On the 15th of every month, Garden Bloggers everywhere post pictures of the plants that are blooming in their garden. Here are a few from mine.

The above picture shows purple coneflower, Echinacea ‘Magnus’, with white-flowering Echinacea ‘Avalanche’ in front. ‘Avalanche’ is a new cultivar that is shorter – to about 18 inches – and very floriferous. I started with a few tiny plugs planted last fall, and they are doing well!

Next is an image of blazing star, Liatris spicata. It has grown taller than ever before, at 4 feet, and looks great next to the dark foliage of the purple smoke tree, Cotinus coggrygia. You know what they say about perennials. “The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year the leap!” That sure happens in my garden!

Another favorite perennial is Helenium autumnale ‘Mardi Gras’. This great plant usually blooms mid-summer for me – not in autumn as the name implies. If you deadhead, the plant will continue to bloom for a long time. The unfortunate common name for the genus is Sneezeweed. Many of the Heleniums grow quite tall and work at the back of the border – but ‘Mardi Gras’ grows only to about three feet in height.

Another daisy, this is the Blanket Flower, Gaillardia ‘Mesa Yellow’. It is a short-lived perennial. It blooms the first year from seed, and is a 2010 All America Selections winner.

This is a hardy Hibiscus, the cultivar ‘Fireball’. The flower is eight inches across! The semi-woody plant behaves like a perennial, dying back in winter but growing up to six feet by mid-summer. It is quite gangly looking, and the huge flowers that open each day are then shed to the ground, creating quite a mess. But they are so strange and interesting that they are worth growing!

Some better-behaved members of the genus include the Rose-of-Sharon shrubs, like Hibiscus ‘Lil’ Kim’, above. ‘Lil’ Kim’ is little because the shrub grows to only about four feet tall, while other Rose-of-Sharon shrubs can grow to twelve feet or more.

Another member of the same family, but this time a short lived perennial, is Malva sylvestris ‘Zebrina’. I grow this little plant for its edible flowers. The purple-striped white or lavender flowers look great peeking up from the salad bowl! By the way, the larger hibiscus flowers are edible, too . . .

A few interesting annuals in the garden this year include this Dahlia ‘Jessy’. Another favorite, for its blue color, is the common Mealycup sage, or Salvia farinaceae ‘Victoria’, below.

Finally, I’ll show you a vine – Black-eyed Susan vine, Thungergia alata. It is an annual that grows easily from seed.

These are just a few of the many things blooming in the garden on this gardener’s bloom day, July 15th. Happy Gardening!

Sue