Different Sizes and Ages of Blooms for Blooming Friday

Katarina, at Roses and Stuff asked if we value larger or smaller blooms, whether we have a new flower that is blooming for the first time, or if we have any favorites we'd like to show. I had already exported photos, but was waiting so I could address her theme if she had one for Blooming Friday.

As for size, I go for variety. I like large ones for show, and smaller ones, which tend to bloom in groups, for filling spaces. I don't think I could choose one size over another.

This is my last daylily bloom of the season.

The octopus bellflowers have been blooming awhile. I like their color and shape.

The sea hollies have just been blooming a week or so. The liatris, a little longer.

I am very tickled that a few days after deadheading this clematis, 'Purpurea Plena Elegans' I planted last fall, it started blooming again.

I am pleased that since I have kept my stock deadheaded, it has bloomed so well all summer. It is an example of several small flowers clumped together.

I planted this Debonair mum last fall, and I think I showed the first bloom last week. This is the second one, and so far, that's all that have opened.

This is the September Charm Anemone I planted next to the mum last fall, and this is the first and only bloom opened so far.

I had to include this photo of the coneflower that was White Swan when I planted it, and last year, transplanted to my new front bed, where it changed colors. I guess I should quit deadheading now, but it has been full of blooms all summer.

The zinnias are continuing to do well, and a few sometimes do something different. This one has an extra set of petals.

Now, this dahlia, which I have been posting photos of a few weeks, has a nice large bloom, but is not the largest dahlias come. I had a larger kind, Vancouver, (shown in my October GBBD post) last year, and it needed more staking than this does, so far. I wish I remembered this one's name.

The strawflowers have been blooming all summer. I normally pinch the blooms off when they are at the stage the one on the right is, and dry them, but this year, I got behind, and kind of liked letting some stay on the plants longer.

I may have shown the second blooms of these delphiniums, but am so pleased with them, I wanted to show them again.

I am still loving my kiss me over the garden gate!

I think this is a salvia from a dried flower stock I put in the area from the volunteer by the driveway, which hasn't opened its blooms yet. Its parent is in last year's October GBBD post, too.

I think the next 3 are annual asters I planted in the flower box in front of the house.

I've shown these coreopsis before, too, shortly after planting them. I've had to deadhead them once, and now they are full of blooms again.

These snapdragons that survived the winter, and took turns blooming are now blooming together. I usually only let one plant stay when I plant annuals that have more than one in each cell of the container. I don't remember if I decided to do something different, or didn't notice at first, but once they had different colors of blooms, I'm surprised I didn't pick one over the other. Since they both came back this spring, I decided to let them be.

I took a few mature sprigs of salvia from a bed at church last year, and laid them around. This one just started blooming in the last week.

The jewels of Opar that came from seeds from one I had in a pot last year, are just starting to bloom.

The last photo subject is not a bloom, but the first of the beauty berry berries to ripen and turn their beautiful color. They are quite small, smaller than they look here. Small and large, flowers and berries can be quite lovely!