June

It felt great outdoors today -- after two weeks of temperatures around 100 degrees. Heat and humidity in NC summers make gardening a challenge.

Plants that normally get no respect (Hemerocallis fulva, for example) shine during tough times. When I was a new gardener, orange daylilies were the first plants I tried. I used a hatchet to chop a hole in the compacted soil beside the driveway. When the daylilies bloomed the first year, I concluded that gardening was easy in NC. That is true, as long as you stick with orange daylilies.

Monarda 'Jacob Kline' likes a moist sunny spot. He wandered around my garden for a few years and ended up in a large plastic pot. Last year, I tore fistfuls of Jacob out of his pot and planted him along the pathway to the front door. He grew tall and stately, but when the scarlet flowers were at their peak, the stems flopped over onto the blue Brazilian sage, Salvia guaranitica. Jacob was humiliated and I cut him to the ground. This year, he returned.

Native passionvine (Passiflora incarnata) thrives in the heat and humidity of Southern summers. Bees love to crawl through the intricate flowers. Chipmunks are said to enjoy the fruit, although I have never seen any evidence of this in my garden.