With all the recent rain and warmth, the garden is in peak form, pleasing us and the pollinators– hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. Even the goldfinches have begun to harvest Sunflower and Cosmos seeds. I love it when the garden becomes animated with their visits.
Here is a photo of me (5’5″) for scale in front of the giant Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus), all self-sown from last year, and even the Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) are five feet tall. The vines on the lower left are Hyacinth Bean (Lablab purpureus) and on the right, Ivy-leaved Morning Glory (Ipomoea hederacea). They’ve begun to climb the Sunflowers, reaching for the sky.
The dahlias have begun to bloom. I thought I’d lost all my ‘Voodoo’ tubers when they froze in storage last winter, but one came through, and a new white ‘Lillehammer’ is pretty, but the stems are disappointingly short, making them not great cut-flowers.
About half of my Zinnia seedlings succumbed to slugs, but enough made it to flowering, tucked in amongst Flowering Tobacco (Nicotiana alata).
Self-sown Cosmos binpinnatus ‘Sensation’ are prolific, and the Tiger Lilies (Lilium lancifolium), and pink Astilbe taquettii are looking better than in previous years. Rain helps!
So what exciting things are blooming in your garden this week?
Eliza Waters 
So happy I logged on and saw this Eliza! Such abundance!
Thanks for coming by Kim – much appreciated!
Being ‘shrimped’ by your plants! 🤣😹
And to think that came from a tiny seed (well, I suppose I once did, too. :D)
And one that was smaller than the sunflower seed. LOL Maybe that’s why you aren’t as tall.
Hehe! 🙂
You have a beautiful garden, and the rain made everything bigger this year. By the way, I have one pink astilbe plant, and it is also doing very well this year.
Great to hear, Hien, they are lovely plants. Thanks for your visit!
You are very clever Eliza. You have the touch 🌸💕
Thank you, Karen. I always feel Mother Nature does the lion’s share! 🙂
Beautiful garden. I am more envious with every post I read.
Thank you! It’s my happy place. 🙂
Beautiful Gardens!!! Enjoyed seeing them. Those are some Giant Sunflowers!!!
Thank you, Reed. Their size amazes me – all that growth in 10 weeks!
Gorgeous garden, I love your sunflowers, how awesome!
Thank you, Donna!
🦋 I thought I commented on this one earlier. Don’t know what happened there.
It’s beauty at it’s best.
Thank you! I have several posts with the same title, perhaps that is why you thought that. Perhaps I’ll start dating them in the title. 😉
Beautiful!
Thank you, Wendell!
Your garden looks fantastic, Eliza, and it’s fun to see you in the photo as a point of reference. Those are some impressive sunflowers! Mine look downright sad by comparison.
Thank you, Kris. The sunflowers are definitely stealing the show these days!
So beautiful!!! 🙂 ❤
Thank you, Natalie! 🙂
You’re welcome Eliza😊❤️
Impressive sunflowers!
Thank you, Ellen!
Nice to see you in your garden!
🙂 Thank you!
Your garden is looking very colourful and pretty, Eliza. It’s interesting to see you next to the sunflower for comparison of size. There’s not much happening in my garden as we’re in the middle of winter, and I’ve got my fingers crossed that everything is going to survive the very heavy frosts we’ve had.
Thank you, Jane. Your Spring is on its way!
Your garden looks so beautiful and colourful. You’re so blessed to have one. ❤️
Thank you, Yashica. I do feel most blessed!
What a triumph!
🙂 Thank you, Sandra!
Peak form indeed. And those are some sunflowers
Thank you, Derrick.
Oh I love your posts! Like a breath of fresh air – pun intended. You look lovely, Eliza!
Aw, thanks so much, Isha!
Oh! how gorgeous! I love cosmos! And, you have hummingbirds visit? wow!
Thank you! The hummingbirds fly by so fast sometimes, their wings whistle– zzzzzooooom!
Oh! I can only imagine them! I’ve always wanted to see a hummingbird!
They are emerald-green winged jewels- we only get one species, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (male has red) and their return is something I look forward to every spring. The migrate South in the fall.
Sounds gorgeous!
Lovely images, those sunflowers are really tall. I seem to have lots of things about to come into flower and very little in flower, one of the disadvantages of reclaiming my garden from the weeds.
