After posting so many inter pictures of soil, stone, road signs, plumbing, empty wine barrels and mockery of French culture, I suppose I should share some pictures of actual flowers for a change. I mean, this is about gardening after all. Unfortunately though, I do not work with many flowers. The landscapes are designed to be compatible with the surrounding forests, so flowers are minimal. I already shared pictures of most of the best. Some of these are from gardens that I do not work with. I just thought that they were pretty.
1. Avens finished blooming more than a week ago. I just really liked this picture because it is such a nice swirly orange color. Until I found these, I had not seen avens in many years, and did not expect to see it anytime soon. Since featuring it in the gardening column, I have found that others in other regions are quite familiar with it, and this it more popular than I would have guessed. http://www.canyon-news.com/ph-has-ups-and-downs/80473
2. Lobelia is one of the more common warm season annuals. This is not from one of the landscapes that I work with, but looked good enough in a planter box in town for me to get a picture of it. I do not know what variety it is. There are many varieties nowadays that I am not familiar with anyway. Back in the 1980s, bright blue lobelia was popular alternated with white alyssum. I thought it looked rather silly at the time, but would not mind seeing it now. It was such an 80s look.
3. Pelargonium was in the same planter box as the lobelia. I know neither the species nor the cultivar. Again, it was just too pretty to pass up without getting a picture. It is more diminutive than the sorts of pelargoniums that I am familiar with. The plants are very compact. The variegated leaves and flowers are quite small.
4. Zonal Geranium happens to be one of my favorite perennials because it was one of my first. Although I grew my first for only a short while when I was very young, I still grow one that I found in a trash pile when I was in junior high school, and another that I found naturalized in a creek near San Martin shortly after I graduated from college. I bring pieces of them everywhere I go. Both are the big and weedy types that are probably very closely related to the straight species. The first one is the very common bright pink with leaves that lack halos. The second is the very common bright orange red with only slight halos on the leaves. Getting back to this remarkably bright red zonal geranium; it is not one of mine. The leaves have only very light halos. The growth seems to be almost as vigorous and weedy as my bright orange red one, but not quite. It is more tame, and more prolific with bloom. The bright red color is prettier too.
5. Lithodora looks prettier close up that it really looks in the landscape. It was planted into one of the newer small landscapes, but is not growing very well. I found the name to be amusing because it seems to mean that it smells like a rock. However, someone recently explained to me that the name means that it adores rocks, since it naturally grows in soil that is too rocky for other plants.
6. White Hydrangea is a nonconformist among all the hydrangeas that I fertilized to be either pink or blue. So far, the pink ones are still pink, and the blue ones are still blue. The few white ones are always white. http://www.canyon-news.com/ph-has-ups-and-downs/80473
This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate:
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/
Tony Tomeo 
Back in the 1950’s in UK my Dad was a keen gardener and he lined the front garden beds with alyssum and lobelia every year
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How funny. I would not have guessed that it was popular back then. I think of it as a fad in the 1990s. It was getting popular while I was still in school in the late 1980s. Perhaps it was always there but I did not notice.
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I have only just discovered Geum, what a lovely little flower. The cocktail series has some great colors. I’m still not convinced of their longevity, though. I lost a bunch last winter so am watching and waiting a bit longer before I put them in too many gardens.
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It had always been uncommon here, and I had not seen it for a long time when I wrote about it, but since writing about it, I found that others in other regions are quite familiar with it. It is funny how regional such styles are.
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Hadn’t heard of Avens so had to look it up. It looks like a rose, almost, doesn’t it? Quote pretty!
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You are the second to say so. I thought it was rare too, until I wrote about it and heard from those who thought it to be somewhat common. It does happen to be related to rose, or more closely related to strawberry.
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I’m trying to source some avens (geum) here after seeing them on the blogs of NH folks. They’re a charming flower. A very colourful six from you this week, Tony.
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Thank you. Now, you are the third to express that avens is uncommon, after I earlier got the impression that it was only uncommon here.
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I didn’t notice mockery about the French culture in the previous SoS but it‘s true that it brings more colors and flowers.
The blue lobelias are adorable. I grow red (L Cardinalis) and they are not in bloom yet. Fortunately there was no damage caused by slugs because of the heat wave we have.
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The Lobelia cardinalis that I remember was grown as cut flower back in 1986. I have not seen it since. This bedding lobelia is a completely different animal. I would not plant it, but it is so pretty when others plant it. Not many flowers can provide such nice blue.
The mockery of French Culture was more of a mockery of the unfounded reverence of French Culture exhibited by the local nouveau riche culture. I rarely pass up an opportunity to mention how foul French wine smells. Fortunately, the French are either difficult to offend, or not at all concerned with my opinion. Regardless, they are good sports about it.
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I remembered that you don’t like wine….
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rotten grape juice
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And they are all beautiful!
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Thank you. The redwood trees next week are not so colorful, but I like to show them off more.
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See you can do flowers Tony – and you have a lovely selection there. Like the Lithodora close up.
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Ha! They are actually not mine. Some just happen to be in landscapes that I work in. I thought that I should submit pictures of at least a few flowers before I get voted off the island. Thank you anyway.
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Love the story that you have kept a piece of pelargonium going that you found when you were a lad. Great colourful six!
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Oh, thank you. I repeat that story a bit too often perhaps.
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A good story is always a good story.
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Flowers from Tony?! Wow, the pelargonium and of course the white hydrangea are my favorites this week.
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Are my posts that predictable? I plan on doing redwoods next week, so will need to throw in something blooming too. The white hydrangea was my favorite too, of course.
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A pretty 6 from Tony! Hooray! No more rocks….😉. Love the white Hydrangea; I have pink, lime and bluethis year but they are hating the hot, dry weather we are experiencing here at the moment. They are quite fashionable here at the moment.
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No more rocks? . . . for now perhaps. I will eventually need to post pictures of them to show how frost tolerant they are in winter. They are doing quite will with the summer warmth at the moment. (This is might be the only region in the Northern Hemisphere that is not getting the unseasonable heat.) They are remarkably resistant to disease and insect infestation too!
Hydrangeas are trendy here too, but they probably should not be. Ours happen to do well here, but most of the region is more arid than they like. The flowers do not last so well in the dry air.
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