High 68F/20CLow 54F/12C
Accumulated rainfall in 48 hours (September 12-14) 8.5 inches
After nearly three weeks with virtually no rain, the Chicago area is now literally deluged with it. According to reliable sources, September 13th was the wettest day in Chicago history, and this has been the wettest September and third wettest month on record. The Weather Channel is so obsessed with hurricanes, that they completely blew this one. That'll teach them not to ignore Chicago's weather! While the retention pond behind the garden got very high, my ridiculously well-drained soil saved the day. There were only four puddles on the entire property: three right along the driveway and one at the very back of the garden where the sump pump water leaves the property. And yes, it has finally stopped raining.
This bucket was empty on Friday when repairs to the fence had to stop on account of rain.But enough about the rain. Here are the blooms.
New this month:
Actaea/Cimicifuga simplex 'James Compton'
Anemone x hybrida 'Andrea Atkinson' and 'Party Dress'
Colchicum 'The Giant'
Heptacodium miconiodes (Seven-son Flower)
Hosta lancifolia
Hylotelephium/Sedum 'Matrona' and 'Black Jack'
Symphyotrichum ericoides/Aster ericoides 'Snowflurry'
Symphyotrichum Novae Anglia/Aster 'Honeysong Pink'
Symphyotrichum Novae Anglia/ Aster 'Hella Lacy'
Symphyotrichum species (lateriflorus? ericoides?)
Solidago 'Fireworks'
Tricyrtis 'Gilt Edge'
Still blooming:
Aster species (from Heronswood)
Campanula 'Samantha'
Campanula 'Sarastro'
Campanula persicifoia 'Telham Blue'
Ceratostigma plubaginoides
Clematis 'Crystal Fountain'
Echinacea purpurea
Eurybia divaricatus/Aster divaricata
Geranium 'Rozanne'
Geranium nodosum 'Svelte Lilac'
Heuchera 'Rasberry Ice'
Hibiscus syriaca 'Red Heart'
Hosta plantaginea
Hydrangea 'Bailmer' (Endless Summer)
Lobelia x 'Monet Moment' and 'Sparkle DeVine'
Lobelia syphilitica
Tricyrtis Tojen
Phlox maculata
Phlox paniculata 'David,' 'David's Lavender,' 'Laura,' and 'Nicky'
Things in bud:
Clematis 'Cezanne'
Symphyotrichum leave var. purpuratum/Aster laevis 'Bluebird'
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is the baby of Carol of May Dreams Gardens, the hardest working woman in garden blogging.
(If you have trouble seeing the slide show, click on view all.)
39 comments:
MMD - you're not kidding about the rain! In fact, I'm wondering how in the heck I'll even get to my bloom day post. Yours all look so pretty.
THAT is a lot of rain and September is only half over. I hope the next few days bring you sunny skies and some good "drying out weather".
Your blooms are wet, but pretty!
Thanks for joining in for bloom day,
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
You folks farther to the south and east of us got the brunt of the rain. I heard 6 1/2 yesterday at O'Hare. Along the WI border we got about 6-inches spread over 72-hours. It probably doesn't sound like much to people from Washington's coast or Louisiana, but for Illinois it is quite dramatic. I'm glad you had no damage.
Marnie
Hello my water logged friend. My The Irish say that these are typical days in their country.
Love your slideshow. Wonderful array of blooms you have this September.
I'm just waiting for everything to dry out so that I can finish some gardens.
Wow, that's alot of rain MMD. But your blooms look great today, I love the slideshow. :)
I can't imagine that much rain at Clay and Limestone...it would puddle everywhere with this clay soil! My goodness MMD, you must have great fast draining soil. As you say, enough about the rain! I love the slide show and a few of your blooms are now on my wish list...the double anemone and the clematis! I ca't believe you have Happy Traveler blooming! You win!
Gail
Okay, I'm officially envious! What a lot of new blooms. The 'fireworks' is really an interesting plant and I like it more than the native. Your asters are such pretty colors and evenyour containers are still looking good. I'm surprised everything didn't drown! Glad you weren't washed away. I think we've morethn made up for August.
Wow, that is a lot of rain. Please (please please) send some to South Carolina. We're 11 inches down for the year, and this is the 10th year in a row of drought. Although on the bright side I think the grass has only been cut 5 or 6 times all summer. But my flowers are thirsty and I gave up on the vegetables.
Hiya MMGD,
You got a LAKE! And a willow to weep over it.
It'll soon be the bog you long for ;-)
I miss the mosquito bites.
Sadly my server keeps timing out before your slides get going. I shall have to imagine the flowers.
