Summer goes by too quickly.

Soon it will be over again. The common garden mums are heavy with buds and sometimes the occasional bloom. The joe pyes are tall, handsome, and blooming. The sedums are developing a flush on their buds. Dogwoods are slightly golden from afar, with a small amount of rose up close. The growing season just seems to go by so quickly.

Eutrochium Purpureum

I'm anxious to see how the muhly grass will bloom this year. It did so well during the growing months last year, but the smaller clumps I had didn't make it at all and the larger one seems to have died in the center. I'll be surprised if it makes the winter this year. It's supposed to be hardy to zone 6, but I think mine didn't fair well because of drainage issues. The land I garden on is very flat, with rich soil that holds on to moisture pretty well (but is still "well draining", for certain). This being New Jersey, the soil is also fairly acidic, which is why I think dianthus doesn't seem to want to live for me. I keep trying anyway. I can't resist the silvery foliage and pink flowers. Please, dianthus, pls.

Dianthus Gratianopolitanus "Firewitch"

I'm also doing some zone pushing on some gaura I couldn't resist. It was labeled to zone 6, but I've heard that is just a label. Gaura likes drier locations, so I fear I'll have the same problem like with the muhly. Oh well. It's worth it even as an annual. I'm thinking... containers? For next year!

Gaura Lindheimeri "Ballerina Rose"

Let's end this with a little bit of impatiens gradient.

Impatiens Walleriana in various colors 

A Trip to Washington Valley Park

Washington Valley is one of the best if not the best of the Somerset County, NJ parks. It's always clean and litter free and has many different habitats and species to enjoy. It's strictly a park for hiking and woodsy things, which I prefer. It's very "untouched", in a good way mostly. Unfortunately there are also a lot of invasives, but it's hard to find anywhere without them anymore.

So charming.

Monotropa Uniflora

Centaurea spp.

My intentions were to collect wineberries (Rubus Phoenicolasius) and possibly chanterelles, which I have seen there before. I struck out on the chanterelles, but not wineberries! There are still many more that need to ripen so we'll be back. Here's what my sister and I collected in about 2 hours:

Boooooty.

I'm thinking some sort of baked good. It will be gone in 10 minutes in this house. Back when mulberries were in season I spent a few good hours between collecting mulberries, making a pie crust, and assembling the pie. It didn't last, which I should take as a compliment. 

Proven Winners? Definitely.

It all started last year with some innocent enough plant browsing. We all do it. At that time annuals other than impatiens were not on my radar. I thought they were a waste of money and probably too hard to grow. (What was I thinking, right?!)

So I walk by the marked down section, and among the totally dead plants was this little plant, obviously parched and pale and 50 cents. I figured that the effort I'd put into resuscitating the plant would be worth the small price.

Nothing but NJ dirt + water + sunlight later and:

Where'd that Marta come from?

It was like I had a freshly purchased plant. I was captivated with the habit and the happy pink flowers.

Even later on:

...and that's with out cutting them back or fertilizing all summer! At that point, I didn't know it was a good idea to. I did however sprinkle garlic powder on them to keep the deer from sampling them. So that's where this obsession with this particular color of Supertunia and in general Supertunias comes from. These pink ones are Supertunia Vista Bubblegum. I'm growing these again this year as well as other Supertunias. So far they haven't let me down. 

Here's "Bordeaux" and "Vista Silverberry" in the background. I'll have to get a better photo of those guys later.