Friday, August 15, 2008

Bloom Day - August!

This is my second-ever bloom day post. Woot! I love looking at other bloom day posts to see what's blooming in other people's gardens the world over. If you would like to see these posts, or if you would like to share what's blooming in your garden, head over to the May Dreams Gardens blog. To share pictures of your garden, leave a link to your blog in the comments section. Or simply follow the links already there to see some truly beautiful pictures from gardens the world over.

The blooms in my garden this August are few. My Rose of Shannon bushes are in bloom:



And this relative of the gladiola that actually likes shade, is adding a bit of color to a sunless spot:



My true gladioli are in bloom, but sadly, the dog tends to knock the top heavy blooms over in his zeal to chase balls. The color of these flowers is striking. I can't take credit for planting them, they were here when we bought the house:



I'm really excited about my calendula - they're finally beginning to bloom! Here's the very first one to open. I ordered the seeds from an Amish farm and they arrived with handwritten instructions for planting and a note saying they hoped I would enjoy my flowers:



Like in my last bloom day post, I have taken a few pictures of the things blooming in the park next to my house. I always enjoy the wildflowers that grow there in the untamed nooks and crannies.

Some of the smaller thistle is still in bloom, although most has gone to seed (which makes the goldfinches happy):



The picture below is of one of my favorite plants to come across. This is pokeweed. I know, it sounds like something you'd want to take the weed-whacker to, but it is honestly one of the most lovely plants to look at. The colors are what make it a treat for the eye. You see the pinks and the greens? The plant has variations of these colors throughout, ranging from delicate, newborn greens and softest pinks, to darker, established greens and rich, deep purples. Pokeweed can grow quite large and the juice from the purple berries can be used to make ink (I believe civil war soldiers often availed themselves of this ink to write letters home). The only part that's edible are the very young leaves, which, if cooked and prepared correctly, can be turned into something called poke sallet. If it's not done the right way, though, it's on the poisonous side (I've never tried it):


The first of the goldenrod has begun to bloom. There is a fallow farmer's field nearby which is now full of goldenrod. In September I will visit the field to see if I can get a picture of the field in bloom.


The Queen Anne's lace and the chicory are still blooming at full force:


And this lovely, purple flower, the name of which I have no idea, has just begun to bloom (edit here ~ thanks to the Nan Ondra over at Gardening Gone Wild, I now know that this is ironweed):


Below is a parting shot of some chicory. The bees were very busy in it this morning:

18 comments:

ICQB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ICQB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ICQB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ICQB said...

The three comments which have "been removed by author" were all made by me. I was using my own comments section to figure out how to use some of the HTML tags in comments. So don't worry, I won't delete your comments if you want to leave some!

ICQB

Gail said...

I'm not concerned, blogging still has some mysteries to me like html...which I only copy and past! I would love to know how folks get their link to link when they comment and not from their name which takes us to their info page! Very nice second Bloom Day Post! I love your flowers and think the note from the Amish seedman was wonderful!

Gail
clay and limestone

Anonymous said...

Ooh, the rich color of that glad is gorgeous. I too loved the story of your calendula seeds, and the pokeweed and other wildflowers as well. I think the purple flower in your photo is actually ironweed (Vernonia), but I'll go check out Craig's post to see his photo; I may be wrong.

Thanks for sharing these beautiful blooms today!

Unknown said...

The glads are beautiful... too bad they get knocked down, but it's hard to be upset with a happy-to-chase-a-ball puppy, isn't it? :)

I'm so glad that you showed pics of the chicory. Far and away, that is my favorite "weed" around here, too!

ICQB said...

Right you are, nan ondra! It is ironweed. Either I looked at the wrong picture on Craig's post or he had it labelled wrong.

Thanks for clearing that up! (now for another edit...)

ICQB said...

Hi Gail,

That's what I was trying to figure out - how to get my link to link. As you see it took 3 tries. I copied what the link looks like from the html view from one of my blog posts and then I pasted it in the comments. The tag it uses is the one with the letter a and the < > things. It's not too hard once you figure it out.

Good luck.
ICQB

ICQB said...

Hi blackswamp girl,

I'm going to have to move the glads. They're in a bad spot, so it really isn't the dog's fault he knocks them over.

When he does, I just cut that stem off and put it in a vase on my table. They're just so colorful, I'm glad to have them.

Silvia Hoefnagels . Salix Tree said...

That's lovely that the calendula seeds came with hand-written notes. And it's a pretty color too. Hopefully they will seed themselves around, and you'll have them for years and years.
Nice color combination of the thistles and (I think) chicory.

lisa said...

You had a nice Bloom Day...I wish my rose of sharon would bloom like that! I like that pokeweed too, I tried to get some growing up here, but no luck so far.

Unknown said...

Hi Lisa,
I saw from your profile that you're up in Wisconsin. You are way up there!

I forgot to say in my post where I am, I'm in northeast Ohio - just south of Cleveland. So I'm kind of up there too. Things are very similar here to what I grew up with in Maryland, but there are differences here and there, and when things bloom and what not.

I loved your bloom day post and all the cats and frogs and snakes, etc.

Have a happy Bloom Day evening!

ICQB

ICQB said...

Hi again, Lisa,

I accidentally commented using a different account, but the comment from parth was really from me, ICQB.

Happy Gardening!

Carol Michel said...

You've got some nice blooms for bloom day!

In your comment on my blog you asked if my sedum ever escape to the wilds? Well, not the Autumn Joy sedums, but I have other smaller groundcover sedums that show up everywhere. But they are easy to pull, so I don't mind.

Thanks for joining in for bloom day!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens

ICQB said...

Hi Carol, and thanks for stopping by! And Bloom Day is so fun - thanks so much for hosting. The sedum of mine that has escaped into the wild is the Autum Joy type of sedum. Don't know how. It's a mystery!

Happy Gardening!

Anonymous said...

I especially enjoyed your graceful writing style, and the little history lesson backing up the lovely pokeweed photo. I saw some hints on the site that you are a writer as well as a gardener, so I am now off to explore that.
Thanks for sharing.

ICQB said...

Thank you, ricki.

I popped over to your banner website - I love the spirit banners! And I also visited your bloom day post. Thanks for sharing your garden from over there in Oregon.

Happy Gardening!