Tag Archives: summer flowers

September 18, 2021 · 7:07 am

Random summer stuff

I’m a little behind with my posts. It’s been a busy summer! I wanted to share my trip to the North Shore before I forget it all and I’ll get back to the posts I’ve intended to create all summer soon!! But first, a post of more random summer flowers and other random stuff. I thought I should get this one done since this is our last summer weekend.

I was going to do a post with photos of my morning glory fence from this summer, alas, this year’s morning glory fence did not turn out to be as spectacular as in years past. In cleaning up her yard, my neighbor probably didn’t realize that by yanking the morning glories that had wandered into her yard via her side of the fence, it destroyed a big part of the garden of morning glories on the fence. But I did manage to capture a few nice blooms. I included photos of the fence, before and after the clean-up.

Next, a gallery of the randomness I mentioned earlier. Just some photos of the rest of summer, more flowers and a favorite bird, as well as my other neighbor’s green beans on our shared fence. Enjoy and stay tuned for more travel posts coming soon!! As always, thanks for looking.

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Tagged as gardening, morning glories, photography, summer blooms, summer flowers

July 24, 2021 · 7:02 am

Random summer flowers

Another quick post to display some flowers around the neighborhood, most of them are not from my garden. I’ve been working on two others posts and hope to post at least one of them soon! So, please come back. In the mean time, enjoy this gallery of beautiful flowers.

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July 10, 2021 · 7:12 am

The bee balm are blooming!

I love these flowers! They usually bloom at the end of June and into the beginning of July. I used to have just red and light purple ones and a few years ago a friend gave me a little clump of the magenta bee balm and that little clump has done so well. You’ll see how big that clump has gotten in the gallery below as well as the cover photo.

I do love perennials but most of them only last a couple of weeks and so it is with bee balm. I noticed as I was choosing the photos for this post that I didn’t take many photos of the red ones. They, along with many other plants this year, are not as nice as in years past. We’ve been in drought this summer and that has affected plant growth, or lack thereof. So, I think I will start with the one red bee balm photo that I liked and let it stand out from the pack of magenta bee balm photos.

There are also a light purple type of bee balm that used to be in my garden, alas, I guess they’ve moved on. They are blooming in the park and Willow Pond. Love this color too!

And just for fun, I’ll close with this photo of wild raspberries that are ripe right now. Or are they blackberries? On my walk at Willow Pond yesterday most of these berries were black and I’m including another, updated photo from yesterday. I think I have had this query in the past so I googled and what did I find? They are actually wild black raspberries! Okay, let’s see if I remember that next year. I didn’t know there was such a thing but I love the color.

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Tagged as bee balm, flowers, gardening, photography, summer flowers

July 22, 2017 · 8:32 am

University of Minnesota Trial Garden 2017

My next posts are going to be mainly photos. I’ve been taking many so far this summer. Many are from my walks either about campus or in my neighborhood.

This post contains photos of the trial garden at the University of Minnesota St. Paul campus. It’s a perfect place to take a break at work and I walk there periodically throughout spring, summer and fall. Have a look-see of some early summer blooms and plants, even a bunch of grapes. I didn’t know the vine that grows there is a grape vine. I wonder how those grapes taste.

I hope you’ll come back next week to see more summer blooms. Enjoy!!

astilbe

spiderwort

clematis

hydrangea

sumac bud

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum – a summer visit

Most folks here in the twin cities know about the Arboretum and I had heard about it but, for some reason, I didn’t make it out there until I had been living here 25 years. I finally got to see it in person last year. Since I work for the University of Minnesota I get emails from all kinds of different departments and luckily for me, the Landscape Arboretum was in that stack. I took advantage of the employee discount and became a member last year. It is well worth the price.

What caught my eye last year in one of the emails was a garden tour. I asked my friend Ruth if she’d be interested, she said yes and we had a marvelous time. Ruth and I were just commenting on what fun that was last year and we decided to go again next year. It’s a tour of fabulous gardens near the Arboretum. I wrote about it so do check out the link to see more gorgeous blooms and plants from the southwestern suburbs of the twin cities.

We have been trying to go back to see more of the Arboretum because we didn’t get a chance to last year. After our garden tour we got treated to a nice brunch on their patio and it was a bit warm and we were tuckered out from our busy morning so decided to come back another time. Well, it took almost a year to get back but we were so glad that we did!! Oh my goodness, it takes your breath away. Beautiful plants and flowers everywhere and it goes on for miles. There are many gardens surrounding the visitor center that are easy to get to on foot. Click here to see the map.

There are many types of gardens to explore: roses, lilies and day lilies, herbs, annuals and perennials. There is a Japenese garden that we didn’t get to. We checked out the wildflower garden. It must have been between bloom times as we didn’t see any wildflowers but we did see a handful of turkeys! After wandering around on foot, we got in the car and explored even more on the 3 mile drive. There is a trolley that you could ride as well. There are more gardens in these outer areas of the Arb and I’d like to go back to see the Sculpture and Maze gardens. It’s utterly amazing all the plants and trees that are there! You really can’t see everything in one visit, so return I must. It is now on my “must do” list for twin cities visitors. There’s a reason it won the best botanical garden contest recently. Please have a look at what we saw on a summer afternoon in July. I hope you’ll enjoy!

First some roses, clematis and some annuals and perennials too.

bright pink petunias

more pink petunias

clematis

clematis up close

another beautiful clematis

stunning yellow!!

looks like a cat’s tail

canna

perennial geranium

lupine

I took some photos of the grounds as well. There were rows and rows of gorgeous lilies of all types and just general beauty everywhere.

there were some fountains

the day lily path

many asiatic and other lilies

Ruth called these snowball hydrangea

no wildflowers but several turkeys???

another beautiful fountain

petunia patch

Now for the rest of what I selected to display. I took 86 photos so I had to trim it down a little. If you’ve never been to the Arb and you live here, do make it a point to visit. I guarantee you’ll enjoy it. And if you’re visiting the twin cities, same instructions. You won’t be disappointed! Check out more information at this link. There is so much to explore there and I can’t wait to go back again.