Thank you, Penny. A garden is always a work in progress!
Your garden is beautiful, and those sunflowers are just downright amazing. 🙂 My phlox, black eyed susans, and some daylilies are still going strong. My cone flowers haven’t bloomed yet, and my rose of sharon was gorgeous until the Japanese beetles just decimated it. It rained last night, the humidity is 100% right now, and it’s going to hit 90. I have a tree to trim so I will be getting out there early today. 🙂
Thank you, Judy. Japanese beetles sure are annoying. I sometimes go out early or late in the day with a jar of soapy water to knock them into. A Sisyphean task!
I did my work early, too, then had a little wade in the river, cool and refreshing!
Your garden is so beautiful and it was nice to see you looking like a lovely flower among the blooms. 🙂 Those sunflowers are incredible!
Thank you, Robin. 🙂 I find them amazing, too!
My what towering Sunflowers you have! The cones, all, looks so lush and fabulous Eliza. I am growing hyacinth beans again but in pots so they are not as vigorous as when I grew them in the ground – pretty dwarf compared to your Sunflowers – fun anyway and so far nothing has eaten them at the lake ( ;
Thank you, Kathy. Many years ago, there was a compost pile here, I’m wondering if these are lingering effects… whatever it is, they sure look happy!
Wow Eliza/ your garden is gorgeous! Amazing space you created !
Thank you, Luda!
Spectacular! Must take a lot of work to keep it looking so great. I’ve never seen sunflowers that tall before!
Thank you, Celia! Most of the work is in spring. Because I mulch, the weeding is minimal. I feel like I’ve been coasting lately. 😉 Too hot to garden anyway… speaking of which, how is your heat wave? Any end in sight?
Doing the hard work in spring and seeing the results months later – even more rewarding! The heat wave here is terrible… some relief when typhoons pass through but then it’s straight back to it. 😦 Can’t wait for autumn!
I don’t blame you. Stay cool and hydrated!
Wonderful! Thanks for showing us the gardener along side the sunflowers. They really are huge!
Thanks, Val! It really helps to have scale. 😉
In gardens and in life 💕
True! 🙂
It’s official – I need some sunflowers for next summer! I wonder how they would do around the pond…
They’d look great I bet! There are now so many hybrids to choose from … these are Mammoth crosses from last year that came up on their own.
Oh, your garden looks splendid! And those are some sunflowers. Because my black-eyed Susan’s fizzled, my gardens—-best in July—are mostly foiliage. Has that ever happened to you with black-eyed Susan’s? If so, did you have to replace them, or did they come back the following year?
Thank you, Laurie. Yes, sometimes my R. hirta get a mold or insect damage and die, but there are always new seeds and sprouts coming along. R. fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ seem bullet-proof… not sure which you have. The former are the wild annual ones that I let self-sow, the latter are clumping perennials flowering about now.
I don’t know what I have. I planted them so long ago. I really can’t complain as I’ve had them for about twenty years. What I want is bullet proof as well part sun/part shade. Thanks for the suggestions.
Looking back to Aug.’16, it looks like you have R. ‘Goldsturm’ in those photos. Not sure what might have caused a problem… perhaps they got too dry, or maybe insects bored into the stems. Sometimes mine become wilted, usually from heat stress. They might bounce back for you.
Thanks for the advice!
Beautiful, so satisfying. 🌻💐🌷🌹🌸
It is so satisfying – thanks, Caroline!
Enjoyed the pure vibrance here in your garden, Eliza. Sunflowers so tall, and 5′ coneflowers too! Great to see the size comparison with you, also looking vibrant. Thanks for this colorful, joyful sharing of your garden.
Thank you kindly, Jet. It is a joy to share– seems like more than just the two of us should be enjoying it (not counting the critters, of course). 🙂
Been thinking of you with all the fires going on… are you back in your home yet?
Hi Eliza, Not back at home yet, and had to move again into a different Airbnb as the previous lease ran out. Our 8th move since October. But the good news is, this past week electricity was restored, and a new well was installed, so with water and electricity we are in more habitable conditions, hope to be moving home next month. Thanks so much for your thoughts and kindness.
Your garden is gorgeous! I love how tall everything is.
Thank you, Peter. It’s been a good summer for the garden!
