Posted on by Donna

Views of High Summer in the Garden

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“If someone asked me what my idea of luxury is, I think my answer would be: flowers in the house all year around.” – May Sarton

 

 

I couldn’t agree more with Mary Sarton…..flowers in the house all year are such a treat.  And to think they come from my garden, indoors and out depending on the season.  I thought, as it is high summer and the garden is still blooming, I would show a couple of views that I love seeing now.  

The weather has cooled, and we had some rain in the beginning of August.  I am still laid up from my injury last week, but I am hoping to get out in the garden again soon to keep weeding, and dreaming.

For this post, as we are close to the 15th, I thought it would be perfect to link in with Carol@May Dreams Gardens who hosts Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day the 15th of each month. 

 

 

 

sunflower collage

As you can see there are loads of sunflowers growing.  The top photo and the 2 on the right, of this collage, are volunteers in the veg garden.  I also have volunteer sunflowers around the mailbox again.  The sunflower on the right is part of a red sunflower mix I planted in the Red Garden.  As you can see it has faint tinges of red, and I have seen few sunflowers with any red from this mix, but they are still pretty.

The sunflowers I planted in my new cutting bed were supposed to only reach up to 6 feet so I could cut them for vases.  Instead they have soared to 10 feet, and the blooms are unreachable.

 

 

 

wh garden collage

This is the weed ridden White Garden.  Even with the weeds, I am pleased to see ‘White Swan’ echinacea, Phlox paniculata ‘David’ and white Obedient plants blooming, along with white daylilies that turn more vanilla as they age.  There are also rudbeckia volunteering here that need to be moved back to the meadow.

 

 

  

elderberry bed

One of my favorite views is right out my back window.  This group of native plants is a big draw for critters as it is full of Monarda didyma, Echinacea purpurea, native pink Phlox paniculata and elderberries.  The birds love the seeds in the echinacea, and the elderberries.  And the hummers and butterflies, not to mention the bees and other pollinators, love the monarda, phlox and echinacea.  You can see one of the many dragonflies perching on the elderberries.

So there you have a few of my favorite views now as summer keeps blooming away.

 

What are you viewing in your garden now?

 

 

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In A Vase On Monday 

 

I thought it would be a treat to make a vase this week with some of the container sunflowers ‘Junior’ growing on the patio.  

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Of course the perfect vase to showcase the sunflowers is my grandmother’s favorite blue vase that she gave me over 35 years ago.  

 

 

  

sunflower vase collageObedient plant (Physostegia virginiana) is blooming all over the garden now too so I thought it would also look great in this vase.  I love the white and purple blooms.  As I collected the Obedient plants, Northern Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) grass caught my eye, and I thought it would add a bit of whimsy to the vase especially if I left it to dangle.

I really am enjoying these flowers, and every time I see them, they make me smile….another view of the garden brought indoors to enjoy.

  

I am joining in with a few memes this week as I prepare this vase:  Cathy@Rambling in the Garden for her wonderful meme, In a Vase on Monday, Today’s Flowers hosted by Denise@An English Girl Rambles and Judith@Lavender Cottage who hosts Mosaic Monday.  Please check out these wonderful blogs and link ups.

 

 

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Next up on the blog:  

The veg garden is producing loads of veggies so it will be time to highlight what we are harvesting, and planting for a late garden this fall.  And I am also harvesting some flowers from the cutting bed and containers.  Lots of container sunflowers so I bet they find their way into more vases next week.

I am linking in with Michelle for her Nature Notes meme at her new blog just for Nature Notes.  It is a great way to see what is happening in nature around the world every week. 

 

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I am also joining in I Heart Macro with Laura@Shine The Divine that happens every Sunday.

All original content is copyrighted and the sole property of Donna Donabella @ Gardens Eye View, 2010-2015.  Any reprints or use of content or photos is by permission only. 

122 Replies to “Views of High Summer in the Garden”

  1. Your white garden is really pretty and in the images you can’t see the weeds at all! I think the phlox is something I should grow for the cuttings bed; their form is different to anything I have. Sunflowers are perfect for a vase and usually difficult to combine with other flowers, your mix looks great together. I hope you’re feeling better, it is such a shame when you can’t get out into the garden.

    1. Yes the phlox would be beautiful in your cutting garden Christina. It is beautiful in a vase and lasts quite a while too. I love cutting sunflowers although not too many if I can help it as they just look too wonderful in the garden. I planted many but only about a quarter grew. I think the critters got to the seeds and sprouts. But these little ones I grew for cutting are perfect for a vase.

      I tried a bit of gardening and was rewarded with continued pain so I am waiting this out I hope for a couple more weeks so in the fall I can garden again. It will severely limit my chores and projects pushing many back to next year, but what can you do.

