PINK PHLOX

I late July Julia's garden was filled with a backdrop of pink phlox.  Like her, they were tall and elegant. Pink phlox always return me of Julia's garden in Maine where, many years back, she taught me to be a gardener.

There are times when I step into the perennial garden here that I see Julia, of course not her but the influence and memories of her garden. I continue to use elements of repetition, scale and color combinations that I learned from  working  together with her in her garden.

In our late July garden  in New Hampshire the daylilies are in full swing and the violet of passing nepeta and salvia continue  to add notes of color to the border. There is white Phlox 'David', which has not yet flowered and the pink phlox that I have just added. To our dismay the woodchuck has once agin tunneled into the garden, so I am alarmed at the prospect of the damage he  (or she) may once again cause with his hearty appetite.

Julia introduced me to Rose Campion which always has a place in our garden. The pale cool green of it's leaves and the bright pink flowers add a delicate punctuation to the garden and I do hope this hydrangea hurries up and blooms because it will be a stunning combo these two beauties dancing together,

Nicotiana adds her bright stars to the front of the border.

James and I agree that this daylily, 'Elizabeth Salter' is our favorite. It is compact and carries many blooms with tightly held foliage. This is one of the flowers that we use to repeat to carry your eye up and down the border, again one of the elements that I carry into our garden from Julia's.

'Elizabeth Salter'

A look down the late July border where I hope the newly planted pink phlox will  grow to be tall and graceful in next year's garden.