Flowers for Friday

I've been so busy this summer trying to keep up with gardening and housework, that I haven't done much else.  The Special Olympics National Games have been in my city this week, and I managed to go to a few of the events Tuesday and Wednesday.  I was disappointed not many other locals took advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity.  I wish I'd have had my camera there.  Well, I did on Thursday, but then remembered the batteries were low, so I left it in the car.  I did get it out when I saw a butterfly.  I'll post the butterfly Saturday.  (I got some event  photos taken with my cell phone, but haven't looked at them to see if you can see what's going on in them.)

I going to have fewer photos than usual this week for Tootsie's Flaunt your Flowers/Fertilizer Friday.  I am sad that the daylilies are almost finished, but some of the annuals are finally starting to grow and bloom.  Some of the goldenrods are blooming, too, and the rest are forming buds.  The asters are forming buds, too, but they hold on to theirs awhile before they open.

The phlox, 'Orange Perfection' is blooming later than last year.  It almost looks orange in this photo.  The first time I saw it bloom, I thought it had come with the wrong tag.  When I looked it up, I saw it's not really so orange.

I did make it to a few garage sales last Friday, and this hen is one of the things I got for the yard.  It has a nice little drinking area for critters.  I wonder if you're supposed to put bird seeds there.  The annual black eyed Susan is blooming nicely.  The German statice looks good, even when it gets dry.  I had enough to cut for drying inside, and still have some for color in the garden.  It looks like I need to deadhead the Veronica.

I planted flower seeds in some of the tubs to save money, then got impatient and planted other things in them.  I was glad to see this gomphrena up awhile back, and now, it is blooming, quite close to the strawflowers I planted.

Some of the strawflower blooms are past the point to pick for drying.  I need to get out there and harvest them.  I use the blooms in baskets or other containers, and put other dried flowers in with them.  The gomphrena is in the lower left corner of this photo.  I'm glad I had extra sweet potatoes to plant in some of the tubs, because most of the ones I put in the ground were eaten by rabbits, and now, they've discovered the ones they had missed. I need to get the little fence material I got at a garage sale up around them.  I actually have some of it next to the fence, but need to do the rest of it.

Larry got some snail, also called corkscrew vines one year, and ever since, has gotten 3 or more of them every year.  He loves them, and I don't mind them.  The problem is that the lows need to be around 60 or else they don't do well.  Some years, they get a disease and don't do well no matter what the temps are.  When they do well, they are quite pretty.  I told him to just get 2 this year, but he got 3.  I put 2 in this pot, and one is in a hanging container.  This is the one in the back yard, with 2 plants in a pot.  These are the first blooms, so I don't know yet if this will be a good year for them.  They had to spend a lot of time in the house before it was warm enough to be outside this spring. 

The love lies bleeding has grown tall enough for the flowers to drape over the leaf burner dealy instead of growing inside it.  I got this hibiscus deadheaded yesterday. 

Well, each week there is always something different going on at Tootsie Time.  Go check it out, and find out what else is blooming in others' gardens.