Monday Morning Blooms: June Garden Edition

Good Morning, and happy first day of June! Today I am thrilled to be invited to join my gardening and flower therapist friends, Pam, Lidy, and Mary for the June edition of Monday Morning Blooms.

Garden Glows and Woes in Closing Out 2025

Welcome, readers, to my Panoply blog. Before closing out the year 2025, I felt it necessary for my own journaling to capture results of my cottage garden for this fourth year in this Zone 7a cottage garden of mine. I made one post earlier in summer, here, which highlighted most of my flowering shrubs, new perennials and annuals. Perhaps this last week of December is a good time to see some garden photos, while you may be starting to dream and plan your 2026 garden beds.

Tales of the Traveling Tote #44, Giveaway

Hello, readers, and welcome to Panoply! Happy September, the meteorological start of fall! Of course, the seasons as we know them follow the astronomical equinoxes and earth's orbit, but the notable climate changes generally fall by three month periods on the calendar (starting Dec-Feb for winter, etc); hence, meteorologically, it's fall, y'all!

Today marks the 44th instalment of the Tales of the Traveling Tote, can you believe it? It's all about quarterly tales of ladies connecting friendship and stories of our everyday lives via a MacKenzie-Childs tote we all purchased at one time or another. 

Cottage Garden 2025 Early Summer Update: Annuals, New Perennials, and Fourth Year Status

Welcome to my cottage garden 2025 early summer update! Today I'm sharing annuals I selected for certain landscape beds and my containers, and a few perennial selections I added this past spring. I'll also show updates to perennials added last year, and the overall status of the landscape. It's a post heavy-laden with photos. If you're spending time in air conditioning like I am in this heatwave, this post and a cold drink may be just the entertainment you'd enjoy. 

Spring 2025 Garden Chores, Blooms

How's your spring gardening going? This is my fourth year of nurturing my Zone 7a cottage garden. 

It wasn't even four hours since I had gotten my summer annuals in the ground when a hailstorm hit on May 5th. - sinko de my annuals. 😢

2024 Cottage Garden Recap

Traditionally, I have summarized my blogging journal each year with collage style in a year-end post. It was a tidy way to button up each year, and I would send the year's posts off to be printed in a yearbook fashion. In 2024, Blog2Print ceased operation, and so, too, have the annual yearbooks. It's just as well, I suppose, as my bookshelves were getting a bit crowded for this cottage home. I guess I'll need to backup my blog on a more regular basis.

New year, new tradition. I'm looking back on my Zone 7a garden efforts of 2024, recapping weather and planting notes. My landscape garden is important to me, nurturing my mind, body and spirit.

January

We had a mix of average winter weather and a couple of unseasonably warm days (mid 60s F) by month's end. With just two snow events of 3" and 4" mid-month, these were our most significant accumulations for the entire winter! 

Tales of the Traveling Tote #41 and Giveaway

Hello, readers, and welcome to Panoply! Today marks the 41st instalment of the Tales of the Traveling Tote, can you believe it? That's over ten years of quarterly tales of ladies connecting friendship and stories of our everyday lives via a MacKenzie-Childs tote we all purchased at one time or another. 

Tales of the Traveling Tote #40 and Giveaway

Hello, readers, and welcome to Panoply! Today marks the 40th instalment of the Tales of the Traveling Tote, can you believe it? That's ten years of quarterly tales of ladies connecting friendship and stories of our everyday lives via a MacKenzie-Childs tote we all purchased at one time or another. If you're not familiar with the concept behind this series of posts, you can read how it started here. A link to all my previous tales can be found here. 

It's been a summer like no other here in my West Virginia zone 7a region. Our normal rainfall for Jun-Aug is approximately 14 inches, and we've received only 7 inches in these past three months, total. In July 2023, we received 10 inches in that one month alone. In spite of it all, my volunteer crepe myrtle is loving the conditions and is a star in its third year in my landscape garden.

I've been a servant to my landscape garden, watering almost every single day. While we had a slight break in temps in mid-August like much of the nation (still no rain for us), we were back to high temps and severe drought conditions last week (that weather station reading on the left is outdoor, the right is indoor). While my plants are surviving, my grass is dead dormant. Will it come back come in September?? 🤷🏻‍♀️We shall see. Stay tuned.

