Yes, it is still 90+ degrees but many of my blooms are beating the heat! Now the roses are doing their best to bloom in spite of the Japanese Beetles but you can decide for yourself as you see the pictures below how successful they are. UGH.THE GOOD…
SWEET DRIFT & PETIT PINK
Both of these shrub roses are doing so well as they do most every year and are not very popular with the Japanese Beetles.
SWEET DRIFT
PETIT PINK
POPCORN DRIFT
This is a new rose to me and I love it! Absolutely love it. However, I can already tell I planted them tooooo close together! #bloomingmachine More info to come on this one as the season continues.
SUMMER FLOWERS
Stokes Aster
This is a great performer in my garden and makes me happy every time I see it. It is just easy breezy and pretty. The only extra care I give this plant is sometimes a “ring” to keep it from “flopping,” especially if is too close to a rose I want to feature. It is so easy to divide so there is plenty for you and plenty to share. Oh, and it does well in arrangements and compliments the roses!
Phlox
The phlox has been the very best this year! I guess we can say they like hot, dry conditions!
Coneflowers
There are many reasons to plant this hardy workhorse — it’s place as a herbal remedy, beautiful summer color, pollinator attractor and tasty seeds for the birds (in particular gold finches) to name a few. Breeders have been having fun with this plant the last few years and we have moved way beyond the original pinkish purple — although I love it still!
THE BAD…
UH OH…
Who planted the Lemon Grass too close to the Zinnias — ME!
Who nestled up a little too close to the Lilies — ME!
Yes, it stains. One trick– don’t rub … lightly brush off!
THE BUGLY
The Japanese Beetles just keep coming and coming and coming. Warning ugliness below…
Look what they did to my lovely Gemini…😡
And, they are soooooo attracted to my Golden Fairy Tale because it is yellow. Can you believe this! 😩😡😭 More — a lot more — soapy water.
Well, we don’t want to end on a bad “bugly” note!!!! So here are two bokays from the week. One I made to take to the propagation workshop at our rose society meeting on Tuesday and one for our table — it is in an antique pitcher from Mr. G’s momma. Isn’t the pitcher lovely!
Bugs or no bugs, so glad you stopped by. I am loving my day in the garden and hope your day is wonderful too.
Teresa, Japanese beetles have attacked the roses with a vengeance in my southeast pennsylvania garden too. I am trying a new strategy this year: For the month of July, I am picking all rosebuds, bringing them inside, and putting them in vases. Each day, I clip the bottom of each stem and replace the water. I have missed a few buds in the garden, and the JBs swarm them as they did in your photos. So when that happens, into the jar of soapy water they go!
Ew, those beetles are not nice, are they? But your other blooms are scrumptious. I might have just seen the first aster I have ever liked! Your lilies are utterly beguiling.
Hey. Glad you stopped by. The lilies are having a good year. Give Stokes Aster a try! 🌹
GADS! Those Japanese beetles are TERRIBLE! They look like something from a horror movie. I have never met even one before.
Indeed they do look like something from a horror movie!!!sure you don’t want some! I have plenty to share! LOL!
NO!
beautiful flowers, I just worked hard a couple of weeks ago putting in a whole new rose bed, the area over grew with hortatunia, and touch me nots that grew taller than me. took two days just to clean the site. but when I look at it now I am like what a transformation, so satisfying. as for the beetles I just take my hands and smack them between them the thorns can go ahead and hurt the beetles would all be destroyed in one full sweep.