. And clearly since I have easily 15 types of day lilies, I am partial to them later in the season. I have a lovely fuschia basket this year and it wouldn’t be summer without dragonwing begonias (hence one of my trips across town to Gertens).
I’ve been trying to re-create the raspberry cream scones that they make at Sunstreet. I mean, it’s two layers of puff pastry w/ raspberries in the middle and washed with cream, but my three tries so far have not been happy attempts. Clearly there is some secret that I haven’t figured out.
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Let us know when you nail it.
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OT. I just realized that I started the July Blevins post but never actually published it. Yike… sorry.
Sunday, July 10
2 p.m.
Jacque & Lewās
Dangerous Straits
Our Own Chris Norbury
&
Midnight Riot
Ben Aaronovitch
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I love bright lights cosmos, and zinnias, for a couple of underappreciated annuals.
Asters are a favorite perennial – when they’re blooming, you know it’s getting towards the end of the season, and you have to enjoy them while they’re still there. Phlox and bee balm are beautiful too….and black-eyed susans.
Eggplants have lovely blossoms.
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Then there are these…
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Catalpa tree?
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Looks like catalpa to me.
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Yes.
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I don’t have many raspberry recipes. I usually just make them into jam, or have them on ice cream. But they compliment a flourless chocolate torte very well, too.
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