Needless to say, there's been only a little travel away from home for me this summer. But I love gardening, and I love being home, too.

I've been walking my neighborhood almost daily for the past 25 years, and recently came upon a pawpaw tree for the first time in the wild, even though they're native to WV. Have you ever tried one? You know the fruit is ripe when you detect a tropical-like smell. The texture is a bit like a banana, but seeds must be removed first. We have an independent ice cream shop that has offered pawpaw ice cream when in season, which is typically the end of August.

Another thing on my walks that's new is an outdoor gym called The Fitness Court, thanks to a donor at the campus near where we live. It was just opened in June. I've been working on my suspended plank, and I'm up to 75 seconds. I'm trying to reach the 'savage' title of 3 minutes like the soccer player who demonstrated it at the ribbon-cutting. Ha!

My local Panoply sister and I traveled to our third Panoply sister's home in Cincinnati in June. We are in our 17th year of operating booth spaces at the South Charleston Antique Mall (WV, not SC). Each time we get together, we do a variety of tasks: shop, haul, divide, price, etc. With the June trip, we hauled back the two pieces of furniture shown below, and styled them in our booth. 

We Panoply sisters still love the hunt most of all, and early August had us going to a much anticipated estate sale. Even though we left early to try being the first to enter, there were already 34 people in line when we got there.🙄 Maybe I shouldn't have taken the side trip beforehand for my curbside treasures below! I had a neighbor who was moving into assisted care who took all he and his wife wanted, leaving the rest to a turnkey operation who'd be flipping the house. These items were on the side of the alley adjacent to their home. Once there were two St Francis statutes, but the sanitation truck decimated one last year. I rescued the one with only a broken bowl (with hands attached). I E6000 glued him back together, and he now resides in my landscape.

In mid-July Mr. P. and I took an overnight trip with one of my brothers and his companion for a few stops in eastern WV: Blackwater Falls State Park (the water flow was low); Canaan Valley Ski Resort area, and Elkins for a dinner / music entertainment show. It was a little cooler there vs home.

In mid-August, we celebrated Jacqueline's 3rd birthday at a place called All About Fun. It's a venue that has all sorts of blow up play stations, and private rooms to celebrate the special one. J is into wearing costumes right now, and her princess costuming with crowns, high heels and jewelry were a real hit. On her actual day, she got to wear the sombrero at a local Mexican restaurant.

Mimi was at the party to help set up, but also to join in the fun with the kiddos!

The third week of August was another trip to Cincinnati to work on more inventory for our booths. We took a break one day for lunch on the Ohio River at a fun place called Cabana on the River. 

Our haul we worked on this time was a plethora of Halloween. As retailers, it's definitely time to have these in our booths! We are also working on Thanksgiving and Christmas items as well.

NOW, ONTO THE GIVEAWAY!

The Traveling Totes Tribe is offering another giveaway and Jenna at The Painted Apron is our giveaway sponsor this time. One lucky reader who leaves a comment on Jenna's  post will have their name thrown into the hat for an opportunity to win this MacKenzie-Childs "To Go Tote". 

PLEASE NOTE: If your comment displays as anonymous, be sure to write your name so that you may be identified!

Be sure to check out my other traveling sisters' posts to see how they spent their summer months.

 

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

Patti with Miss Kenzie and Miss Taylor @ Pandora's Box

Jenna with Miss Coquille @ The Painted Apron

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply (you are here!)

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Jackie with Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home

Ricki Jill and Countess de Monet @The Bookish Dilettante

Join us again on December 1, 2024 for another edition of Tales of the Traveling Tote.

Thanks so much for your visit. I love reading your comments, and be sure to leave one on Jenna's blog for a chance to win our token gift. Stay safe, and Happy June (and soon-to-be 🍂fall🎃 in the Northern Hemisphere).

Rita C. at Panoply

A special thank you to Linda from Life and Linda Love Your Creativity Link Party #269 for featuring all of the traveling tote tribe posts!

