The persistent pansy: The Sequel

We came home from three weeks vacation in mid-August and found that all of the pansies planted last October had finally died.

But then I found this fellow poking up through a crack in the sidewalk, a few feet from where the other blue pansies had been planted:

I assume this child of that batch will be the last, but am curious to see if others pop up.

June blooms

Here is everything in my yard that was in bloom on June 28th:

Calais lily (a potted plant gift I planted last year)

Dark pink astilbe

Pink hydrangea bush (before the deer ate the blooms)

Pink hydrangea bushes

Sweetshrub (the deer didn't eat this year)

Blue hydrangea

Yuk--what's left of the hellebore blooms

White echinacea (not exactly deer-proof)

Cosmos (grown from seed in my basement)

Marigolds (purchased in bloom)

The persistent pansy (all that are left)

An easy way to make watercolor pictures of your garden

I don't normally review apps or profess to know that much about them, but I recently discovered the Waterlogue app and have been using it to make watercolor-ed versions of flowers in my garden.

I spent part of an hour turning photos of my garden into "watercolors," all while watching something on PBS. This may be my new hobby, at least from time to time.

Here are some samples (this includes flowers from earlier in the season and from last summer):

May showers brought these May flowers

Here are the flowers that managed to bloom in my yard this month amid the near-constant rain (which may have delayed the bloom cycle somewhat):

Chive blossoms

Peony

Clematis

Pansies (still going!)

Dahlia (annual) [a flower from the dump pile at a garden store]

Color that remains in the November garden

Walking around with my camera on November 5th, I captured the remaining color in my garden.

We've had a unusually mild autumn, but there have been a few cold overnights. Yet the zinnias that I had planted in my deck container are still in bloom, despite the leaf mildew that is overwhelming the rest of the plant. I have decided that zinnias are my favorite summer flower--they bloom all summer (and into the fall), come in vibrant colors, and thrive despite being pot-bound. Even better, I transplanted the remaining couple of plants to my yard to see if the deer would have their way with them,  but they have proven deer-resistant (as advertised) so far.

Zinnias (annual)

Other flowers still in bloom:

Pink begonia (perennial)

Marigolds (annual)

Faded blooms:

Chrysanthemums (perennial)

Hydrangea

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Finally, let us now praise the persistent pansy...

Deer-proof flowers: chrysanthemums

I've discovered a flower that the deer will not eat under any circumstance. And it's freely available--and cheap.

What is this miracle flower? Chrysanthemums.

Every fall I buy a couple of pots of mums to put in my deck box. A couple of years ago, I decided that, instead of tossing them out when cold weather hits and the blooms fade, I'd put the plant into the ground to see if it might survive.

It came back gangbusters. The plant below was originally a small plant in a pot. I have since divided it four or five times so that it is in different parts of my yard. But it seems to thrive in this one spot near my driveway, which gets a lot of sun.