more late summer blooms

On our walk through the garden yesterday, we found a surprising number of things still blooming, reblooming, and just starting to bloom. Maybe I'm the one who's tired - not the gardens!! Here are more photos.

dianthus (pinks)

Queen Anne's Lace

native rudbeckia or coneflower
These all started from seed brought by the wind or birds or ??
They bloom, like, forever! I love it!

plantegenia hosta
these blooms smell sooooo good!

dahlia

turtlehead

little blue stem grass

just starting to turn burgundy and develop seed heads

the phlox are winding down, but still some color

"David"

"Hawkeye Belle"

(this rose is just covered in blooms again)

one of the dahlias

hibiscus are still going strong

mallow reblooming

shasta daisy

"Autumn Joy" sedum, just starting to show color

hibiscus bud starting to open

delphinium reblooming

(surprising because I neglected to deadhead the first blooms)

one of the caladiums in the garden

June gardens

This is one of my favorite garden spots - daisies, mallow, purple coneflower and Raspberry Wine monarda all bloom together. Later purple phlox will join in too. It's a riot of wild bloomers. The monarda is just starting to open - this lakeshore garden used to be full of monarda and looked totally cool when it bloomed. But monarda has a way of taking over a garden, so last fall I took out most of it and, for the time being at least, I'm planning to contain it in a couple spots. We'll see how well that works!

This mallow plant is in one of the porch gardens, and is poking through the railings by the steps. Later a fall blooming anemone will do the same thing on the other side. I love these blooms - and how happily this plant sprawls.

The daisies are opening. I have several groups of daisies spread around various gardens.

All Summer Beauty hydrangea. It needs a little winter protection in Minnesota, and every fall I feel like yanking it out because who needs all this winter protecting work anyway... but then I relent and when it starts blooming, I'm always happy I helped it out. This is one that will bloom either blue or pink - mine is pink, and I'm okay with that.

The hollyhocks are so happy this year! I love this old-fashioned plant. On the right is one of my heirloom tomatoes - the plants are getting very big and new tomatoes are setting every day. I CANNOT wait to have tomatoes from the garden!!

Mark made me a special holder/sling for my kayak. Seems to be working pretty well. Look how clear and calm the water was this morning: you can see footprints in the sand bottom. (The black thing is not a snake - it's the hose for the lake pump. Just in case you were wondering.)

I am loving the kayak - feel pretty comfortable with it, but I'm still avoiding super windy conditions and haven't been out when there's a lot of boat traffic yet. I'll get there though!

(Some of these photos will click big)