The MPKS pond tour starts tomorrow, and the Central region (including Oak Park) is up first.  Go buy a tour guide and stop by! We’ll have cold water to help beat the heat, as well as restaurant recommendations from the resident foodies.

Midsummer means a whole lot of flowers along with toxic levels of heat and humidity. But the monthly Bloom Day started by Carol at May Dreams Gardens gets me out of the a/c to appreciate the first!  Any links below go to earlier posts showing these plants in bloom this July.

• Lizard tail (Saururus cernuus)
• Water lily
• Spotted Joe Pye weed (at top – Eupatoriadelphus maculatus)



• the towering sweet Joe Pye weed (Eupatoriadelphus purpureus)
• Annabelle hydrangea
• Oakleaf hydrangea
• Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
• Pale purple coneflower (at top, in background – Echinacea pallida)



• Orange coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida)



• Sweet black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia subtomentosa)
• Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum)



• Nodding onion (Allium cernuum)
• Celandine poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum)
• Marsh phlox (Phlox glaberrima)



• Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
• Hosta
• Daylily
• Dill (Grandma Einck’s)
• Lavender “Blue Cushion”
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Fennel
• Raspberry ‘Caroline’

Fruiting:

• Raspberry ‘Caroline’



• Serrano chiles
• Red baneberry (Actaea rubrea)
• Solomon’s plume (Maianthemum racemosum)
• Blue false indigo (Baptisia australis)

The asters aren’t in bloom yet, but I think they’ll be firing up soon…

The Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum) is blooming, and the bees are big fans.

The nodding onions (Allium cernuum) look great this year: much taller and more “nodding” than in previous years.

Red baneberry (Actaea rubra) provides a nice spot of red amongst the white hydrangeas.

It’s pond tour time here in Chicagoland, and I’m readying the pond for the MPKS tour in 3 weeks. Here’s information about tours that I’ve found so far:

The Midwest Pond and Koi Society pond tour is over two weekends at the end of the month: July 24-25 and July 31-August 1.   Each of 4 regions around Chicago have a day dedicated to them.  My pond is in the central region and thus will be open for the tour on Saturday July 24.  Follow the link at the start of this paragraph to find out where to buy maps and other details.

Aquascape is having 4 mini-tours this year.  Alas, the first one was last month, but there are 3 more scheduled.  The next one is in Downers Grove on July 24, which can be combined easily with the central region MPKS tour.

Pond tours are fun even if you’ve never considered having a pond.   You can see huge spectacular installations (including one big enough to scuba in) with award-winning koi, little urban goldfish ponds like mine, and everything in-between.  There’s a whole range of gardening involved as well, so you get a garden walk  in with your pond tour.

Y’all come visit!  Since it’s a Saturday, I’ll have some of the Oak Park Farmer’s Market famous donuts if you come early enough in the day (and you can shop there yourself if you get to town by 1 pm).

The pond comes into its own come midsummer. The water lily covers the pond in pads and pink blossoms, although the latter are only out at midday. Lizard tail (Saururus cernuus) is taking over one corner of the pond, and is now showing lots of white pipe-cleaner-like flowers.

The pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata) is not as widespread as it was last year due to my overaggressive cleaning of the pond bottom earlier in the year. I think I’ll have to live with a few leaves on the bottom of the pond until it’s warm enough for me to clean them up by hand rather than by long-handled skimmer net.  Both the pickerel weed and the lizard tail are rooted in the pebbles on the bottom of the pond, which means fewer planters to tip over, but a somewhat less pristine pond bottom.

The goldfish have done a very good job cleaning up algae and bug larvae from the pond, which means they’re always ready for a snack when anyone gets near the pond.   The day I took these pictures, two dragonflies (probably male Eastern Pondhawks - Erythemis simplicicollis) were darting around the pond, but never alighting near enough to pose for a portrait.

There’s a couple of pictures I took last week that didn’t fit in with bloom day (but that I still like). One is a sample of the lichen growing all over our unpainted fences. It almost makes me want to not replace the fence, but then I regain my resolve when seeing bits of fencing falling over and into the neighbor’s yard!

This dragonfly looked to be laying eggs in one of the logs on the edge of the pond. It would alternate this behavior with zipping around the pond without alighting anywhere.

From what I can find online, this appears to be a swamp darner (Epiaeschna heros).   It’s identified by having blue eyes, green stripes, and being huge.   It’s known mainly as a southeastern dragonfly, but Cook County is within its range.

The garden is far ahead of where it was at both a year ago and two years ago.  It’s also in a bit of a bloom gap: the hydrangeas are just starting to decorate the very enthusiastic foliage in the back yard.

In bloom:

• Oakleaf hydrangea (above – Hydrangea quercifolia)
• Hydrangea “Annabelle”



• Grape woodbine (a.k.a. Virginia creeper, but with tendrils – Parthenocissus vitacea)
• Celandine poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum)



• Marsh phlox (Phlox glaberrima)



• Awl-fruited sedge (Carex stipata)
• Lavender “Blue Cushion”
• Sedum kamkatschicum
• American linden
• Snapdragons
• Day lilies
• Water lilies
• Oregano
• Chives
• Thyme

In fruit:

• Volunteer black raspberry (or mutant Caroline?)
• Raspberry “Caroline”
• Blue false indigo (Baptisia australis)
• Celandine poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum)

The robins ate all of the serviceberries a week or two ago, before I even noticed them turning red!

Coming soon: more hydrangeas, Joe Pye weed and Culver’s root, and blooms in the pond.

Over at May Dreams Gardens, I commented that while Indianapolis may have big flowers in May, here in Chicago we don’t go big until June.  One week later, I’m eating my words:  the warm weather brought out some serious flowers (and hungry goldfish).

I don’t recall seeing peonies blooming here in May before, and it’s not even Memorial Day weekend!

Both the pass-along yellow irises and the native blue flag irises popped out this weekend.  These are the first blooms ever for the nearly 2-year-old pass-alongs:  last year was too cool and damp for them to ever bud.

The blue false indigo continues to be amazing.