Transitioning to Welcome Fall

Welcome to Panoply! Today I am happy to share a table that is Transitioning to Welcome Fall. I hope you will stay awhile, because I am hosting fifteen additional stylists who are sharing ideas for the upcoming season with tablescaping ideas!

July Garden Notes and Anecdotes

Here is a picture of our geographic region shown on our local weather Friday, July 26. 2024. My location is in the middle color of the legend for the current drought. I am in growing Zone 7a.

It's been a very dry summer, and the garden - particularly my grass - is suffering. I am suffering (in terms of first world problems).

Welcome to Panoply, where landscape gardening is one of my favorite hobbies. Today I want to share just a few garden notes and anecdotes of my experience this July and late June, since my last garden update, here.

Cottage Garden Update: Third Year

Hello readers, welcome to my blog, Panoply. Today I'm going to virtually walk you through my cottage garden, sharing updates I've made since last fall. This is our third spring in this home. Since we moved here in October 2021, my main focus has been in overhauling an overgrown Zone 7a landscape. For comparison purposes, this May 2023 update is a really good place to see my changes up until this point. Then, in this December 2023 update, I recapped work completed last fall.

Summer Meadow Bistro Tablescape

Hello, and welcome to Panoply! Today I'm sharing a summer alfresco tablescape - the Panoply bistro is open!

Monday Morning Blooms

Hello, and welcome to Panoply on this glorious Monday morning. It is a most special day, as I was invited to join my blogging friends for this June garden edition of Monday Morning Blooms!

Spring / Easter Tablescape with Classic Blue & White

Happy spring, and welcome to Panoply! I am so excited that spring will officially be here this evening (and one day earlier than the norm due to it being a leap year). Although we've been having some very nice weather already, this week I'll necessarily be covering a few plants while morning lows dip below freezing. 

Today I'm also very happy to be hosting a group of table enthusiasts who are each equally excited in bringing you table designs to kick off your spring inspiration!

State of the Winter Garden

Hello, readers! Today I want to dish on dirt - the dirt of my landscape garden and its winter state. 

We moved here in October 2021, and I've been working on overhauling the landscape ever since. 

Pictured below is what my front beds looked like on January 26, 2024, the second of two really nice, warm days where our temps hit the low 60s (F), and I was out there weeding! This was just after nearly 8" of snow melting.

Panoply 2023: It's a Wrap!

It's time to collage all my blog posts for 2023 as a final step before closing the book, figuratively and literally, on 2023. This blog is primarily my personal journal, and my final step each year is to have all my yearly posts bound in a yearbook style format using Blog2Print (no affiliation, I just love the product and service). 

I only blogged 18 posts (counting this one) in 2023. As I share my current passions in life, it is my hope that there is entertainment and inspiration within these posts for you, my readers. My blog is non-revenue producing by choice.

Shhh...the Garden is Sleeping, Or is It?

This time of year is typically when most landscape gardens are cleaned up and, in many areas, put to bed for winter. Not so fast, Mother Nature says!

Tales of the Traveling Tote #36 and Giveaway

Welcome to September and another installment of the Traveling Totes! 

I am one of a group of gals who, each calendar quarter, share experiences of where we've been and how we've used our MacKenzie-Childs totes. It also includes a token giveaway from us to you, so be sure to see further in this post for that opportunity. Be sure to also read through and see my fellow tote travelers' posts, with links provided to take you directly to each. If you want to visit my personal log of tales, you can begin here.

July Garden Update and Just Bee-cause Tablescape

Happy July, friends! Today I want to share an update of my garden since my last post with May progress. But first, I also have a sweet little tablescape to share, just bee-cause I've been inspired. My post is heavy with photos, much like the summer air with humidity, so enjoy your air conditioning and the photo journal which follows.

Up, Up and Away With Summer Dining

Hey there! Summer is just one week away and today I'm sharing a summer tablescape with you that I've set in our dining room: Up, Up and Away with Summer Dining! It's just part of a summer tablescape blog hop I'm hosting for readers. See further in my post for direct links for lots more inspiration on tap, with a great list of stylists also sharing their summer tablescapes today.