This pretty much sums up my flowerbeds this summer:
I wish I could say this is a fancy new variegated phlox, but sadly it’s just a phlox completely smothered in powdery mildew. Blechhh!
The early start to the growing season held such promise. We had temperatures in the 70s and 80s in April, and everything took off like a shot. But for most of the summer months we’ve had nothing but rain and high humidity. And we never really got any rain “showers”. When it rained, IT RAINED…2, 3 or 4 inches at a time. In fact as I write this, another thunderstorm is overhead. So far it has dumped over a half-inch of rain in just 15 minutes. The angry rain cloud bit is wearing a little thin.
Almost every annual and perennial I grow—and there are thousands of them—is suffering from a fungal or bacterial disease. The notable exception is Monarda ‘Grand Parade’. It bloomed for 10 weeks and finally pooped out. I cut it back and now it looks like it’s gearing up for a second flush. All my other bee balms have at least some powdery mildew, but not ‘Grand Parade’. It’s one of the few bright spots in my yard:
This is usually the time of year when I scribble notes about the plants I liked and didn’t like and make decisions about what to grow next year. The weather has just been too harsh this summer to fairly judge any of the mess that is growing in my flowerbeds right now.
When the seed catalogs arrive in December I’m just going to have to go with my gut.