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Summer Gardening Activities
By David Salman

Now is the time to sit back and take in the garden we've created. Still, from that lofty place in the hammock, we can always see a few more things that need tending. Click here for some valuable mid-summer tips from our online library about perking up your summer garden.

Until Fall Perennial Shipping resumes on August 25th, this is a good time to plant seeds, buffalo grass, grama grass plugs, and cacti and succulents. These items, along with garden goods ship all summer.

We have added over 50 new items to our fall 2008 catalog, and in this July Issue, we are presenting some special new perennial highlights. Be sure to reserve your favorites now as some varieties may sell out when plant shipping resumes at the end of August.

Oriental Poppies in Purple and Pink
We are offering 4 exciting purple and pink oriental poppies to our new fall additions. I love the strong stemmed, showy lavender-pink flowers of Papaver orientale 'Manhattan' and the ruby-red petals of 'Brooklyn'. These flowers will be a real standout in the late spring garden. Our Papaver orientale 'Staten Island' is reported to re-bloom in early fall -- a most unusual characteristic for oriental poppies. Plant the eye-catching 'Patty's Plum' with 'Manhattan' for a garden party of purple and pink!

View all Oriental Poppies

Tall Bearded Iris
This group of showy Bearded Iris is invaluable in the xeric garden or perennial border providing vivid flowers and attractive foliage. These low maintenance plants are truly xeric--only needing irrigation to establish new transplants or during prolonged hot, dry weather. Our bearded iris are sold in pots (Better than bare-root!) and will transplant and grow faster.

Xeric Gaillardia 'Burgundy'
A real dazzler, Gaillardia 'Burgundy', our new blanket flower has deep wine-red petals. These beauties bloom prolifically all summer through fall, will tolerate poor soil, dry conditions and almost any location except clay soil that stays wet through the winter.

View all Gaillardia

Tall Orange Mix Pineleaf Beardtongue
Without question, Pineleaf Beardtongue is one of our finest western wildflowers for xeric garden use. After much searching and evaluation, I've created a mix of five of the best shaped, most floriferous plants having flowers in shades of orange and scarlet. For an outrageous display of floral fireworks, mix Penstemon 'Tall Orange Mix' with red flowered Penstemon cardinalis, and our new canary yellow Coreopsis 'Full Moon'.

Bee Balm and Daisies
Wonderfully compact, our new Monarda 'Fireball' is a heavy bloomer in mid-summer with bright, scarlet-red flowers. Get a bigger plant with more flowers next summer by fall planting and you'll have lots of hummingbirds and butterflies in your garden next year. View the Hummingbird Heaven Bee Balm Sampler

Plant our Luminous fuchsia-pink Monarda 'Grand Marshall' with our new Tall Shasta Daisy, Leucanthemum superbum and Stachys monieri 'Hummelo'-- outstanding garden performers that bloom robustly in mid-summer.

3 New Echinacea
Put the Lime in the Coconut with this uniquely shaped coneflower! 'Coconut Lime' will catch the attention of all who see it in your garden. The 3" wide flowers have a brownish-gold cone in the middle of frilled chartreuse petals and ringed with backward sweeping white petals. With its long, graceful, backward sweeping mango colored petals and light, sweet fragrance, 'Mango Meadowbright' is a highlight of the summer garden, and the rose-pink 'Kim's Knee High' is an outstanding garden performer putting out loads of flowers in mid-summer.

View All Echinacea

*Watch for email news about our spring and fall blooming bulbs ongoing this summer.



Eco Tip: Earth Friendly Gardening

We all need a space where we can retreat and find a calm place of beauty in an increasingly hectic and crowded world. With all the bad news about the environment, it's comforting to realize that as gardeners, we can make our garden an earth friendly place. Xeriscaping the High Country Gardens way is all about 'green' gardening using organic soil care methods, regionally suitable plants and low impact native and dwarf turf grass lawns. Be 'green' by saving water and energy through growing a xeriscape that adds to the comfort, beauty and value of your property.

Read Why Use Organic Fertilizers, by Patrice LeBovit



Xeric Succulent Sampler
These plants love the heat to get established. This Sampler ships all summer!

The southwestern native succulents in our Xeric Succulent Sampler are the backbone of any well designed xeriscape providing year-round interest with their evergreen foliage, architectural lines and showy flowers. Plant them in well drained sandy or loamy soils in the sunniest, hottest sites. Recommended for the Intermountain West and Desert Southwest.

View all Cacti and Succulents for summer planting.

Seeds, buffalo grass, grama grass plugs, cacti and succulents and garden goods ship all summer.