What's Still Blooming

64°f, about 18°C , mostly clear. 

I did a little garden walk last night when we returned from working our booths. I wanted to see what, if anything, was still trying to bloom. And I found a few hardy flowers, still trying even with the drought and my neglect the last month as I stayed in the kitchen, putting up all the vegetables that poured in despite the wicked hot weather. Plants are pretty amazing, aren't they? There is a lesson in their resilience that I need to remember when I have hard days (this week for example, was the birthday of my son Jon, who passed away. You know how difficult such anniversaries are.)

Here is what I found in bloom...and yes, I thanked each of them for their stalwartness.

A tiny bug on a small calendula blossom. I did not see the little fella when I took the photo. No idea what he is.

I grew these petunias from seed. Most of the store-bought ones did not survive.

Poor little begonias! Surprisingly, the lobelia made it through the summer, something it rarely does.

Geraniums keep up a brave front, and keep a little color going along the walk.

An old carpenter's toolbox makes a good planter for coleus, another hardy survivor. Deer have eaten most of the ones in the flowerbeds. 

I found one miniature rose in bloom.

A chrysanthemum i started several years ago makes a splash despite the weeds and dead plants around it. I never got the iris leaves trimmed back in this garden this year. July was just too hot, and August was no better.

A coreopsis blooms happily amid the crabgrass. This edge of the garden became impossible to get to after we put up a makeshift fence to keep the deer out.

Apparently deer don't like chicken wire,  so a few flowers survived their onslaught, including this cheery Shasta daisy.

I am so surprised that deer don't seem to like snapdragons, and that this one has hung on despite being in a very dry corner of the garden.

Lots of yellow and red this time of year! Another coreopsis, which deer seem not to favor, although they will eat them in a pinch.

The self-seeded cannas are thriving, and have a couple new small blooms. The white in the background is a cover we had over the Savoy cabbages, which are finally ready to cut. Well, some of them--i had to replant three or four times because this spot in the garden is strangely wet, and I kept losing the plants to root rot. Finally I pulled back the mulch, and then the dry weather took care of the problem. Next year this area will be for water-loving celery and cucumbers!

My yellow rose continues to bloom. The others have no blooms right now.

Note to self: apparently deer don't like vinca!

A different variety of thunbergia, which has finally gotten one bloom! All summer i have coaxed it along, trying and failing to help it trained to its trellis. And now, after laying on the ground and being trampled by the dogs, it blooms. Go figure.

More snapdragons. I wonder, will they survive the winter? I have never really tried growing them before. 

My first time in 45 years or more for four o'clocks.  They took forever to bloom from seed, and the blooms are sparse. Perhaps too shady a location? I think their seeds are pretty, and will save some for next year.

There are a lot of other blooms,, but this post is too longer! But here are a few more random shots:

As you can see, this bed is so dry and dead-looking. But a lot of the flowers above were actually in here.