Gina - I took my camera under the umbrella & took some very wet photos yesterday, but some of the photos are from Friday morning before the rain follies started.
Carol - It looks like we'll get a chance to dry out a bit. I sure wish I had already seeded the lawn, it would have sprouted already.
Marnie - living on a hillside has its advantages. Driving was interesting on Saturday & going to the store was out of the question because all the parking lots were flooded.
Carolyn Gail - I have quite a few things waiting to get planted in my garden. Before I was waiting because it was too dry.
PGL - thanks! Most of the flowers managed not to get too sodden, but the faded Hosta plantaginea flowers look icky.
Gail - yes, super well-drained soil does have something going for it. I do not recommend Anemone 'Party Dress.' I nicknamed it the "Groundcover Anemone' because it sprawls terribly & has to be staked.
Beckie - next time you come up to Chicago, I'll give you some of Fireworks. I have to divide it every year now as it's gotten so large. It looks nice after a light snow too. And yeah, we don't have a rain deficit anymore.
Janine - what you need is a tropical storm, but I don't wish this much rain all at once on anybody.
Joco - that's terrible! Did you try clicking on the slide show thing to see all the flowers?
I saw on the news your nightmare of a rainfall. So glad to hear that you aren't dealing with flooding as so many are flooded.
Love your blooms. You have quite a long list of blooms too.
Hi MMD, well those cracks in your soil are good for something, they can absorb the extra water you received. Good news. We are still in drought and got only a few sprinkles from Ike here, sigh, while others are deluged with too much water. Your header anemone photo is magnificent! The slide show is fun to watch and the names help so much. That is some clemmie there.
Frances at Fairegarden
http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/
I was listening to the Cubs game on WGN last night and heard all the news about flood warnings and school closings today. Wow! I think you had twice the rain we did.
I stopped by here this morning but couldn't see the slide show on the computer I'm using at the moment. Thanks for adding the tip to hit "view all," because I could see everything then. Your asters are beautiful, but I really love that anemone! Great photos in spite of the rain!
Love the slide show MMD. You sure do have lots of things still blooming. I especially love the toad lilies and the asters.
I like the weeping habit of 'Fireworks.' It's a very graceful goldenrod.
Geez, 8.5 inches of rain is A LOT of rain! I was hoping for a little bit of rain for my new grass, but Ike didn't come up this way. Maybe that was a good thing, I'm sure that much rain would have washed my seed away!
Great blooms.
Wow- thatsa lotta watta! Hope it brings you some nice greenery next week. I had such fun looking at your animated slides. I haven't seen this before and I loved being able to point to them to see the names.
By Austin standards, 8 inches in a 48-hour period doesn't sound like a record-setting amount (our record, set in 1921, is 19 inches in 24 hours). But clearly, with Chicago's flat topography, 8 inches is a deluge. I'm glad to know that your garden stayed high and dry, as did your basement. What a lot of weird weather everyone is having.
Hi MMD,
I thought of you more than once when looking at radar this weekend. You do realize that what you had yesterday were remnants of Ike, right? We missed Ike's rain (we had plenty all day Thurs and Friday here), but we had lots of residual wind from that system yesterday here. (Ok, I'm a meteorology geek, I'll admit it.)
Great slide show!
Great slideshow - and I particularly like your anemone "party dress" and your clematis "crystal fountain". You have some great flowers - despite the wet.
:)
Karen
You definitely win with that rainfall amount! Yowser! Hope you are drying out now.
I love your slideshow. How very clever and all the pictures are art. Also, your previous post with your new piece of garden art got my attention. Is your uncle now doing commission work? Really, it is a very nice addition to your garden.
A lovely slideshow ... some real hardy beauties still hangin' on despite the deluge!
Something tells me that you are fond of lavender and purple - same here! I especially love the Aster 'Helen Lacey' and the clematis 'Crystal Fountain' - they are so beautiful. We didn't get much rain from Ike at all and we sorely need it.
Very neat way to show the blooms! You really got massive amounts of rain! We were hoping for just a little of it but picked up nothing. One inch would have been great! Very nice blooms!
That really is a lot of rain but your blooms look awesome. That's really something that the bucket captured the rain amount. Imagine those little rain gages that measure a couple of inches at most.
Not only did you have lots of rain but lots of blooms too. :-) Just loved that slide show and what a list of what's in bloom today. Happy GBBD, I'm glad it has stopped raining!
Love your blog I just added you to my favorites.I look forward to new posts.
You can check mine out at:
http://lusarytole.blogspot.com/
Oooh! I really am taken with all your blooms in the world of purple. Now I just need to do some research to see if any of them would work in Austin, even for a few weeks.
