Tomorrow is Gardenblogger Bloom Day and this month there’s plenty to show, but let’s examine what these plants require to keep on blooming like this.
SALVIA X SUPERBA ‘MAY NIGHT’
On the left is a perennial that’s popular because it’s a DOER, blooming like crazy all summer with little or no help from the gardener. So yes, I’d call it pretty near sustainable, as perennials go. Its neighbors are lamb’s ears, creeping sedum groundcover, and on the right, the foliage of an ‘Oron’ spirea.
TRADESCANTIA VIRGINIANA (SPIDERWORT).jpg)
Next, on the right, is a wildflower around these parts, and recently the subject of much Yahoo group discussion – what’s this weed? And it appeared here as a weed, too, or to be kinder, a volunteer. Its foliage looks notoriously crapping after blooming, however, so I hack it back, which results in much better looking new growth and a bit of reblooming. So I’ve made my peace with spiderwort and it can stay where it is in my garden. Others are using the "I" word – invasive – and complaining that’s hard to get rid of, especially in gardens farther south than here.
RHODODENDRONS AND AZALEAS – WITH HEMLOCK
Okay, I live in the heart of Azalea Belt so I’ve gotta have a few, and I do. Just a few. NOT a whole garden of them, but that’s another post. And I can’t even tell you which one this is but I do know the name of the rhodie in the foreground – the English Roseum type. That’s all I know, plus the discouraging information that it’s sold as one that does especially well in this area and STILL they’re dying off in my garden, one by one. My 
guess is that, like mountain laurels, they’re happier at higher elevations. But whatever the reason, I routinely advice against them.
What I like most in this woodland tableau is the new foliage on my Canadian hemlock – one of my favorite trees. Yes, it’s under siege by a deadly invading insect but to me, hemlocks are worth a little coddling, if required, to keep them alive. I keep an eye out for the telltale tiny cotton ball signs of wooly adelgid and am ready to buy a product!
‘RAINBOW‘ KNOCKOUT ROSES
Now I know that Knockout roses are proliferating in gardens at such a rate that I may eventually be just as sick of them as I am of azaleas, but for now I’m promoting ‘em – big-time. That’s because unlike azaleas, they contribute to the garden for months. In this area from May through November – seriously. With perfect foliage, and no fertilizer required.
Shown here on the right are three Knockouts of the ‘Rainbow’ variety that I planted last June. I’ve never fed them and they bloomed very happily right up until the first hard frost. They’re on their way to becoming 4 or 5 feet tall and wide and making a nice big contribution to the garden. I say God love ‘em.
Also blooming are the snowball viburnum, Mexican evening primrose, all the weigelas, a glorious Renaissance spirea, and some Johnson’s geraniums.
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ere’s what’s going on.
