Late Summer Blooms around the Cottage

Before we say farewell to summer, I wanted to show you some of the late summer blooms around the cottage. And if you love flowers, you're going to love today's post because I'm joining some other flower loving bloggers,too!

Hi there, friends! I hope you are enjoying the last few weeks of summer. Today I'm joining some of my blogging friends for a Late Summer Flower Power blog hop.

The vegetables garden is winding down because most of the plants have already succumbed to the heat and the humidity.

But the flowers that I have growing in the garden are at their zenith! The zinnias are continuing to bloom profusely along with the marigolds.

Just look at this sea of orange marigolds in a raised bed! Not only do they add a lot of beauty to the vegetable garden, they are also beneficial.

I grew the marigolds from seed and planted them when I put vegetable transplants in the beds. By the time that the vegetables are spent and need to be pulled out, the heat-loving marigolds are just beginning to get large and bloom profusely.

These yellow marigolds are much smaller, and their color is a great contrast to the colorful zinnias.

And I have something else blooming on the garden fence! See the yellow blooms!

Oh yes! I have some baby white pumpkins beginning to form! I get as excited as a kid seeing them grow!

And I've already harvested these mini boo pumpkins. I just need to give them the bleach water treatment to help preserve them.

Flowers outside the vegetable garden

Around the perimeter of the vegetable garden, we have a number of Rose of Sharon bushes. This one is loaded with pink blossoms!

I think the flowers are so pretty! We have some white and purple ones, also.

Hummingbirds and other pollinators are attracted to the blooms.

In front of the vegetable garden, I have some Shasta daises planted. They've been blooming for over a month and if I get in there and deadhead the spent blooms, they will continue to bloom for a few more weeks.

The flower pots on wooden posts that I showed you last month have continued to bloom. I have been diligent about watering them daily and have fertilized them several times.

Normally annuals are usually leggy and spent by August but these containers have been unusually pretty this year. This week I will do a little bit of cutting back to promote more growth.

But the flowers that have given me the most joy are the red and white mandevilla planted in a galvanized tub in the backyard. When I purchased the mandevilla, I thought I was getting a white one. But one day I noticed a red bud and sure enough, I had a mix of the two colors.

And I will always plant a red and white one together now on.

It is simply stunning to see the two colors together!

My hydrangea blooms are already drying on the bush.

And these are some limelight blooms that I cut from my sister-in-law's bush.

I removed all the leaves and put them in a vase with a small amount of water to dry them.

Once dry, I will give them back to her to use in fall decorating.