From Zone 7 in the North Carolina Piedmont.

My late summer garden is doing better than I had expected it to. It is dry now, but after a winter and spring of drought, we actually had more or less adequate rain this summer until just a few weeks ago.

I really miss all the dahlias. They would be at their peak right now. I'm not sorry I took them out--I'm making serious strides toward a lower maintenance and drought tolerant garden--but I do miss all their extravagant color. To all of you to whom I had promised tubers--I dug them up this spring, cleaned them off, pagkaged them and addressed the boxes, didn't have the money to mail them right away (they are heavy and expensive to mail,) and then forgot about them until they died! I'm sorry--both to have let a couple of hundred dollars worth of lovely dahlia tubers go to waste, and to not have followed through with my promise to you.

Right now the Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' is the biggest show. Also tithonia, garden phlox, bronze fennel, echinacea (I put in some of the new cultivars 'Harvest Moon', 'Sunset' and 'Sunrise', this spring and added some "White Swan" and 'Fragrant Angel' to the mix.) A vivid orange montbretia with a scarlet throat is blooming now--I have forgotten which cultivar it is, or it might be common montbretia. I did keep a few dahlias and the bright red 'Smarty Pants' is looking nice with the orange and yellows of the rudbeckia. tithonia and bronze fennel. My red salvia greggii has bloomed all summer as have two tall blue salvias, one deep blue and one sky blue. I am blanking on their species names right now. The moon vine scents the night air, competing with the tuberoses. I have a stand of salmon pink ginger lilies in their 3rd year that are putting on a good show for the first time. Some of the ammi majus is still blooming. I let tall, white wild asters establish themselves and they are branching out now, also bidens from wild seed. The joe-pye weed is doing well, and the rampant wild goldenrod I made the mistake of planting a few years ago, as well as the tartarian asters are just starting to show buds. A few of the perennial ageritum have small buds. I have really tall perennial sunflowers (10 to 12 feet) that bloom in very late fall. They may be maximillian's but I have never been able to definitively identify them--anyway--they are diseased and I am going to have to try to pull all of them out.

Last fall I planted some native hydrangea (same species as Annabelle)and they have taken right off. This spring I planted 3 Tellar Blue lace-caps and two Endless Summer mopheads. I look forward to seeing them bloom in the years ahead.

Been messing around in the shade garden also, but I've gone on long enough. I would love to hear about your August garden!

Janie