The Garden in July

I'm rather overdue on posting these pictures, since many of these flowers have faded already. The California poppies are still going strong, and the Columbine are hanging in there, but the true poppies are gone, and some strong winds took the last of the petals off of the Lincoln Constance climbing rose today:


The crabapple that it's climbing on is dead and must be removed, but that would leave my rose without support. I'm considering -- and one of the older ladies who walks around the neighborhood a lot concurs with my idea -- of cutting out the smaller branches and leaving the main trunk and a few strong branches for the rose to clamber over.

The former ugliest corner, now transformed into a veggie garden, is coming along. Later on, as the pink geraniums bloom more profusely, the front bed will look even better.


Columbines came up in many spectacular colors this year. They tend to wander all over my garden. I didn't get a good shot of the native Aquilegia formosa, which is small and bright orange, before it faded, but the others that turned up are here, starting with the blue and white:

Here's a solid blue:
A dramatic coral pink, with yellow highlights in the center:

A dwarf red-and-white named variety, "The Hobbit," which alas, did not set seed:


And my favorite this year, a shell-pink Columbine with heartbreakingly delicate shading:

California poppies can come in more colors than blazing orange. Here are some in pink:

And a sweet vanilla white:
This pretty annual lavender poppy came from seed sold by one of the historical gardens in town. I made a point of saving seed for it this year for seed exchanges.

I also saved seed from this pink double poppy that appeared all by itself.