Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: June 2013

Here are some of the flowers that are blooming in my garden today.

GBBD — the 15th of every month — is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Click here to see other garden bloggers’ mid-June flowers.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ and then on any thumbnail to scroll through larger images.

Miriam had allowed her interest in gardening, which had gradually grown to a full-fledged hobby, to consume and define her. . . . She didn’t care for clothes anymore, just equipment; knee pads, trowels, a little bench to carry about and kneel on. To pray to her god, the garden.

— William H. Gass, from Middle C

(In the novel, the main character’s mother discovers her love for gardening after he gives her a stolen packet of annual seeds.)

 

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: Evolvulus ‘Blue Sapphire’

The green of life requires blue. . .*

Entrance to our garden/enclos*ure

At the front of our house, in two curvy planting beds, the Evolvulus ‘Blue Sapphire’ is thick and blooming heavily — in the morning.

By early afternoon, the flowers close up, and I’m left with just a small-leaved, grey-green ground cover — which is still pretty nice.

(Above:  that’s a pink-blooming crape myrtle tree to the left, doing so-so — I’m going to give it a light pruning pretty soon and see if it will fill out a bit.)

Front entrance and Evolvulus 'Blue Sapphire' blooming/enclos*ure

I planted out little sprigs of the evolvulus last July. This open area used to be occupied by a large Norfolk pine.  However, it was dying (see here; sixth photo) and had to be cut down.

I’m not very happy with the grass and stone arrangement on the left side of the center planting area (below).  It looks rather ragged.   One of these days, I plan to remove the turf grass (I really like to have a wee bit of Round-Up) and plant mondo grass between the stones — as well as take up a few stones and add a two or three mounding plants.

Entrance and Evolvulus blooming/enclos*ure

Below, the blooms of Evolvulus ‘Blue Sapphire’ are a true blue.  It is a tropical plant, hardy to U.S. zones 8-11.

(Click on any of the photos to enlarge them or on ‘Continue reading’ below to scroll through all the bigger images.)

Evolvulus for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day in March/enclos*ure

Below, I’ve also used it to edge the planting border along the upper lawn in front of the terrace. (A plan of our garden is here.)

Front border edged with Evolvulus/enclos*ure

Below is the same border from the other direction, standing at the center steps.  (The red-flowering shrub/vine at the end is a Mussaenda erythrophylla.)

Border with Evolvulus 'Blue Sapphire' and yellow daylilies

Below, the border continues on the left side of the steps. The tall yellow flowers are double Rudbeckia laciniata.

Our front border/enclos*ure

Below, the zinnias in our cutting garden (from last month’s GBBD) continue to be beautiful.  The tall grass in the back is lemongrass.

Zinnias in our cutting garden in Rwanda/enclos*ure

To see what’s blooming in other garden bloggers’ gardens today, check out May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is the 15th of every month.


*by Robert L. Jones, from “Blue.”