Six On Saturday — August 1

July flew past, with loads of beauty and production in the garden. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we even reached 85F a couple of times, but now we’re back to our comfortable, summery low 70s.

ONE – This early morning view from our bedroom makes getting up and into the garden a breeze.

TWO – Harvests! These and many more I forgot to photograph.

THREE – Roses are beyond beautiful throughout the summer in my young rose garden. This one stem is from a spectacular floribunda called Connie’s Sandstorm.

FOUR – Continuing on the rose theme, I added three David Austin climbers along fences around Coppertop this spring, mainly to replace some once-and-done, blackspot-prone, hot pink climbers that were here when we moved in. Below are peachy Lady of Shalott and golden Graham Thomas, captured a couple of weeks ago with their very first blooms. Now they’ve grown substantially. The third new climber, A Shropshire Lad, is forming first buds. By next year I have no doubt these will fill the fences.

Lady of Shalott
Graham Thomas

FIVE – The pond is brimming with grasses and waterlilies. It’s next to the rose garden where I spend a good amount of time sniffing and clipping, and my eye is captured by the shadows and light at play and by American goldfinches who bathe and feast in lily pads. I attempted to post a short movie with the birds’ sweet antics, although it’s a bit hard to see them. The mower starts up mid way, too — ugh.

https://videopress.com/v/KtEpPcsK?preloadContent=metadata

SIX – I’m enamored with three, new Hydrangea arborescens ‘Incrediball’. Silly name, gorgeous flowers. The blooms are bigger than basketballs and stay upright! These glow at dusk when we’re enjoying the deck. The entire row of plants is new this year, another place we removed lawn and added a border. The border includes hydrangeas, dahlias, penstemon, clematis, roses, geum, and other plants I’ll share another time.

Gardeners around the world post six garden-related items each Saturday on Mr. P’s blog, then virtually visit each other’s gardens, offering support and wisdom. Join us!

34 thoughts on “Six On Saturday — August 1”

  1. That hydrangea is incredible ! 😄 Beautiful too to see your crop of fruit and vegetables. Raspberries are over here. It’s blackberry time now.
    About your bird song, try taking a video and posting it? Or record the song and add a link?

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  2. Wow to the Hydrangea arborescens ‘Incrediball.’ I’ve not seen one of those before. Lovely roses and that view is wonderful. I’ve uploaded the odd very short video to my WordPress blog a while ago – I think I just uploaded it as I would a photo. I could be wrong though.

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  3. I really like the shape of the rose Connie Sandstorm. The color is unusual too. I have seen those Incrediball Hydrangeas before they are gorgeous. Your new fenceline planting is filling in nice. All of your harvest looks so yummy. I bet it is fun watching the Goldfinches bathing on your lily pads. What a spectacular color combination of the yellow of the goldfinches and the pink lilies. Would love to see it sometime.

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    1. Thanks, Lisa! Glad you appreciate Connie. She’s reminds me of a Capidomonte porcelain piece (We lived in Naples, Italy 20 years ago). I finally uploaded the goldfinch clip.

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  5. What a beautiful garden, I say again. I pick a small, tub of raspberries each day which keeps us going in jam and raspberry coulis with vanilla ice cream. 😋 I wouldn’t know what to do with so many! Excellent harvest.

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  6. What kind of raspberries are those? How many plants do you have, or did you start with? I am planning to have raspberries again. I had Meeker. One plant became dozens and got away from me, so I actually tore them out. Now I am prepared!

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    1. Ah, I wish I could tell you the varieties, but they were planted prior to our arrival, Lisa. A 25-foot row gives us many, many pounds of fruit. One half is ever-bearing, or at least gives another great crop into November. I am religious about their pruning, thinning, and digging up spreaders.

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  7. I love visiting your garden it is so lovely and the hydrangea is magnificent! Very envious of the raspberries too, my favourite fruit. Maybe I should try growing some, but it sounds as though they are quite a lot of work.

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    1. They’re not too needy. A few hours to prune in late winter, a couple late summer hours thinning after they fruit, and also staying on top of the errant shoots. I add the shoots to my “Weeding Wednesday” job list in spring when they flush out. Berries are so tasty! Thanks for stopping in.

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  8. Impressive berries! Raspberries are grown commercially near Watsonville, but I do not think they do as well as blackberries here. I will grow them eventually, but will not expect so much form them. (I actually prefer blackberries anyway.)

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  11. Such a lovely view to wake up to! You certainly have a productive garden, and your raspberry harvest is great. Good idea to free the excess! The rose Connie’s sandstorm is a really beautiful colour – unusual. I was taken with the hydrangea with its flowerheads. They do look lovely along the fence. I like having white and silver scattered through the garden as it seems to draw the eye to it. Lovely post.

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  12. Beautiful day in your neighborhood that is for sure! Your weather had been so much kinder to your plants than ours. We have had several heat waves, not nearly enough rain, and every insect and critter you can name. I can’t take a step outside without a grasshopper flying up at me. It’s been a challenge here so I certainly enjoyed your post showing your lovely gardens. Happy August.

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    1. Happy August to you! Judy, I’ve recently seen your gardens and they are delightful and you make gardening look so easy! Yes, our weather is very mild, which absolutely drew us here. Our summers are super dry, though, so I have spent more time watering plants here and am thankful we have delved into lots of irrigation to save time and energy. Sorry about the abundance of unwelcome insects and critters — that’s a tough one.

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  13. Great harvest! Rosa ‘Connie’s Sandstorm’ isn’t one I’m familiar with – and very unusual colour, it certainly fits its name. Your David Austin roses I’m well aware of, I have ‘Graham Thomas’ and also two of ‘A Shropshire Lad’ – two was a mistake – but who cares, it’s a beauty and I’m sure you’ll agree. 😁

    I enjoyed the birdsong, glad you managed to sort out the problem. What can I say about Hydrangea arborescens ‘Incrediball’! It’s one amazing plant! I looked at it recently but chose instead ‘Pink Annabelle’ purely because pink would work better in that area. Agree with you about the name!

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  16. I do love good close up photography, and yours is very good, especially the Sandstorm.
    On other hand the last one gives me a perspective of your garden, or at least a section of it. Thank you.

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