August in Bloom in My Tennessee Garden

With summers in Tennessee you never know exactly what your going to get. Usually you expect dry and hot. That’s a pretty safe bet.  But lately the temperatures have reminded me of fall. The scents are on the wind.  Fall blooming plants like goldenrod and ironweed are beginning to flower. The smell of fall is in the air – but summer isn’t over yet. When you add to the more pleasant weather with the rains that have been coming down on a somewhat regular basis you end up with a pretty nice climate for gardening! Since things have been shaping up in the garden let’s take a look around at what is in bloom.

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day August 2012

Let’s start with the rose pictures! This rose is a double knockout that really needs a better spot in the sun. It does seem pretty happy here with morning sun and afternoon shade. It’s surrounded by coleus.

This rose is along our front walkway.  Liriope serves as a ground cover next to the sidewalk.

Coneflowers are one of my favorite perennials.  This first picture is our native Tennessee Coneflower.  The grass all around it is Ponytail grass or Mexican feather grass.  The combination makes the picture seem like it was taken in a prairie. I think those two perennials put together would make a very nice mass planting!

This is a new coneflower to my garden called Sombrero Hot Coral.  It got a little stressed last week and isn’t as impressive as it should be.  It should bounce back and do just fine though.

Purple coneflowers are all over our gardens. I like to let them self sow but also help them out a little by collecting the seed and moving it to new areas.  If I leave the seed stalks up in the fall the finches get a nice feast. 

 

 
Russian sage is in the background of the previous picture.  Here are its flowers a little closer.

My gutter planter arbor is doing pretty good so far.  The petunias are looking nice and I haven’t really had to water it very much through July and August.

  Here’s our front garden.  The crape myrtle is full of booms. 

Other crape myrtles continue beyond the arbor to connect the front yard to the backyard.  You will see those down below.  Let’s move closer to the arbor.

On the way we can stop by and visit the sweet potato vines in bloom.

Self sown cosmos is blooming under the arbor.

Near the arbor is the self sowing garden.  Here are a couple pictures from there.

 Celosia is a good self sower.

 

 Salvia with cosmos in the background.

 

 

 

 A cosmos closeup! 

This oxalis is right beside the arbor in a semi-shady garden area.

If we move past the self sowing garden and arbor we find the crape myrtles putting on a show.

 The crape myrtles are underplanted with caryopteris which haven’t started blooming yet.

 

The catmint is a always a great bloomer. Plus catmint is easy to propagate!

 Verbena and rudbeckia are also reliable.

 

 I’m a fan of salvias.  This one is Salvia verticillata or meadow sage (‘Purple Rain’).

 To end the garden tour today we’ll go all alphabetical and look at a zinnia!

 For more blooms visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens!