My Perennial Garden in July

It's July and my perennial garden is full of flowers and attracting lots of beautiful Monarch butterflies. 

Welcome to my garden nook in July! Let me give you the grand tour.

July started off with my lovely, white Annabelle hydrangeas bursting into big balls of white snow.  This year I let them grow through our garden bench for a casual, relaxed look.

I wait for the Annabelle hydrangeas to bloom every year! These are our first white perennial flowers in our back yard for the year. 

White really brightens up our shade garden and complements our white deck furniture. When I sit on our deck, I can admire my hydrangeas at the far end of the garden. And when I sit by my hydrangeas,  I can admire my deck!

In another corner of the garden, my orange day lilies (Hemerocallis fulva) are in bloom. They contrast beautifully against the lime green Lemon Lace vine on the fence and the deep wine colored leaves of the Purple Leaf Sandcherry (Prunus cistena).

My garden frogs are enjoying the flowers as much as I am.

Here's another variety of day lily growing in my garden.

Since the hydrangeas and day lilies flower at the same time, they pair nicely in my flower arrangements.

Dripping off our trellis fence are orange trumpet vine (Campsis radicans). The bees and ants love them! Apparently, so do humming birds.

To complement all the orange flowers in the garden, this year I allowed a particular purple-violet colored flower to grow under my keen supervision. Introducing the Creeping Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides), considered a weed to some due to it's quick and easy spread by underground rhizomes.

However, I find their tall spires with happy, nodding bell-shaped flowers carefree and delightful. I love watching the honey bees pop into the flowers to get their nectar fix. After the flowers fade, I'll put out the plants to keep a control on their spread.

The trellis fence makes a lovely backdrop to showcase the perennial flower show. Creeping Bellflowers in the foreground with orange Butterfly weed and White Garden phlox starting to blossom. The orange trumpet vine spilling off the fence adds to the orange color scheme.

The varying leaf shapes and colors of the non-flowering plants add texture to this bed. The spiky leaves of the Dwarf Mugho pine, the dropping sword shaped leaves of the Siberian Iris, the reddish-purple leaves of the Purple-leaf Sandcherry and the lime green leaves of the Lemon Lace creeper, all contribute their share to this arrangement.

The orange butterfly weed and white phlox attract many butterflies to the garden.

I left the attractive seed heads of the Siberian Irises and the spiky, globular seed heads of the Alliums for a visual contrast.

Here's another view. My white and lime green garden lanterns look so pretty along with the white phlox and Lemon Lace creeper.

Here's a peek at my front garden. 

The purple Creeping Bellflowers contrast nicely

with the light green flat clusters of the emerging Autumn Joy in the foreground and the fabulous display of white Annabelle hydrangeas in the background.

A Preview for August

Here's a closer look at the front bed and a preview of what's to come in August.

The yellow cone flowers are getting ready to unfurl and the Autumn Joy will soon put on her show.

And here's a look at my wild flower au natural, free form bed, at the bottom of the garden. 

Here stands 'Mary' with her skirt of Morning Glory. 

I can't wait for her skirt to be full of Morning Glory blooms.

Other posts that may interest you:

• Take a tour of my garden in September
• My Perennial Garden | A Seasonal Kaleidoscope  (Visit one spot in my garden in different seasons)