Annual Flowers – Page 2 – Bloomingdale Garden

Crimson Clover

I scattered a bunch of crimson clover seed a while ago as a nitrogen-fixing ground cover, but I wasn’t quite prepared for how pretty the flowers are.

Pollinator-Friendly Seeds

Thanks to our neighbor Anne who donated a pint of seeds harvested in her own garden last season from pollinator-friendly flowering plants: yarrow, coreopsis, echinacea, joe pye weed, black eyed susan, and sage.

These have been scattered into planters and tree beds throughout the garden and I expect to see some of them later this summer, with others remaining dormant and cropping up in subsequent years.

Thanks again, Anne!

Grandpa Ott

My favorite variety of morning glories continues to be the Bavarian “Grandpa Ott” with its deep purple blooms.

They do a great job of climbing the fence — or bamboo rods, or tall plants, or anything else they can find for support — and although their flowers don’t stay open for long, there are so many of them that they provide a constant stream of color for months throughout the late summer and into the fall.

Brilliant Cockscombs

Most of the flowers are gone from the garden, but the cockscombs (Celosia) are still vibrant.

Catnip Flowers

Much of the garden’s catnip is now in full flower.

All of this catnip stems from a single small flowerpot I brought home and placed on my windowsill a decade ago — it’s a prolific self-seeder, and has spread itself to multiple nearby containers and treebeds.

Strawflowers

The sidewalk planters we added this spring have provided some lovely additional space for these new strawflowers (Bracteantha) to catch the sun.

Sunflowers In Bloom

These wild-strain sunflowers top out at three feet tall, so they aren’t as impressive as the giant forms, but they’re lovely nonetheless, and later in the season the seeds should provide some good eating for the birbs.

Developing Sunflowers

This looks like it could be some kind of scary monster, but it’s just the growth tip of a flower emerging in one of my planters.

Spring Floral Additions

We took a trip to Metropolitan Plant & Flower Exchange in Fort Lee and picked up a bunch of bedding flowers to be added to the garden planters and the treebeds here and around the neighborhood, including the following:

Petunia — Starlet White; Tritunia White; Tritunia Plum; Tritunia Veined Mix
Marigold — Taishan Mix
Dwarf Snapdragon — White; Yellow; Pink Rose
Dianthus (“Sweet William”) — White; Pink Mix
Celosia (“Cockscomb”) — Glorious Mix
Verbena (“Vervain”) — Obsession Blue with Eye; Obsession Pastel Mix
Lobelia — Hot Brilliant Blue
Lantana — Bandana Rose
Calibrachoa — Conga Red
Bracteantha (“Strawflower”) — Mohave Basket Yellow
Coreopsis (“Tickseed”) — Beauty Sunrise

Morning Glory Color

I love the intense colors of the morning glory assortment outside my office.