Today in the Front Yard Bed

I started to call this post, "For Larry" because he has been asking me to plant more mums.  I am off work this week, and had a number of errands I needed to run today, so while out, I went to a local garden center where I got my 'Debonair' mums a couple years ago.  Mums have not been one of my favorite flowers to grow.  Either they have spread too far and wide, and were not that pretty, or else I liked the blooms, but they didn't survive the winter.  Since the 'Debonair' ones have done well, and the nursery had advertised their mums and perennials being half off, I went and found three to plant.  All of the mums they had were Belgian ones.  I hadn't heard of them, since I'm not really up on mums.  When I looked them up, I found that they are newer, and may not need to be cut back during the summer.  Some even bloom in the spring, then you can cut them to a few inches and they'll bloom again in the fall.  I don't think I would like a mum to bloom in the spring.  It seems unnatural.  Well, I just hope they get established enough to survive the winter.  They have not wilted at all so far.  (I didn't get any other perennials, because I didn't see any I wanted, and some did not look too good.)

When I went out to take photos of the new mums, I also took photos of the whole bed, then decided to include some of them in the post.

This is facing east.  The 'Gateway' Joe Pye Weed didn't seem to bloom as long as the other kind I have grown.

This is the salvia I started from putting spent blooms from some plants at church in the bed and the cockscomb from last year's plants I'd started from seeds from a neighbor.

The iris rebloomed earlier this year than last, and only had one or two blooms this time.  I'm continuing to enjoy the snapdragons, including the ones on the right.

Facing south, these are the 'Debonair' mums.  I divided the clump this spring, and planted a clump on the other side of the sidewalk.

Turning back to the east and north, the mum on the right is 'Geneva'.  I did not cut back the dead heads on the narrow leafed coneflower on its left this summer, like I always had in the past.  I wonder if there will be new little ones competing with the other echinacias that have volunteered.

I didn't realize that the different Belgium mums have different bloom times.  I read that the 'Genevas' are considered early bloomers.  Early means September.

We are now facing west.  I'm glad Larry kept asking me to plant more mums.  They do add color.

 And, here we have, 'Rhinos Orange', a very early bloomer.

 Looking to the south and west, there is one more new mum on the right side of the photo.

The 'Pia' hydrangea between two of the mums looks good to me, even though the leaves have spots like they came with, which may be a disease, and the flowers are spent.

 Of the three mums I got today, I think this 'Beladoni' is my favorite.  It's listed as a late bloomer on the site I was looking at.

On my way home today, I took some side streets to look at people's yards.  The cleomes in others' yards have more blooms than mine.  Next year, I'll do a better job deadheading.

The 'Harvest Moon' Echinacea did not bloom much this year.  I'm thinking this plant, which is just getting a bloom on it, is a volunteer that just came up this year.  I wonder what the bloom will look like when it's open more.

The love lies bleeding is about finished for the season, but still has color.  The scraggly plant to its right is a hibiscus, which had a nice long bloom time this year.
 

One more view to the east and south, I hope the birds enjoy the coneflower seeds.

It was predicted to get down to 32 later in the week, but the lowest now, is to be 37.  It's supposed to rain tonight, and be windy tomorrow.  I hope to get the rest of the compost spread out and start digging against the veggie garden fence so we can put some rabbit fencing around.