On this Garden Bloggers Bloom day there are some surprises.  The weather should not surprise anymore, but it does, and often causes gnashing of teeth. In June we had a glorious 12 inches of rain. In July there was no rain! It was hot! An official heat wave. In August it has been much cooler and we had 4 inches of rain so far. Still there are lots of blooms in the un-irrigated flower gardens. The Daylily Bank is drawing down but Ann Varner is still magnificent.

In spite of the dry, and now cool weather the Helenium  is a colorful clump.

I have to lie under them to get a shot of the Black Beauties. The blossoms of the lilies and the adjacent crimson bee  balm are not very big this year. Note to self. More compost in this spot. The other lilies are also still blooming by the house.

Artemesia lactiflora has much less dramatic blossoms,  but they are dainty, and much taller than usual this year.

Achillea is another dainty flower, but a strong grower. The only other yarrow blooming now is the sulphur yellow variety. Nameless.

This new Joe Pye Weed has just come into bloom.  I don’t know if it is a miniature, or just not fully feeling its oats this first year.

The big clump of Echinacea purpurea will need to be divided but it is gorgeous this year. The white phlox is Miss Lingaard and it should have bloomed in June!  The Russian sage on the other side of the Echinacea is also blooming well.

‘Limelight’ is the only one of the three ‘new’ hydrangeas to have recovered very well from a good browsing from the deer, but ‘Pinky Winky’ and the oakleaf hydrangea do have a few small blossoms.

A visiting friend sighed that there were probably no roses anymore. Well, not quite. Thomas Affleck, as usual, is putting out a strong second flush, and other roses put out an occasional bloom

Folksinger, a Griffith Buck hybrid also put out a good second flush. I couldn’t resist taking this photo of his delicate decline. I do not think he has much strength left for this season.

Also blooming are the tall veronicas, very tall and deeply blue aconite, cimicifuga, a few zinnias and  gomphrena. Not too bad, and there is still more to come which makes me happy.

To see what else is  blooming across our  great nation go to May Dreams Gardens where Carol hosts Bloom Day. Thank you Carol!