  4. Lovely flowers and images, they all make me smile. The sunflowers are one of my favorites.

    Happy Monday, enjoy your new week!

    1. I think that is why I grow so many sunflowers Eileen…they just make me so happy all summer right into fall….and the pollinators, birds and squirrels love them too!

  6. You just can’t beat sunflowers — such a happy flower! Your weedy white garden is lovely. I like the view out your back window, too! 🙂 Beautiful blue vase of flowers. Happy Monday!

  7. I never have much luck with sunflowers and always regret not persevering when I see them in bloom in other gardens. They do make me smile.
    Both the white bed and the native bed are gorgeous right now Donna and seeing the critters enjoying what’s on offer is always a bonus.
    Hope you are on the mend soon.

    1. Oh I do love growing sunflowers and once I grow them and let them set seed and fade all winter, they return as volunteers. So happy you enjoyed the views this week Angie.

      Thanks for the good wishes. I have to take it easy and give it time and I will be ‘right as rain’ as they say!

  8. Oh Sunflowers! I love them and planted several but the ants won – ate through their stems and toppled them like trees. Next year I am making a special patch for them far AWAY from the ants. It certainly looks like high summer in your beautiful garden Donna – I don’t even see a weed! Just beauty. And your arrangement is so classic. I love the “height” of it – mimicking those brethren tall stately sunflowers. The burst of grass is a pleasant surprise. I’ve always wanted to try growing those sea oats.

    1. Oh no those ants….I had voles cut down a few. The weeds do hide some of the smaller plants…you know they love to hog the view. Sea Oats is a perfect grass to grow on your lakefront property…it loves to spread itself around. And I have loads of it to send if you want it or any other natives for the property.

  9. Your sunflowers are glorious and your white garden with its accents of yellow and green equally so. I couldn’t agree more with Mary Sarton. I have flowers in every room and even my husband has been commenting on the difference they make! It’s the simple things that make me feel I lead a rich and enjoyable life.

  11. Your arrangement looks lovely with the gorgeous blue vase, and I like the color echo with the yellow flowers on the vase. The small sunflowers have more of a twirly look than the big flat ones, and look good with the obedient plant and sea oats. I like your pink bed, the flowers look great together and so full and lush. It’s hard to achieve that here with all the drought. I’m working on some of the plants like Echinacea but they never seem to make big clumps for me. My Monardas I planted this year are still tiny but one I planted last year did get tall and bloom, so maybe next year the new ones, Panorama, will be blooming.

    1. Oh thank you Hannah….the vase was fun to put together this week! Yes my pink bed does like to have moisture, and it has been growing for several years now… so it will take yours a couple more years and I bet then yours will grow in nicely.

  13. Hi Donna, I am so sorry to learn of your injury and hope you will be 100 percent before too long. Wonderful post as always, gorgeous flowers and thank you so much for sharing them once again with Today’s Flowers. Have a great week 🙂

    1. Always a pleasure to share my garden with you Denise! If I take it easy and recoup I will be fine in a few weeks….easier said than done! Thanks for the get well wishes 🙂

  14. I love your sunflowers, and I love this time of year in the garden. The Tithonia, Joe Pye Weeds, and Cup Plants are my favorite plants right now.

  15. Sunflowers, especially yellow sunflowers, epitomize summer. Yours are looking glorious, Donna! My yellow sunflowers are mostly in retreat but the red ones (still all in that deep dark color!) are continuing to make regular appearances.

  16. My packet of so-called red sunflowers came up yellow too…and only one. Blooms are a little sparse right now, as I wait for the dahlias to really kick in, but the bat-faced Cuphea almost makes up for it.

  17. Hi Donna, weeds, what weeds? Your white garden looks lovely in the photograph and I certainly couldn’t spot any weeds. The sunflowers are stunning too and the Juniors look beautiful in that lovely blue vase. I’ve been a total failure at growing sunflowers from seed … my feathered visitors have had marginally more success giving me one growing in alongside a strawberry plant in a pot!

    1. You are sweet to ignore the weeds Elizabeth….they cover all the smaller plants right now. I have marginal success as well…the critters like the sunflowers too much before I can get them big enough to flower.

  18. Your views are lovely. Sunflowers just bring on the smiles, don’t they? I like your white Obedient plant in particular. Mine is decidedly more pink than your lilac purple one. Be well Donna.

  19. A wonderful post, as usual. I love your grandmother’s vase, it is so elegant and perfect for the flowers you have selected today. Enjoy your week, Donna!

