Knockout Blooms! Summer Blooms Lighting up the Garden
Photos & text by Jonah Holland , PR and Marketing Coordinator, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
A sunflower in the Children’s Garden. The CWD Kids Tree House is in the background.
Part of my job is going out in the Garden to capture the beauty as it happens. Sometimes, like spring, I can’t keep up with all the blooms and the daily changes. Other times, when I least expect it the Garden changes overnight from lush greens to the red and purple, yellow and brown of fall. In summer, I never know what to expect. When I think of summer, I think of sunflowers, Echinacea and daylilies. Sometimes I forget all the diversity that comes in summer. The wildlife thrives. And the diversity of blooms is rather stunning. Rose plants that bloomed prolifically in spring, continue to bloom in summer (and amazingly will do it again in fall). I find insects I never know existed. Summer has special moments — like catching a pollinator at work, or watching a hummingbird zoom around you. These are the experiences that you can’t quite capture in photos, you have to come to the Garden to see them yourself. But perhaps the photos can act as a reminder for why you should visit. I promise you — it’s far better in person.
Chives, with a visitor.
Passiflora incarnata; purple passionflower
Ailanthus Webworm Moth (Atteva punctella) on sea holly or Eryngium maritimum.
Hummingbird with blue cardinal flower, Lobelia siphilitica
Rosa ‘Flutterby’
Rosa ‘Brothers Grimm Fairytale’
A bee party on the Japanese windflower or anemone.
A crepe myrtle leaf with oranges and yellows on a anemone.
Perennial phlox ‘Nicky’
Some folks call these naked ladies. Some folks call them resurrection lilies. Either way, they are beautiful. The Latin name is Lycoris squamigera.
Lycoris squamigera
Rosa ‘Pat Austin’
Tasel flower or Emilia coccinea with an insect.
What’s most remarkable to me about this photo is the vibrant color of the bee’s legs.
A butterfly on a zinnia in the Children’s Garden.