Despite the oodles of rain, your garden is looking wonderful. I loved the slide show!
Thanks for popping by my post and helping me with some wildflower ID's.
If I were a squirrel I would certainly want to hang out at Squirrelhaven!
Best,
ICQB
Hi, MMD--I loved the slide show and the list--and your beautiful photo of the puddle (pond?) around the tree. My lobelias have been a disaster this year--it's been too dry--they'd need a pond, I think, to do well in these conditions. Your garden looks lovely.
Gorgeous, MMD, just gorgeous.
That is a LOT of rain! We'd have lakes and mudpits . . . . .
The Fireworks solidago is so unusual, but it caught my eye right away and made me yearn for one. Now, what is it about solidago this year that is causing it to worm its way into my heart and try to wedge more of itself into my overflowing border? But Fireworks is so worthy . . . . .
That rain is really not kidding. So much of it...
Thank you for your virtual gift of orangie dendrathema. I keep searching.
Greetings,
Ewa
Just another inch and a half more, and you're not living in a desert. :)
How do you remember all the cultivar names?!
Lisa - at least we didn't get the wind that hit all of you in central Indiana!
Frances - the rain we got was more from Tropical Storm Lowell. Why couldn't some of that have gone where it is most needed, like TN?
Rose - the rain came in a relatively narrow band, just through Chicagoland. I'm glad you were able to see the photos. If you like those Asters, just wait, I've got several different species to show still.
Garden Girl - 'Fireworks' is a great background plant because all the action is concentrated on the top of the plant.
Cinj - stick with the sprinkler. It rained so hard, some of the sand around my new mowing strip got washed away.
Hi, JGH, thanks for visiting! I've found the slideshow format is useful when there are a lot of photos I want to post.
Pam - I can't even imagine what 19 inches would do around here. It is amazing how far these tropical storms & hurricanes travel.
IVG - it's even better than that. We got most of our rain from Tropical Storm Lowell, then Ike swept through, but it went a bit further south, so that the heaviest rain from Ike hit northwest Indiana. The perfect storm?
Artist's Garden - I'm pleased as punch with Clematis 'Crystal Fountain.' I planted that last year as a tiny thing. It's been reblooming for over a month now.
Thanks, Layanee! I don't know if my uncle will do any more sculptures, but my aunt wants him to, so I think he will.
Lovely flowers, especially the clematis, the asters, the anemones, I could go on...
Whoa you DID get all our rain!
Love the flower show :-)
Hi again MMD :-D My, that makes our rain look like a saucer’s worth!
Hey, your blooms are looking great with it though! Great presentation of photos and that is certainly quite a plant list you have there :-D
Although on the late side, once again, my post is up now too if you want to hear about it :-D
We woke up to a bit of rain this morning in Austin...I only wish for 8 inches! Great photos! Love your cheery blog...
Hi, Joey, thanks for visiting! Plants have to be tough to make it in my garden. If it's not drought, it's deluge.
Phillip - not only do I have purple in my garden, I also wear it & have it on walls in my home. Thanks for correcting my misspelling of the Aster. I'll have to fix that.
Dave - I just don't understand why Tennessee can't get any rain. You're the ones who need it!
Anna - I don't have a rain gauge, but when I get one, I'll make sure its a big one.
Yolanda Elizabet - thanks, I think the garden enjoys the cooler wetter weather of September.
Hi, Lynn, thanks! I'll be paying you a visit.
Iris - I'm sure the Clematis would do well in Austin. I've seen plenty of photos of Clematises on Austin blogs.
ICQB - thanks! I'm very into wildflowers, so when someone doesn't recognize a plant, if I don't know it, I always want to find out too.
Cosmo - that's a retention pond very nearly ready to overflow its banks. My soil is very well drained & usually dry in the summer. I've found that the hybrid Lobelias can tolerate the drier conditions.
Thanks, Cindy.
Kim - 'Fireworks' is a stately Goldenrod, but it's also well-behaved. It doesn't try to colonize the garden the way the wild Goldenrods do.
Ewa - I hope you find your orange Dendranthema.
Chuck B. - I have a friend who jokes that I remember plant names better than people's names. Many of the plants I've lived with for years, and I always write down the name except for that one Aster I got from Heronswood a while ago. Of course I can't remember its name.
Happy Mouffetard - thanks!
Washington Gardener - I'm glad you enjoyed the slide show.
Hi, Shirl - of course I want to see your Bloom Day post. BTW, the girl loved the video of the cat & the hedgehog.
Thanks for visiting, Conscious Gardener! I'll bet Austin could use this rain more than us, although it was way too dry here in August.
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