Garden Tour

This is the front corner of my house. When I bought it 5 years ago, the pine trees were only as high as the newel post at the bottom of the steps and the hydrangea was pretty small. The hydrangea was looking fantastic this year until the rains mashed it down. It's hard to see on the front porch but there is a pot of dark purple petunias and what was supposed to be purple/white fuscia. I wasn't so happy when the fuscia opened and it was pink :(

To the side of the porch is my eventual "cutting garden" that I want filled with lots of tall flowers. It's still a work in progress but the bee balm has just opened and it smells Divine. The garden contains red and pink bee balm, blue balloon flowers, hardy geranium and yellow/maroon day lilies. The phlox has yet to bloom while the bleeding heart has finished. The purple delphinium will rebloom in a month or so.

This is the front garden, outside my studio. Yes, those are the feeders where Pepper watches birdievision. It needs some rearranging because the birds dropped cone flower seeds and now there are tall cone flowers in front of shorter plants. This garden has purple, yellow and white cone flowers just starting to open - I'm sure the birds will be in heaven. The yellow cone flowers (surrounding the shepard's hook) are over 6 feet tall this year! The yellow stella d'oro and sun drops are just about done but now the maroon and purple day lilies are opening. Both my purple clematis are a little unhappy with the recent heat but also 6+ feet high.

This little purple cone flower has curly leaves!