August in the garden brings a special kind of magic—the culmination of months of careful planning, planting, and nurturing finally paying off in spectacular displays of color, texture, and fragrance. Our mid-August garden walk reveals not just the triumphs of the season, but also the honest realities of summer gardening, including maintenance needs, plant performance evaluations, and those inevitable "user error" moments that teach us valuable lessons.

Starting Strong: The Invincible Sublime Hydrangea Hedge

Our tour begins with one of our most reliable performers—the Invincible Sublime hydrangea hedge that has truly earned its name. Even after months of continuous blooming, these hydrangeas maintain their stunning appearance without the browning or color fade that often plagues other varieties by late summer.

What makes these hydrangeas particularly impressive is their resilience to our challenging upstate New York summer storms. While they've taken a few hits from high winds, they've maintained their upright habit with minimal flopping—a stark contrast to our previous limelight hedge that would flatten with every storm.

The pairing with the weeping Ruby Falls redbud behind creates a striking backdrop, with the dark purplish-red foliage providing perfect contrast to the green and white of the hydrangeas. This combination demonstrates how thoughtful plant partnerships can enhance both elements throughout the season.

The Entrance Garden: Creating Welcoming Arrivals

Fountain and Fragrance Combinations

Our Katarina fountain in gray stone serves as both a visual and auditory focal point, though we've learned to run it only when we're outside due to splashing. Behind it, our hedge of Lady of Shalott roses is preparing for another flush after recent deadheading, with incredible new growth already visible.

This rose placement was intentional—positioned against the wall so we can enjoy their amazing fragrance from our terrace seating area. The strategy has proven successful, creating a fragrant backdrop for outdoor entertaining.

Pollinator Paradise in Full Swing

One of our most successful combinations centers around self-seeding Verbena bonariensis grown from a single packet of seeds several years ago. This investment continues paying dividends as the verbena reseeds annually, combining beautifully with Tottenhot Bendy and Rock 'N Playin' the Blues salvia.

This area represents pollinator heaven—by midday, it's covered with butterflies. The morning light reveals the delicate beauty of these combinations, but it's during peak sun hours that the true magic happens as countless pollinators visit for nectar and pollen.

Hydrangea Performance Reports

Continuous Blooming Success: Let's Dance Skyview

Our trio of Let's Dance Skyview hydrangeas demonstrates the value of newer, continuous-blooming varieties. Despite dying completely to the ground during our harsh winter due to cold temperatures and wind exposure, they've reflushed vigorously and maintained blooms all summer long.

The beauty of this variety lies in its non-stop flowering habit—you can simultaneously see older blooms, fresh flowers, and developing buds. For gardeners wanting guaranteed hydrangea blooms regardless of winter damage, continuous-blooming varieties offer reliability that traditional mophead hydrangeas can't match.

Panicle Hydrangeas Beginning Their Color Show

August marks the beginning of the panicle hydrangea color transition. Our Quick Fire Fab is starting to show pink tones as cooler nights trigger the color change that will intensify through fall. Combined with the prismatic pink phlox and Tough Stuff Ah Ha coral bells, this area creates layered textures and colors that capture late summer's transition toward autumn.

Rose Performance and Lessons Learned

David Austin Rose Characteristics

Our Ancient Mariner rose exemplifies the qualities David Austin bred into his roses—particularly the translucent petals that create a glowing effect in morning light. By late summer, the blooms become beautifully blousy with loose petals opening to reveal attractive yellow stamens at the center.

This rose, combined with the surrounding purple-blue plantings and pollinator activity, creates one of our favorite vignettes in the garden. The translucent quality Austin prized allows morning light to create an almost ethereal glow that changes throughout the day.

Surprising Performances and Disappointments

Our Flavor of Honey Apricot rose from Proven Winners continues to be a standout performer. Despite tag information suggesting these roses reach eight feet tall, ours have remained more compact—likely due to our cooler zone 6A conditions. Sometimes plants adapt to local conditions in ways that create better garden proportions than expected.

Conversely, some areas reveal the importance of proper irrigation coverage. Plants showing stress often indicate the need for watering system adjustments rather than inherent plant problems.

The Edible Garden: Casual Success

Our approach to edible gardening remains deliberately casual—we grow what intrigues us and don't stress about perfection. This philosophy shows in our sprawling strawberry plants that we've largely stopped harvesting, choosing to enjoy them as ornamental groundcover instead.

Container Success Stories

The cascade hydrangeas surrounded by Super Bells demonstrate how mixing ornamental and edible plants can create attractive combinations. Our single tomato plant has proven that sometimes less is more, providing adequate production without overwhelming the space.

Accidental Treasures

One of our favorite discoveries came from an "accidental" perennial—Lavender Mist Meadow Rue that arrived as a volunteer in another plant purchase. We initially thought it might be Columbine, but this beautiful perennial has proven so valuable that we now collect seeds annually and spread it throughout the garden.

This experience reinforces the value of letting unknown plants establish before making removal decisions—sometimes the best garden additions are unplanned gifts.

Mid-Season Plant Evaluations

Outstanding Performers

Several plants deserve recognition for exceptional mid-season performance:

Morning Light Miscanthus continues to prove itself as an excellent choice for part-shade ornamental grass, providing movement and texture without becoming invasive.

Gem Boxwoods recently installed are already settling in well, benefiting from drip irrigation spacing that allows individual attention to each plant.

