Oh, I love all your garden photos! Just gorgeous!
Thanks for sharing them with us.
My favorite two pics are 4 and 5.
Are those blue-violet asters under the red and white Luna Hibiscus? Wonderful combo.
~Annie

I really like the bright spot if your mums in containers. I love the name of your hydrangea lol. I will have to look it up.

Annie - that's aster 'Monch' with the hibiscuses. The red hibiscus in those pictures is 'Fireball' which has nice purple-ish foliage that looks like a cut-leaf Japanese maple! The pink hibiscuses are seedlings from a Disco Belle. Some of the seedlings come out pale pink with relatively small flowers (like the ones you see across the path) and others have huge flowers in darker shades of pink. The white in the picture is phlox 'David'.

Don't you just love Helenium??! One of my favs. Love that pic of the grassy path and the perennials and hibiscus leaning over. I've never been a huge fan of hibiscus, but your pics of them might have me changing my mind...
Beautiful woodyoak!
CMK

Yup, woodyoak, I took another look and see the other hibiscus is indeed pink. D'oh!
I have a huge pink one. It is Sweet Caroline. I didn't think I would love a pink one as much as my big red one, but I do! The minute I saw it at the nursery, I wanted it. I am so happy it bloomed so well for me again this year...and then the heat dome settled over us. :(
Anyway, I love all your colorful flowers along each side of the green path. Your garden really is lovely.
~Annie

So gorgeous and inspiring. Everything looks so HEALTHY! I was happy to see you have some mums in great big containers too. As much as I tried, I couldn't keep the roots small enough to get them in smaller containers (cuttings, root pruning until it became impossible). Do you overwinter the pots in garage or somewhere?

I too have a heptacodium tree that hasn't started yet, in back.

Your hydrangeas are gorgeous, do you have deer issues? ANd your hardy hibiscus, mine this year ....did something odd, flopped, disease? Wierd thing that brought maybe 2 weeks of flowers then ... ??

And phlox david, you have some of my favs! But it looks GREAT, considering brutal July. I bet you get TONS of compliments from passerby!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for those kind words :-)

The mums are just ones that are available as big pots ($6/pot) at local garden centers. I just pop them in the pots that had peas in them earlier in the summer. We do put the pots in the garage for the winter but the mums rarely survive that. The type sold as potted plants really aren't hardy here. I have a nice clump of some old-fashoned variety of mums that a neighbour gave me. They haven't started blooming yet. I also have some Clara Curtis ones that romp around the base of an old white cedar. They haven't started blooming yet either.

No deer issues - very suburban here.... :-) The nearest deer are likely a few miles away at least!

This was a great year for the hardy hibiscuses here, despite the heat and drought and not very much supplemental watering. I'm not sure if I posted this picture here earlier or not... this picture is from Aug. 2 and shows some Lord Baltimore hibiscuses (the first red one to bloom for me) with fading Veronicastrum and highbush cranberries. The hydrangeas in the picture at the begining of the thread are just past the viburnum and across a path from the veronicastrum and Lord Baltimore. (The picture compresses the view - there's actually 10-12' between the cranberries and the hibiscuses...)
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We do get a fair number of compliments on the garden :-) The neighbours to the south are elderly and greatly enjoy the garden so we make sure we have lots of colorful things facing their way. The 'hot' garden actually runs down our side of the strip between our driveway and theirs.

OMG! What a stellar shot that is woodyoak! You have me wanting one of those highbush cranberries now too...
CMK

Thanks so much for posting your pics, I just love that first pic w/ the 'Summer Wine' ninebark and the helenium. Helenium has become a fave of mine too!

In the front yard, I planted 'SW' ninebark with hot pink Knockout roses, and love to combine them with orange flowers for fall like helenium, profusion zinnias and mums. I grow fountain grass on either side of the steps, for the fine texture and seedheads. (I notice you have a little grass peeking in in photos 2 and 3). Thanks again for sharing! :o)

That last photo is stunning. Whew! I think I'll turn in now and have sweet dreams of red and white gardens.
Renee

Your gardens are always so pretty, Woody! I love the hibiscus and that Little Lamb is wonderful! I also envy your grassy path. It creates such an inviting sense of calm leading through the gardens.

Here in Alexandria (city), we never had to worry about deer until the past several years. I guess development further out has driven them back to our suburban/city neighborhood. So far, though, they spend more time next door-guess they prefer professional landscaping-ha!