{"id":110445,"date":"2026-07-29T15:30:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T19:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=110445"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:30:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T19:30:45","slug":"mid-summer-miscellany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=110445","title":{"rendered":"mid-summer miscellany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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looking west<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By the end of July the garden is definitely over the top. A surging, buzzing, no-holds-barred spectacle I’ve been looking forward to since spring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By mid-summer the only place to rest your eye is the sky. (And fences and houses…) My motto is the eye can rest when it sleeps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Alstroemeria ‘Third Harmonic’ rampaged through the zone 10 garden, but surprisingly behaves much more meek and understated on the Oregon coast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even Alstroemeria ‘Third Harmonic’ can barely keep up. The Silver Spike grass, Achnatherum calamagrostis, seems to keep it in bounds. The grasses are the glory of this very windy coastal garden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I do have to brag about the clean lines of my Eryngium pandanifolium. I pulled off so many splaying, crosswise, thorny leaves in spring that I wasn’t sure it would be strong enough to bloom. And here it is with three shoots forming. If you want to grow this big eryngo in a small garden, cleaning up the leaves in spring is the only way. And no lie, it’s a nasty job requiring long sleeves and gloves. Otherwise it will be a sprawlingly annoying and scratchy mess that you will grow to hate as passionately as you once admired it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marty has been staring at our overstuffed garden for so long, after visiting another recently he asked, Where are all the plants? And why are the paths so wide? Ha, I’ve made a convert!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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persicaria has become the bees favorite, bumping the butterfly verbascum from the top of their list<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While I was away for a week the persicarias swung into action. Obviously preferred by the bees to all else, the persicarias have added incredible vibrancy to the scene. Just standing next to all the noisy thrumming action gets me buzzing with energy too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dahlia is ‘Windcliff Peach’ with the yellow scrim provided by the butterfly verbascum, V. roripifolium. With Persicaria ‘Summer Dance,’ veronicastrum, allium, Crocosmia ‘Limpopo’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lobelia tupa is a hummingbird battleground by July. Leafy tower on the left is tithonia, which depending on ultimate size may be too much for this little corner to bear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I like how Lobelia tupa gets leavened a bit by the variegated figwort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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First order of business next spring is dividing Sanguisorba ‘Red Thunder.’ After several years’ growth, its falling-off-the-barstool, lush and leaning ways would be impossible to manage without bronze fennel for support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bergenia ciliata in the concrete tank. Digitalis grandiflora, phygelius, thalictrum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This little corner near the east fence somehow became filled with buttery yellows for mid-summer, a gratifying bit of serendipity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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yellow and orange foxgloves that bloom later in summer are my preference over the spring kinds like purpurea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Thalictrum flavum ssp. glaucum seems too delicate a thing to join the mid-summer rumble<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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When it became apparent that this kniphofia was not the dwarf torch lily I thought I purchased (K. hirsuta), it was moved out of inappropriately tight quarters. So what was it? This summer has indisputably revealed its identity as Kniphofia northiae, the Octopus Red Hot Poker. The polar opposite of K. hirsuta, the dwarf poker, K. northiae is the giant in the group. Apart from pulling off a few tatty lower leaves, it comes through winter looking like this. (At least last winter, which was mild.) It produced a flower in spring, but it’s really more about the shape and scrollwork of the substantial leaves. And it likes my heavy, wet soil too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hydrangea ‘Dark Angel’ planted 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My sole hydrangea, picked up at the local farmers market a few years ago. Dark leaves, picotee flowers give it a novelty look that leaves me uncommitted, but it pretty much grows itself. I could fill the east borders with them, they love the coast that much. Silver-leaved Argentina lineata was moved to the less crowded east side of the house this spring. Over the years I’ve made repeated attempts to get the spinach substitute purple-leaved orach established enough to self-sow in both north and south gardens. Maybe this year does the trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dahlia ‘Crazy Legs’ picked up at Swan Island Dahlias a few weeks ago, same day as the Cistus Plant Fair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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seen around town, white breadseed poppies noted for next year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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While in the Bay Area we visited a Gravenstein apple orchard, a fruit that goes back to the 17th century<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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at the orchard I met a sweet pup named Presley who loved lounging in the thyme<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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agaves on the streets of San Francisco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I finally secured the sheet of die-cut salvage metal I’ve been eyeing for years at the local welder’s. The owner was never there, no one knew what to charge, etc. etc., but yesterday the stars aligned and we agreed to pay per pound. Tucked out of the way for now. More soon, AGO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the end of July the garden is definitely over the top. A surging, buzzing, no-holds-barred spectacle I’ve been looking forward to since spring. Even Alstroemeria ‘Third Harmonic’ can barely keep up. The Silver Spike grass, Achnatherum calamagrostis, seems to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[550,5119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","category-oregon-garden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-sJn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110445"}],"version-history":[{"count":102,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110593,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110445\/revisions\/110593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}