July in the Northern Hemisphere

[Maggi Young]

Goodness me! I have never seen so many butterflies and other pollinators in one place - fantastic numbers and range - your garden is pollinator heaven, Leena,  and I think it's perfect!  I know your winters are  long and often frustrating for  you when you see  Spring coming earlier  to some  of  us - but  when you have  such a fabulous garden to enjoy  the wait is surely  worth it.  The film is also terrific and so well done.  I don't understand Finnish, but  your  commentary  was so relaxed and natural I just  felt  enveloped by the beautiful surrounding and able  to enjoy it very much!
 Thank you!

[Leena]

Kiitos Ashley:). This summer has been a really sunny summer here. Many plants are flowering ahead of usual, and I'm hoping autumn will be also good and long with asters and colchicums.

Herman, thank you for watching it!

Lovely plants Leena. I love the bronze Heleniums best, but everything seems to thrive in your garden. It simply wouldn't be half as exciting if we all grew the same plants.

Thank you shelagh:). Bronze Heleniums are also my favourites, and I have only in the past few years found how many different ones there can be, and how much flowering time or height of the plants can vary. I have grown some from seeds (though germination is very poor most of the time), and they have been yellow, even when the seeds were from reddish flowers.

[Leena]

Goodness me! I have never seen so many butterflies and other pollinators in one place - fantastic numbers and range - your garden is pollinator heaven, Leena,  and I think it's perfect!  I know your winters are  long and often frustrating for  you when you see  Spring coming earlier  to some  of  us - but  when you have  such a fabulous garden to enjoy  the wait is surely  worth it.  The film is also terrific and so well done.  I don't understand Finnish, but  your  commentary  was so relaxed and natural I just  felt  enveloped by the beautiful surrounding and able  to enjoy it very much! Thank you!

Maggi, thank you:). It was quite a long video when not understanding what I said but I'm so glad you were able to enjoy it. I have been learning to take video this summer, but there is still lot to learn, and I can't focus always right, and can't hold the camera steady all the time.
And I have been a bit shy to show my garden when it is so different from most everyone else's garden, and not as tidy as I would like, but I like it.

This summer has been really a butterfly summer here. As you know I'm always waiting for winter to end and don't like so much snow, but apparently last winter was very good for many butterflies with lot of snow, and also this summer has been good for them. I have tried to grow plants which they like, and there are quite a lot of trees around the garden, and many butterflies lay eggs on trees, so maybe they were born here close to the garden.  I know some butterflies which eat nettles were born here, because we saw the larva eating them. Also we don't use any pesticides (or other "poisons") so that may help. The downside is that there are also lot of slugs and snails.

[Rick R.]

Wow, Leena!  Your garden is incredibly inviting!  And not just for pollenators - for people, too!  People get excited over here when there is just one butterfly in their garden.    I liked your talking, also, even though I didn't understand a word you said.  Language has always been an interest of mine, and I much preferred listening to you rather than music.

I grow Hemerocallis citrina, too.  Mine came from Chen Yi, as "Hemerocallis nana".  It is the best tasting daylily flower I have tried so far.  And the stem part just behind the petals is the pest part!

[Leena]

Thank you Rick:).
I wanted to take a picture of my Hemerocallis citrina today, but it is now in the end of it's flowering and no open flowers today.
It is an old clone "found" in Finland and distributed here, and that is why it is called Mirja. It has a very nice fragrance, and before when we didn't have a fence and deer were eating my plants, they left this daylily alone and didn't eat it. I thought maybe it was the fragrance which deterred them.
I have read that daylilies are good to eat, but haven't tried them. Maybe I should:). Interesting about the stem part, I have to remember it.

[cohan]

Lots of wonderful flowers! Still lots flowering here, though some things may be a little less bountifuly due to more warm days and a bit drier in earlier July (nothing like some other areas)-- though some plants are happy for less rain/more heat! None of them are happy that I'm still struggling to catch up with weeding! The simple fact is that I built more beds than I realistically have time to maintain! In an agricultural area, with lots of natural vegetation also, there is always a lot of blow in of seed, and many aggressive forage plants well established in mowed areas... oh well, thank goodness for close-ups and cropping
Tristan-- I have my Grandmother's old scythe, though it needs maintenance/sharpening, which I have not had the ambition to learn how to do thus far! I have used it at times in areas I was unable to mow or that got really long over the last couple of years.. haven't done any this year yet... I once grew Pilosella aurantiaca from seed, then discovered that it is a prohibited noxious weed in Alberta (just in case, I guess, it is not a weed I've seen-- I see something orange on a nearby field, that makes me wonder, very brief, have to go look sometime)so I had to let them die unplanted

A few native Erigerons here--
first  (pics 1-3)a plant I'm unsure of, from seed collected in the foothills- the only thing I've been suggested is Erigeron caespitosus, interesting, as it is very different from the other plants, also from wild seed, under that name, 4th pic. Note aphids on the stem, didn;t seem to bother it much. Last is Erigeron speciosus from B.C.