Rock Steady Chaste Trees are performing beautifully and will be treated like butterfly bushes in our zone—cut to the ground each spring to maintain size while ensuring reliable bloom on new wood.

Performance Insights

Our Pinky Winky Prime hydrangea is emerging as a favorite, producing panicles up to 18 inches long on a plant installed just this spring as a three-gallon specimen. The remarkable growth and flower size suggest this variety will become a garden anchor.

The Let's Dance Rhythmic Blues hydrangeas have exceeded expectations, putting on incredible growth from tiny one-gallon starts and beginning their reblooming cycle right on schedule.

Water Management Reality Check

August reveals the critical importance of proper irrigation in our region. Despite typically receiving adequate rainfall, we've experienced nearly two months without significant precipitation, creating stress even in well-established plantings.

Our non-irrigated berm areas show visible water stress, prompting plans to extend drip irrigation to areas that don't normally require supplemental water. This experience reinforces that even drought-tolerant plants have limits, and backup irrigation can prevent substantial losses during unusual weather patterns.

Late Summer Color Combinations

The Dahlia Success Story

Our number six dahlia, grown from saved tubers, exemplifies the rewards of seed-starting and tuber saving. These plants have reached seven feet tall with stems long enough for substantial cut flower arrangements. The thick, tree-trunk-like canes demonstrate proper nutrition and growing conditions.

Textural Plant Combinations

The pairing of native ironweed with its olive-green texture and developing purple flowers creates striking contrasts. Having seen massive displays of this plant at the Chicago Botanic Garden increased our appreciation for its potential in the home landscape.

Gaura performance has proven much better in-ground than in containers, though some specimens are being crowded by more vigorous neighbors—a common challenge when combining plants with different growth rates.

Seasonal Transition Indicators

Early Fall Bloomers

Our fall-blooming anemones (Fall in Love Sweetly) are loaded with buds, promising the spectacular September display these plants are known for. When in full bloom, they're so floriferous that foliage virtually disappears beneath masses of flowers.

Beyond Midnight Caryopteris is approaching bloom time, having grown from a tiny spring installation to a substantial shrub. This plant may behave like a butterfly bush in our zone, dying back and returning each spring.

Color Evolution in Progress

The Purple Fountain Grass started as quart-sized plants and now provides substantial textural impact. We continue advocating for someone to develop a truly hardy version for zone 6 gardeners who love this plant's appearance.

Sweet Potato Vine (Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Shadow Storm) has begun its spreading mission, providing the coverage we need over waterfall access points while maintaining the flexibility to remove it for maintenance.

Maintenance and Management Insights

Successful Plant Partnerships

Our Meteor Shower verbena comparison with traditional Verbena bonariensis illustrates important differences for garden planning. The Meteor Shower variety stays shorter as a sterile hybrid, making it suitable for containers and formal plantings, while the traditional species grows taller and reseeds freely.

Understanding these characteristics helps in plant placement decisions—use the sterile hybrid where control is needed, and embrace the self-seeding species where naturalized effects are desired.

Problem-Solving Adjustments

Several areas reveal the need for adjustments:

• Thrips management on roses is showing improvement with treatment, allowing us to appreciate varieties like Chevai more fully as health improves
• Plant spacing decisions made with small plants sometimes need revision as mature sizes become apparent
• Irrigation coverage may need expansion in areas showing unexpected stress

Looking Forward: Fall Preparation Insights

Plant Removal and Addition Plans

Several plants are earmarked for removal or relocation, including a Weemaster Spider Flower drift that hasn't found its perfect location. These decisions, made during peak growing season when plant performance is most evident, guide fall reorganization projects.

The Invincible Mini Mavette hydrangea hedge that's struggling will be replaced with a better-suited alternative, demonstrating that even proven varieties don't succeed in every location.

Seasonal Planning Considerations

August evaluations inform fall planting decisions and next year's garden planning. Observing which plants thrive, struggle, or surprise us during peak season provides crucial data for future plant selections and placement strategies.

Irrigation Investment Returns

The extensive drip irrigation system throughout the garden proves its worth during dry periods. Areas with coverage maintain health and vigor, while non-irrigated spaces show stress despite being populated with typically drought-tolerant plants.

This real-world comparison validates the investment in proper irrigation infrastructure and suggests expansion to currently uncovered areas that experience occasional stress.

The Philosophy of Garden Observation

Our monthly garden walks serve multiple purposes beyond simple documentation. They provide opportunities to:

• Evaluate plant performance under real growing conditions
• Identify maintenance needs before they become major problems
• Appreciate successful combinations and understand why they work
• Learn from less successful plantings and plan improvements
• Document seasonal changes and timing for future reference

Embracing Garden Reality

August gardens reveal both triumphs and challenges. The prismatic pink phlox showing stress from inadequate watering reminds us that even experienced gardeners make mistakes. Acknowledging "user error" and learning from it leads to better garden management.

Similarly, accepting that some plant combinations work better than expected (like the compact Flavor of Honey Apricot roses) while others need adjustment (like overcrowded plant partnerships) helps us become more skilled garden managers over time.

The Rewards of Patience and Observation

Plants like our Claire Austin rose, purchased as an end-of-season clearance stick four years ago, finally reaching flowering maturity demonstrates the long-term perspective gardening requires. Similarly, our Metamorphosis Japanese maple doubling in size shows how patient observation helps us understand mature plant behavior and plan accordingly.

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Thanks for growing with us!