  21. Oh my Donna! I agree about flowers in the house. I cut several stems of colorful zinnias, black eyed Susans, Queen Anne’s Lace, and an unidentified, but pretty weed, for the dining table. My husband walked by and began to sneeze… Profusely! The pretty flowers will go with me to a panting class tonight and remain at the gallery for others to enjoy! Shhhh… Please don’t tell him that it was my flowers! 😉 Hope you have a lovely week!

  24. The color combination of flowers in your vase is wonderful. Look forward to seeing your vegetables. My echinacea are doing great, but my cucumber plants are not so hot after a few weeks of heat. White echinacea – cool.

    1. Isn’t the white echinacea just stunning Leora…I am sorry to hear about your cukes. I grow mine with beans, peas and a few radish plants that I let go to flower….it seems to have helped the cukes grow. And they are a bit shaded with the beans all about.

  25. Hello, Donna! Thank you, do much for your kind comment on the chat and your interest in my blog…I appreciate it!

    I love the way you present your images…you have a beautiful eye for photography and a brilliant way of sharing what you see in both photos and words.

    I enjoyed this post – thank you!! 🙂

    1. Hannah I am looking forward to following your writing…and your comment is so lovely. I am so pleased you enjoyed my garden blog. I started a new blog a year ago and that is where I am posting my poetry and prose about life. I found Poet’s United last year and what a wonderful community to share my poetry with.

      My other blog is called Living From Happiness. Stop by if you have a chance.

      http://www.livingfromhappiness.com

  26. Adore your grandmothers vase! And the arrangement is perfect. May is correct , flowers are an affordable luxury, even for those of us who have to resort to Supermarket bouquets most of the time. You are twice blessed! ( and but of course you put in twice at least the effort! ). But how beautifully it pays off with your very own hand grown and picked vasefull!

    1. Oh, wonderful! Thank you, for the link…I will certainly go and see…I look forward to reading you, Donna! I agree about Poets United – it’s such a wonderful community! 🙂

    2. Thank you Sallie…it is a favorite vase and I do feel blessed when i can cut my own flowers and bring them in to stay with us for a while.

  27. My poor white garden will need drastic changes for next year – two kinds of white phlox didn’t even flower from the lack of sunlight so any suggestion for shady white blooms will be appreciated.
    The quote hits close to home for me too and I must say I like the view from your back window as well.
    Thanks for linking to Mosaic Monday.

    1. Oh that is too bad Judith. I have several white flowering hosta in this bed and white astilbe. White Obedient does well in some shade and doesn’t take over too much.

  31. Just what I needed Donna, a good list of flowers for birds and butterfly’s.
    One of my favourite pastimes on these cold wintry days is planning my Spring and Summer garden.
    Any more of your fave plants would be most welcome Donna!
    I adore the sweet blue vase from your grandmother, I can imagine the precious memories it must hold for you.
    Hugs
    Shane

    1. Every month I highlight a native plant that also outlines the plants benefits to wildlife. I have yet to put them under their own page but will soon. The series is called Simply The Best and a search will bring up a multitude of plants to explore. I do adore critter-loved plants like you do Shane!

      Thanks for you visit and kind words….have a fabulous week!

  33. your white garden looks lovely (and I can’t see the weeds at all). I love the sunflowers against the blue vase – very summery indeed. mine got eaten this year (ah well) always next year.
    Have a lovely week and enjoy the sunshine
    love bec xx

    1. You are very kind to say this about my white garden Bec. That is too bad about your sunflowers…many of mine were eaten as well, the rascals! Hoping you have a lovely week as well.

  34. So beautiful, dear Donna!!! I love your sunflower picture at the top and also the wonderful impressions of the wild sides of your garden!!!

    Have a good week and enjoy the enchanting summer days!!!
    Katrin 🙂

  39. What a delightful post Donna, you certainly have some exquisite flowers and blooms in your garden. I absolutely adore having flowers in the house all year round. This weekend alone I had four vases.
    I haven’t spent half as much time in the garden as I should this summer due to the terrible weather. I hear it’s the worst one on record for our part of Bonnie Scotland!
    Thank you for sharing your special place ;D

    1. If it isn’t weather then it is something else that keeps me out of the garden…hoping your weather improved Nessie!

  40. I am glad my sunflowers are not 10 feet tall!! The ones in your vase look lovely with the physostegia and the oats set them off perfectly. Hope you are fully better soon, Donna – take care

    1. Thanks Cathy….I have to behave and not do too much. These little sunflowers are quite lovely and long lasting too!

  41. Oh dear Donna… this won’t be remembered as the best of summers by either of us. Thank goodness for the garden. Beautiful photos. Funny as my sunflowers are shorter than they are supposed to be and my 4 container pots planted with container-suited seeds did nothing.. But I have other plants to enjoy… Feel better… hugs.. Michelle

    1. So glad you have flowers to enjoy this summer Michelle….I hope you feel better soon. Sending warm wishes and hugs your way!

