Oh my gosh! haha... wasn't expecting the bear. He's er... handsome.

Pretty flowers! I've never had petunias look that good.

Bear surprised me,too!

The colors of the blooms are so rich. I love Hyssop, mine is planted in a terrible place where it doesn't get to grow to its full potential. Now that I see yours, I must move it.

LOL We have bears too. There seems to be more this year, than past years. Just have to be bear aware and pick up garbage so they can't get into it. They usually just pass through, don't stick around long.

My beebalm is blooming like crazy still, coneflowers and rudbeckias are putting on a nice show. Glads took off in all this rain finally. The dahlias are slower and some just starting to bloom. Roses are hanging in there. And many daylilies still blooming.I see this morning the foliage on the peonys is red.....so I am going to start cutting down the perennials and putting the garden to bed. Time to cut the begonias back and bring in.

How long have you had limelight? I tried pinky winky last year and it didn't come through the winter for me.

Sierra

Thanks everyone!

Scully - petunias usually don't look very good at this time of year but I think less sun makes a difference.

Schoolhouse, my hyssop is in full sun and seems happy there and it seems to be thriving on neglect.

Sierra, how are you doing 'up there'! ;-D The bears have never bothered buried compost here before and our garbage gets burned so that's not a problem. The Limelight hydrangea is new this year so I hope it makes it thru the winter. I may mulch it along with the roses altho it's supposed to be hardy. Sorry about your Pinky Winky, it's a lovely one and I will watch for it - where did you get it? I wonder if lack of snow cover last winter was the cause? I know the ground was bare in January here which doesn't help shrubs.

Nice to see some blooms from one of the colder zones. I have grown Limelight hydrangea for a few years and mulch it well for winter, also put chicken wire around it as deer and rabbits ate it to the ground the first year.

Does Agastache foeniculum candelabra, Lavender Hyssop, smell like lavender? I grow anise hyssop as well as a few others and hate the anise fragrance. Would love a lavender one.

I'm not too fond of bears after having one swat the tent we were sleeping in at a campground in Glacier National Park many years ago. It ran away when my hubby calmly said "Shoo, go away." I was terrified. That was the end of camping for us that trip!

Hey,we are doing good now that the smoke has cleared from all this rain. We can breath again.

I bought the Pinky Winky at Richbar. It was either a 2 gallon or 5 gallon pot. I covered it with a cloth shrub cover for the winter.....didn't help. I think PW is rated zone 4 or 5. I knew it was a risky plant....but soooo pretty. lol I think I had more snow and earlier than you last year up here on the hill.
Let me know how limelight does for you next spring.

On my holidays, I drove past a house that had 3 huge hydreageas in their front yard. Big huge blue flower heads and they had planted old fashioned pink hollyhocks. What a beautiful scene all in bloom. Okay it was zone 7......but it made me drool. Sigh.

Sierra

mnwsgal, thanks for the tip about the deer liking the Limelight. Somehow I had in my mind that they didn't so I will protect it this fall. My hyssop is 'Blue Fortune', sorry I somehow got the wrong name. It smells only faintly like licorice. Scary night camping with the bears.

Sierra, IKWYM about the smoke, it was bad here too until the rains came in mid-August. I'm thinking about heavily mulching my Limelight along with the roses. Hate buying plants and losing them unnecessarily. Yeah, I can equate with drooling over warmer zone gardens but there are other problems in those zones. When I lived in the Okanagan I was *really* tired of watering and it's more difficult to be organic.

Ooh, I have some 'Blue Fortune' hyssop seedlings to plant out tomorrow.

I only use the wire to protect Limelight for winter. During the summer I spray with Liquid Fence and haven't had any damage.

Luckygal- No more complaining about my deer...I'll take them over Bruin (handsome, though he is) any time!

Your flowers are beautiful! I love that purple bee balm. Where did you get it? Let us know how the agastache does, too, because if it overwinters well for you, I might try some :)

I'm hoping my Limelight will not be found by the deer as it's in the same area as my roses which is inside the dog's fenced area. Hopefully her scent will deter them. However, it will be also fenced with it's own mesh so I can heavily mulch it.

LL, lucky me, I have deer as well as Bruin! The bee balm was from one of the Canadian big box stores (Real Canadian Wholesale Club) and in a little 4" pot. Their plants were quite good this year and not very expensive. All the plants I got there have grown well. I'm letting the agastache self-seed so I hope to get lots of babies even if the plants don't survive. I've seen mixed zones for this plant, when I bought it the tag said zone 3 but I've seen zone 5 online. It's in an area that gets good snow cover so that may help.