Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, September 2013

As I walked around photographing flowers for this month's Bloom Day post, I was struck by how many of them were blooms I have already showed this summer. Apparently, the flowers of August and early September are pretty long lived. So at the risk of boring you with the same-old same-old, here's what's blooming at Longview Ranch this September 15th: at least I took fresh pictures!

First up, a serious contender for my all-time favorite plant: Agastache 'Acapulco Orange'. How can you not adore its gorgeous coloring and summer-long bloom? Its pungent minty scent is an aromatic bonus.

It's not just the flowers that are colorful on this NOID Erica - the foliage gets warm orange tips this time of year that combined with the blossoms makes the whole plant glow.

Continuing in an orange vein, Kniphofia 'Timothy' has come blasting back with one last bloom.

Rudbeckia triloba is the color hit of my front garden. It's keeping the pollinators happy for sure.

The Cistus took a month off blooming and has decided to come back with more of its lovely crinkled flower petals.

Loropetalum chinense 'Sizzling Pink' is in a lot more shade than it used to be, and it's quietly continuing to put out more out-of-season blooms.

The tiny, bead-like magenta flowers on this NOID Persicaria are impossible to capture with my point-and-shoot camera. I keep trying, nonetheless.

Sidalcea oregana factored in my last post. This native is a happy little bloomer.

I grow almost no other salvias, but I can't resist the one-two punch of Salvia 'Black and Blue'. That intense color is a hit in the late-summer garden.

More in beautiful blue is this Caryopteris, now beginning to wind down.

I love the little white flowers on Delosperma 'Oberg'. It's supposed to be perennial and hardy here but I haven't had good luck overwintering it. It grows fast and I buy one (or two) every year so I guess that makes it an annual for me.

Lagerstroemia 'Natchez' is still pumping out fresh blooms. I'm taking that as a rousing approval of its spring relocation into the back garden.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day is hosted by Carol, of May Dreams Gardens. Hop over there to see what else is blooming everywhere this September 15th.

Happy Bloom Day!

Random, beautiful things in the garden today

A potpourri of lovely things...

Asclepias curassavica seeds burst from the pod ready to fly away.

Sidalcea oregana, Oregon Checker Mallow, adds a welcome bit of color to the Northwest Territory.

Pretty new foliage on Vaccinium ovatum, our native Huckleberry.

Their berries are getting ripe. I love huckleberry pancakes!

Lagerstroemia 'Natchez'.

Current bee-magnet, a NOID Caryopteris.

More of my favorite blue in the out-of-season blooms of Ceanothus 'Victoria'.

Cyperus involucratus 'Baby Tut' is filling out and getting taller. It's supposed to be 18-24" high.

A big truss of Rosa 'Sally Holmes'.

The fuzzy, white reverse of the leaves on this Eriogonum.

The minute, colorful flowers of Mahonia gracilipes.

The peeling, cinnamon-colored bark of Arctostaphylos 'Austin Griffiths'.

Big, red, ripening Beefsteak tomatoes I can't wait to eat.

What's looking beautiful in your garden this Labor Day weekend?

My favorite plant in the garden this week

Can you guess from the picture below? No, it's not the Meliathus major you can see here. It's not the 'Flame' Calla, the Eucomis comosa 'Sparkling Burgundy', the Eryngium varifolium, or even the Trachycarpus fortunei photo-bombing in from the right.

It's none of the summer stars of this picture, because it's a complete workhorse in my garden.

Yup, it's bamboo. Four Fargesia robusta 'Campbell' bamboo to be precise.

We started out six years ago by planting a Phyllostachys species to screen us from the adjacent neighbors. It filled in fast and was giving us appreciable privacy within two years.

But it was a little too robust and we got worried we wouldn't be able to keep it controlled. I posted about removing it here and then about getting some replacement clumping bamboo here.

Those expensive new gallon pots from Bamboo Garden looked pretty wispy, with just three or four culms per plant when we put them in the ground in autumn of 2010.

You can just barely see one of those skinny little clumps below, against a fence pole to the left of the tomato cage. This was in early summer of 2011.

But by 2012, the individual clumps had at least twice as many culms. And they were thickening up.

This year, the southernmost, sun-exposed two clumps are nearly meeting overhead.

The clumps in more shade still have a way to go, but they are getting closer to each other.

We chose this species and cultivar because it is one of the most upright hardy clumping bamboos that is sun-tolerant. We wanted the narrowest possible screen so we wouldn't be giving up a lot of garden space, and the arching canes of 'Campbell' can be pruned for a more upright look.

And I love the look of the white culm sheaths that stay for months on the newest canes.

The stats on Fargesia robusta 'Campbell'

• Hardiness: 0°
• Zone 7-9 (not for climates with high heat and humidity)  
• Soil: moderately acidic, loamy
• Water: moderate, regular until established (we have hardly watered it this summer)
• Height: 12-15 ft., shorter in full sun
• Diameter: 0.75 in.

And the reason it's my favorite plant in the garden this week? Because summer is waning, and I can see ahead to winter days when all summer's perennials have died back, and our Fargesia robusta 'Campbell' will continue to form a beautiful green screen along the fence line. That's when I'll be loving it even more than I do now.

If you want to see what other bloggers are loving in their gardens, pay a visit to danger garden for the weekly favorites roundup.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, August 2013

I simply could not believe it when I realized today was the 15th of the month!

It's Bloom Day, once again, and summer is racing past me at a breakneck pace. So I'm going to keep my post fairly short, and just show you flowers that you haven't already seen this year.

We are completely thrilled to announce that our Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata) seems to like it in the Northwest Territory. The flowers really are that amazing, saturated red. It's practically electric!

This late-blooming Crocosmia is variously known as 'Citron' and 'Golden Fleece'. Whatever you choose to call it, it's a welcome, fresh hit of bright golden-orange in late August.

Another late-summer bloomer is Langerstroemia 'Natchez'. We moved it in early spring, and I was wondering how it would do this year, but our long hot summer was just the ticket to blooming success.

Crape myrtles seem underused in Portland, but I have always loved their slightly Southern charms. I'm looking forward to some beautiful bark as this one matures, too.

I'm sure I've shown Sisyrinchium californicum in a Bloom Day post this year, but I really can't resist adding these shots. They are such cheerful summer-long bloomers and they support pollinators, too. No wonder we have so many volunteers!

I wait all year for Canna 'Pretoria' to bloom. It's fleeting, but timed perfectly for August's Bloom Day.

One of the Penstemons added to the Northwest Territory is finally blooming. I'm pretty sure this is P. serrulatus, or Cascade Penstemon.

Last, an anomaly: Loropetalum chinense 'Sizzling Pink' is sending out a few fluttery flowers. Its main bloom time is April, so this little surprise is welcome in the heat of summer. I love the bright magenta flowers against its dark purple foliage.

Bloom Day is hosted monthly by Carol of May Dreams Gardens. Pop over there to see other wonderful flowers for August!