[Tristan_He]

Also Heleniums are my favourites. Most of them are flowering later in August, but the two earliest varietys are already flowering.

Mine too Leena. Unfortunately the garden here does not really seem suited to them, and the slugs eat them - I also lost a lot to what I think was eelworm. I think it may be a bit dry here in summer. Also the large number of bulbs I grow is a problem as I think Helenium need a situation where the young rosettes in spring have enough light.

I'm growing a few from seed so will keep trying....

[Tristan_He]

A few more snaps from the garden.



I think this is Campanula alliariifolia. It came as a rogue from a seed exchange. It's very floppy, almost prostrate so would really look better tumbling over a wall.



A nice pale pink seedling of Dierama pulcherrimum. I love this but the foliage is very unsightly so have had to remove a few of these from the front garden. In moderation when the foliage of other plants can dominate, they look superb.



Cyananthus farreri is supposed to be difficult but it's easy here and is making a large clump.



Eryngium giganteum, Linaria purpurea and Aconitum lycoctonum make a wonderful combination at the moment.



Echinacea paradoxa. This isn't one of the most striking coneflowers but the flowers are still worth looking at, and are attractive to insects.

[Tristan_He]

Wolfsbane, Aconitum lycoctonum, I think. This was grown from wild seed collected in damp limestone woodland in Slovenia on holiday a few years ago. It has made a super patch. The old mangle in the background came with the house and we are using it as a garden ornament / clematis support (though the clematis have been a bit slow on the uptake).



Clematis 'Arabella' scrambles through the wolfsbane.



Sunset.

[shelagh]

Tristan the old mangle brought back memories of having to turn it for my grandmother many years ago.

[David Nicholson]

..... and mine too!

[cohan]

I had to look up mangle in that sense-- only used as a verb or adjective here...lol

[Robert]

Shelagh,

In our garden, Rudbeckia ‘Gold Storm’ provides a great deal of flower color during mid-summer. I give much thought to our garden design. Flowers are a high priority. I like flowers, and Rudbeckia ‘Gold Storm’ provides a great deal of flower color when the weather is hot and dry.



Now on with other things…



I also like Rudbeckia ‘Autumn Sun’. This perennial is also unfazed by our extreme summer heat.



I will be dividing out ‘Autumn Sun’ and mixing it with tall single flowering Dahlias and various perennial Helianthus species. I know, some of the perennial Helianthus species are weedy, but I like the late summer-autumn color.



I am making progress with Symphotrichum spathulatum. This California native species enjoys the rich soil in the perennial borders. Although it is from the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains it thrives in our garden and is not bothered by the valley heat.



This F₁ Erythranthe lewisii hybrid is showing great promise. It is male sterile; however I have been able to use it as a female parent. Fertility in both directions will most likely be restored and additional improvements can be made. I am pleased with this clone – so far it has produced many flowers throughout the summer despite the heat.

[Robert]

This is the F₁ generation of the somatic mutation I found on Tithonia rotundifolia last season. All the plants show various degrees of orange-red and yellow pigmentation on the petals. One can do all sorts of interesting things with the simplest of plant species.



The fruits of plant breeding – Tomato Cosmonaut Volkov as a female parent. This tomato has great flavor.



Cherokee Purple is another flavorful tomato.



Freya’s Tears is a cherry tomato. This variety was my first success as a plant breeder. It has a sweet, complex flavor.



Elena’s Scherzo is another cherry tomato that I bred many years ago. It is very sweet and flavorful. The same plant breeding techniques can be applied to ornamental species, including rock garden species. Now that I am retired, I am making great progress with my breeding projects. In general I work with what is close at hand. Magical things appear – It is a great gardening pleasure.

[Rick R.]

Well I have lots of pics of H. citrina.  They really are at their best at night.