Gardening in Summer

Gardening in DC during the summer is really about survival, not much more to it.  Day after day it's in the 90s, and with little rain, I spend most of the time outdoors moving sprinklers or watering by hand.  The heat, humidity, and tiger mosquitoes, make it unbearable to be out there for more than a few minutes at a time.  Deadheading, weeding, planting, pruning -- it just doesn't happen.  What's more, many things just don't look that good.  Some of the hostas are scalded from the dogwood dying back and others are full of holes -- who knows what is eating them.  The roses keep sending out buds, but the flowers are small and crisp within a day or two.  The lady ferns look half dead, and the clematis appear quite dead.  And the lawn, small though it is, is patchy and in need of reseeding.  In another month, when it starts to cool off and days are noticably shorter, the garden will rally.  But until then, I lose interest and head indoors.  But more on that another time.

Although it's hard to find beauty in a garden ravaged by summer, I remind myself that it's not a complete diaster out there, and that there are things of interest...
   
The Agapanthus, potted up last year so it can move indoors to winter over, is blooming -- a big deal in our East Coast garden. 

A blue Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon), still in a pot and needing to be planted, has new flowers daily.  I'm generally not fond of these shrubs -- they are too scrappy but I've been seduced by the color of the flowers on this one.  There's a particularly large specimen in Provincetown where's Joe's Coffee used to be, and I always thought about taking cuttings but never did.  I've read that the flowers of H. syriacus are edible, by the way. 

The mops of the Hydrangea macrophylla have turned a lovely shade of green -- now would be a good time to cut them for drying. 

The Phlox paniculata keeps on blooming although after heavy watering it loses all of the flowers for a day or two. 

Although they are getting top heavy, the Echinacea purpurea (purple cone flowers) are going strong but soon the Anemone x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert' (Japanese anemones) will start to overtake them in height and interest.  A sure sign that the next season is on its way.