I’ve decided to join the Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, sponsored by May Dreams Gardens, and brought to my attention by following the wonderful Hayefield blog. Although I wouldn’t exactly call myself a garden blogger, I do blog and I do garden. Occasionally, I post stuff about my garden. My garden is a dry shade, mostly foliage-based concoction, and is in its early stages of existence. Thus, I don’t have plentiful flowers to share here but I’ll do my best and perhaps you’ll forgive the inclusion of some beautiful leaves.

We’ve just finished a dry spell here in northern Delaware, with about 3 weeks of hot, rain-free weather, not my favorite. My plants don’t like it either. Thankfully, it rained a bit some days ago and revived them somewhat. Hanging in there since May is my newest friend, the annual Acmella oleracea (previously called Spilanthes), that I purchased at a garden center. It’s been on my wish list for a few years so I was happy to find it in the flesh, so to speak. It looked much better when I first planted it, lol.

One plant that happily flowers this time of year is the perennial Begonia grandis, a deciduous, tuberous perennial with stout, succulent erect, red, branched 2′ stems. This is a great shade plant and even manages to thrive in my dry shade garden. It spreads easily and forms a pleasant colony over time. I started out with a few of them from my dad and now have bunches to share with friends.

Marigolds, those irrepressible self-sowing annuals, happily bloom all summer, not much bothered by either copious rain or bone-dry soil. I plant these around my husband’s tomatoes to keep pests away. Doesn’t work for catbirds, though, hence the bird netting.

Somewhat past its bloom, but still attractive with dried flower heads, is Hydrangea paniculata ‘Bulk’. This wonderful shrub grew quickly for me and even suckered this year, providing a few babies that I planted elsewhere in the yard. It’s fairly drought-tolerant and only started drooping toward the end of our three week dry spell.

Another hydrangea, albeit past its bloom period, that still has some interest in September is ‘Forever Pink’. It needs a little supplemental watering in my dry shade garden to coax out the best flowers. The big mopheads stick around all winter to provide perching spots for birds.

For beautiful color (but insignificant flowers), I am thoroughly enjoying my Begonia rex ‘Shadow King® Rothko’. I’ve got two of them, in pots, in a shady spot at the ends of my stone walls. I think the reason they’ve been so happy there this summer is my ingenious (if I do say so myself) method for keeping them moist. I chose pots without drainage holes at the bottom but drilled tiny holes in the sides at about 4″ down from the top so allow water to escape. Filled with potting medium, the soil dries out at the top but remains damp lower down even through the hottest, driest conditions.