July 2011 Bloom Day and Foliage Followup

Here’s my Bloom Day for this month and I’ve thrown in two new plants for Foliage Followup as well (no sense having both posts late).

Lavendula ‘Munstead’ – Flowers are fading but still very showy. Extremely good year for this plant, and it must be happy since I’m constantly pulling up its seedlings. There are worse plants to have to deal with than this though.

Campanula ‘White Clips’ is flowering on the other side of my front garden, also on the way out it will very soon be overshadowed by my Hydrangea standard coming into bloom above, but these bellflowers get June to really shine.

My Edelweiss has just started to flower as well. Strange flowers on a strange plant. I’ve found it needs water almost daily. Hopefully (assuming it’s fine over the winter) it’ll be better established next year and lower maintenance, otherwise it’ll have to move to a shadier spot.

Sempervivum ‘Cherry Tart’ – The usual flowers from a Sempervivum. Sort of interesting up close but the overall effect is hardly attractive. Close-ups hide that quite well though.

Astrantia ‘Dark Shiny Eyes’ – Moving into the backyard we hit the fantastic Astrantia ‘Dark Shiny Eyes’ which has already been flowering for a long time and is still going strong. I have this in pretty heavy shade and would gladly plant more if I had room. Off topic but I think I’d be happier if my yard were in full sort of dappled bright shade.

Monarda ‘Fireball’ is still not the bright red it promised to be. Not thrilled by its performance this year either, it’s lost half its leaves already and those which are left are starting to get mildew spots. It doesn’t even have many flowers to make up for it as something seems to be attacking it too.

Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ – I’ve killed this before but I’m trying it again. Will definitely have to plant it on the east side of my yard away from the hot pinks of the Monarda and otherwise which have shown up on the other side of the yard.

Hosta ‘Twist of Lime’ – As far as Hosta flowers go this one’s pretty interesting. Also interesting is seeing a tiny 6″ wide Hosta send up a more than a foot tall flower spike with inch long flowers on it.

And then speaking of Hostas here’s ‘Touch of Class’ which I’ve just planted today. Gorgeous plant when mature with blue leaves with a creamy center. Should look good beside my ‘Fragrant Bouquet’ and will give my Rhodo a little more space than my Maiden Hair Fern had been (moved across the walkway beside the water feature).

Euphorbia martinii ‘Ascot Rainbow’ – I’ve loved this plant since I first saw it last fall. A little concerned about hardiness. Some sources say zone 7, others say 5. Some also say evergreen, possible it’s evergreen in zone 7, root hardy in zone 5? Time will tell. About 8-9 months of time when I start watching closely for new growth on it next spring.