I’ve been so busy this week that I haven’t had as much time to spend in the garden. I ended up with phone pictures, but didn’t get my uber camera out there.

It’s time for the smaller second flush of blooms. I got a new rose with my birthday gift certificates a couple months ago. This is another David Austin called Othello.

The blooms start reddish pink like this and then darken to violet. So pretty. The blooms don’t last very long, though. Unfortunately, this rose got black spot, so a lot of the leaves fell off. It’s been so hot and humid, which can exacerbate that.

My fair Bianca is also blooming now. This one has a lot of buds on it.

I am hoping to get the Japanese beetles under control. I sprayed the nematodes on the lawn and garden bed to help, but it will be a little while to see if that works.

There was a surprise in my tippy pots. A petunia!

Last year I had petunias in the tippy pots and there must have been some seeds in the soil.

I have million bells in them, which are doing pretty well:

I was hoping they would drape a little more, but maybe that’s going to be it. See that crazy pumpkin vine in the back? It’s like the vine that ate Cleveland!  I hope we get something out of this with all the buds on it.

This is the third of the Cheyenne coneflower. This one is almost swallowed by that cosmos:

More lilies buds open:

I love these. I am going to get some more from John Scheepers.  These are the heirloom varieties.

More delphiniums:

Some flower buds finally appeared on the vines growing up the ash tree:

Now that it’s flowering, it’s easier to identify. It’s a wild cucumber, which is not edible. I really have no idea how it got there, but I guess I can put the finger on squirrels or chipmunks.

I think I’m going to get more of the fern leaf bleeding hearts. These are pretty and have been blooming a lot this summer :

I’m hoping to get some quality time in the garden this weekend. We have John’s birthday gathering going on Saturday night and Sunday looks like ideal biking weather. Have a great weekend!