  42. So beautiful! Love your sunflowers and obedient plant, and your white garden. Gorgeous! My obedient plant isn’t blooming yet but soon…hope your summer s going well, Donna.

  43. hope you’re better soon, Donna, and can resume weeding and dreaming – I love that phrase! I agree with you about indoor flowers. I tend to be a bit lazy but the other day picked some flowers (camellias and jasmine) and arranged them in a vase, and it was very satisfying.

    1. Thanks Sue….oh your flowers sound wonderful and with the jasmine must have smelled heavenly….I love the scent of jasmine.

  44. white and purple are one of my favourite flower colour combinations and with the yellow too it is exquisite. The added grasses give it a romantic feel too.

  45. Lovely gardens. Most of the flowers here are fading away, losing their color, drooping their heads. I don’t have much that blooms in the fall, so the garden is pretty much done. Love your sunflowers. We have a few volunteers coming up. They appear in odd places. I can never remember if I am to cut the blackberry back to get fruit, so now I know after hacking it the ground last fall with intentions of moving it. If bugs don’t get to the fruit, I will have a nice a bowl of berries.

  46. Hi, Donna!
    As always your garden is beautiful, I love your ‘White Swan’ echinacea, it’s similar to mine but I have only 1 plant and you have many… Well this vase is very pretty as I love Physostegia too, I have the white ones and yours are of different colors!

  47. I love the way your sunflowers look in the blue vase. Cut flowers are a wonderful luxury. I am so disappointed with my own sunflowers this year. Last year I had so many that I expected a bunch of fresh volunteers this spring, but in fact I have very few.

  50. Very nice views of the garden and a pretty vase. The weeds are bad this year. It has been so dry, weeds have been pretty happy campers.

    1. My weeds are ecstatic this year Donna! We are now into a hot, humid and wet time usually reserved for July. I am just enjoying the views and the critters for now.

  51. Donna, I am sorry that you suffered an injury! I hope by now you are well on the way to being back to normal. Your white garden is beautiful, weeds or not, and your sunflowers are so lovely! But ten feet tall flowers must be daunting! I confess I have a difficult time cutting flowers to bring inside, even if I have loads of them. I am not sure why. Maybe I need more wonderful vases like yours! I will cut flowers for special occasions, but otherwise they stay outside.

    1. It looks like a few more weeks at least Deb so hopefully after Labor Day I can give a bit of gardening a try…for now it is time to sit and enjoy the garden. I am hoping the 10 foot sunflowers seed all over and bring us more sunshiny joy next summer.

  52. Oooh, your sunflowers are a sight for sore eyes, I miss mine, since I moved house in May I didn’t sow any this year as I didn’t dare moving such fragile plants. Next year I will have them again!
    And your vase is absolutely adorable, especially the vase, but the flowers too!

    1. So happy you enjoyed the vase, and I am in sunflower heaven Helene! Glad I can provide you with some bliss since you had to wait to grow your own sunflowers.

  54. Hi Donna,

    Wow look at all those blooms. Look at all those echinacea. So jealous, really wish I could get them to do so well here. I didn’t hold much hope for rudbeckia surviving here either but they do seem to like it.

    Amazing sunflowers. I want to stay growing them for cutting too – especially the white ones.

    1. I do feel lucky the echinacea continues to thrive even with the fungal disease it gets Liz…I had to take out several clumps. Because it is a native here, it seeds around freely. Glad to hear your rudbeckia loves it there.

  59. I always enjoy seeing your Obedient Plants, Donna. I don’t have any here in my garden, but I’ve thought about adding them. So sorry to hear about your injury! I hope you’re on the mend. Your garden is so full and beautiful–always, but especially this time of year!

    1. Oh how lovely Beth….I would love to share Obedient anytime you want. I have plenty!! :0

      I am mending but will take a few more weeks (I hope only a few more weeks). I think the addition of so many natives has helped keep my garden blooming right through fall.

  60. You always inspire me with your floral arrangements, Donna. I never would have thought of cutting some Obedient plant, but what a perfect vertical accent. I will definitely have to cut some when mine start blooming; heaven knows, I have enough of it:) Seeing all your bright sunflowers makes me regret I never got around to planting any this year. I missed hearing about your injury–hope you’re ok and are recovering by now.

    1. Thanks Rose…I am on the mend but no gardening for a while still. Obedient is great in a vase and it lasts so long along with sunflowers that they make a great combo.

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