Your sunflowers are amazing! And your border in the first pic just looks so lovely. A beautiful combination of plants and blooms.
Thank you very much, Ali. Considering the loveliness of your border, I take that as a great compliment! 🙂
Gorgeous garden – and your sunflowers are magnificent.
Thank you, Mary, much appreciated!
Very impressive Eliza, especially those sunflowers! My first coneflower opened today,
Thank you, Karina. It’s been a good year for the garden. Your bees and butterflies will be happy about your coneflowers. Will the birds eat the seeds, too?
Actually I have never seen the birds take the seeds but yes the bees and butterflies love them!
Wow! Wonderful and amazing, Eliza!
Thank you, Pete!
Heavens to Murgatroid! Those are some impressive sunflowers! 😀
😀 They are giants!
Everything looks absolutely lovely! Those sunflowers are incredible!!!
Thank you, Joanna. Guess they are liking all this rain! 🙂
All so beautiful, Eliza! And, wow – I’ve never seen such tall sunflowers! Enjoyed all your photos. 🤗❤️
Thank you, Betty!
Sun, rain and your gardening skill! Just gorgeous Eliza😊
Thank you, Belinda! ❤
We have all had more heat and humidity in the northeast than we are used to. We have generally not enjoyed it, but some plants have! Peonies, astilbe, coneflower, flox, daylily have done well. Tiger lilies bloomed but the lily beetles decimated them quickly! Hibiscus are flourishing, Hydrangeas and buddleia are flowering vigorously. All in all a pretty colorful summer! Now if the humidity would just drop…!!!
I know, the humidity is oppressive these days.
Those lily beetles are so annoying, esp. the yucky larva. I try to go out with gloves in spring to catch the adults ‘in the act’ and check often to swipe larva. It is worth doing as after a while their numbers drop.
Thanks for stopping by, Peter. Stay cool!
I agree. The yucky larva are almost worse than the damage they cause!
Yes! Squish and grimace! 😉
Your personal haven of wealth… beautiful✨💕
I do feel blessed. Thanks, Stormie!
Stunning garden! Oh my goodness–I barely have the energy for one. I love this. What an inspiring environment to surround yourself with
Thank you, Shayleene. It is one of my passions for sure.
Clearly!! You do it well 💕
🙂 Thanks! ❤
Wow! A jungle of sunflowers. I’ve never seen them so tall. Beautiful garden delights. 🙂
Thanks, Olga. I have a mix of varieties, these are clearly among the taller types!
Wow – what abundance of beauty!
Thank you, Fi!
Wow those sunflowers are amazing! We get a lot of goldfinches in the area, so I’ve grown some teasel from seed in pots in the hope that they’ll visit – I’m quite pleased that they’re doing well, so far the bees are visiting the flowers and hopefully once they go to seed the goldfinches will come!
Thank you, Andrea. Attracting birds to the garden is good for them and us – it feeds our soul.
I love the photo of you in front of the sunflowers!!! Sunflower is my favorite flower, and you look beautiful in front of them. Such a happy photo. All the other flowers are exquisite as well. I love all the green lush in your summer photos. Your garden loves the rain you’ve been having ❤
Thank you kindly, Maria. 🙂 It really is a happy garden!
Very happy! And very beautiful. It’s easy to see.
🙂
You have beautiful variety of Dahlias. I remember seeing sunflowers growing by the ocean once.
Thank you, Maria. I’m thinking of adding more dahlias to the big bed next year; I do love their late season splendor. Though they require digging up in fall and storing over winter, as they are not hardy here.
Your garden and photos are so beautiful!🙂 Looking at the first photo, I did not realize the size of the sunflowers or coneflowers and am amazed at the size. The weather is taking a toll on my yard and flowers right now and the only color throughout the yard is the hosta and Rose of Sharon flowers.
Thank you very much! While we had a stretch of dry weather in June, it’s been pretty rainy the past month. When it rains, it pours…literally!
The sunflowers are unbelievable! Your garden is a real beauty!
Thank you, Patty!
Lovely summer blooms Eliza. Wow that sunflower is amazing, what magic potions do you feed it on?
Thank you, Chloris. Years of compost paying off, I guess, and a bit of Russian sunflower DNA. 😉