Inside Storey: Bloom Day

Storey staffers and friends share scenes from August gardens.

Mountain mint with bumble bee, from editor Gwen Steege’s garden.

August feels like a peak bloom month. Dahlias, zinnias, and cosmos, coneflowers, hydrangea, and phlox: you’ll see them all here in photos from around Storey staffers’ gardens. But for me, the fun of this month’s post is the diversity of critters that share our garden spaces: Debbie Surdam captured a photo of a strange and beautiful hummingbird moth; Hannah Fries found tiny green frogs (actually, juvenile gray tree frogs) perched in her hydrangeas as if they’d grown there, Lisa Hiley’s cat patrols her garden, I stumbled across an abandoned Red-Eyed Vireo nest, and there are bees, bees, bees. What’s blooming (and living) where you are?

Debbie Surdam, Hoosick, New York

Dahlia

Gerbera Daisy

Hummingbird moth

Rose-of-Sharon

Phlox

Hannah Fries, Sandisfield, Massachusetts

Butterfly bush

Cone flower

Hydrangea with juvenile gray tree frogs

Phlox

Lisa Hiley, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Riley the cat, inspecting some hot pink phlox

An eye-catching hollyhock by the driveway that came from a packet of wildflower seeds

A summer bouquet with all sorts of fun stuff, including a piece of a giant dill plant that is setting seed

Emily Spiegelman, Wendell, Massachusetts

Bumble bee siesta in a Fiesta Time hollyhock

Ace Summer Sunset dahlia

Discovered at the edge of the garden: what I think is a Red-Eyed Vireo nest, no longer in use

Gwen Steege, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Author Lewis Hill gave me this Dolgo crabapple about 15 years ago.

There’s nothing in our garden as gorgeous and dependable as the hydrangeas.

The nicotiana in front of the sedum and phlox is a self-seeding annual. You have to be very patient in the spring because it’s so late to emerge and its seed leaves are so small and flat against the ground, you’re likely to overlook it unless you’re searching for it – which I always am, because I like it so much.

Pycnanthemum muticum (mountain mint) attracts every kind of bee you can imagine – especially very tiny ones.

MaryAnn Nøbben, Norway

My favorite heuchera, coral bells.

A little fountain outside Irenebu, my garden/guest house, with Jacob’s Ladder, poppies, and aquilegia.

Sedum and creeping thyme between the patio stones.

A visitor in thetrollius chinensis – doing my best for the pollinators.

Deb Burns, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Summer mix

Joe-pye weed, honey bee mecca

This is a detail of a little pocket "breakfast" garden I planted right next to my house (for easier access than my veg garden offers) – peppers, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, lavender, thyme, and morning glories.