Mid-August is the hottest part of summer for us in Southeast Texas. In addition, all our lovely showers from spring and early summer seem to have ended and suddenly things are very, very dry. I've had to deploy the sprinklers to keep some of my plants from succumbing to the heat and dry conditions.
Even so, in spite of hostile conditions, August has its blooms. Here are some of them.
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| In the little pond, the water lilies are blooming. Those pellets surrounding the blossom are food for the goldfish. |
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| Also in the pond, the pickerel weed is going strong. |
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| And beside the pond, the swamp hibiscus that we call Texas Star is sending out its daily blooms. |
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| The 4 O'clocks are full of their blooms as well. |
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| The almond verbena with its small blossoms that carry a big fragrance that scents the entire section of the garden where the big shrub lives. |
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| Even though it has been dry, the humidity has been high and that has been enough to keep the Texas sage in bloom. |
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| In the veggie garden, most of the vegetables have pooped out in the heat but the okra just gets stronger and more prolific. |
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| August is brugmansia blooming time. |
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| And it is datura blooming time. |
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| The milk and wine lilies are past their prime now, but this picture, taken a few days ago, shows them in their full beauty. |
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| The Philippine lilies also are now a bit past their prime but have bloomed gloriously this month. |
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| The cypress vines that reseed themselves every year are going strong and providing lots of their tiny trumpet-shaped blossoms for the butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds that love them. |
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| Porterweed has been a reliable bloomer this summer. |
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| And so has the cosmos. The bumblebees are grateful! |
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| You can see why the common name for this plant is "flame acanthus." Its blossoms do indeed look like little tongues of flame. |
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| Pink purslane brightens its corner of the garden. |
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| The butterfly ginger is in full bloom now. |
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| Camphor weed is just beginning its long bloom time. |
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| It has not been a good year for roses in my garden. Most of them have not done well at all, but I can always depend on the old 'Caldwell Pink' roses to give me lots of blooms. |
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The evergreen wisteria is filling up with these wine-colored blossoms.
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Summer is beginning its long wind-down period as it slips inexorably toward autumn, but as it's winding down, we still enjoy the bright colors of the many flowers that we gardeners live for. I hope your garden is giving you lots of color on this Bloom Day. Thank you for stopping by my garden.
Don't forget to visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens as she once again hosts Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.
I always find some new plants to enjoy in your garden that I'm not familiar with, Dorothy. But today I spot a couple that we share--I posted a photo of a bumblebee in my cosmos, too. I love these old-fashioned blooms. I also have some volunteer cypress vine; mine is threatening to take over one part of the garden:) Hope you get some rain soon!
ReplyDeleteCypress vine will do that. I got my first seeds from my mother many years ago and it has reseeded every year. My mother is gone now but every year when I see the cypress vine blooming I think of her.
DeleteVisiting a Texas garden is always like a trip to another plant for us northern gardeners. So many beautiful things we can't grow to lust after!
ReplyDeleteAnd I feel the same way about Wisconsin gardens! That's what is so great about Bloom Day. I love seeing gardens around the world and what's blooming there.
DeleteWow, a wonderful array of blooms Dorothy. I love the milk and wine and Philippine lilies and the beautiful butterfly ginger. I have a version of the latter which is supposedly hardy in the UK but it limps along and no flowers this year. I think I need to put it back in a pot and cosset it a bit!
ReplyDeleteI do love that butterfly ginger. It has a light fragrance, also, that is very pleasing. Just a great plant.
DeleteSuch a lovely selection of blooms! I'm especially fond of the evergreen wisteria, it's such a pretty colour.
ReplyDeleteThe wisteria is a favorite of mine as well. I love the color and it has a very long bloom period - from now well into fall.
DeleteLooks good for a dry season. Porterweed is just getting started here.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for sprinklers! Yeah, the porterweed has been a winner for me this summer and it's been blooming for weeks now.
DeleteDorothy, I enjoyed your post about what's blooming in your Texas garden. I would like to try the Almond Verbena since you mentioned the fragrance. That is the best part about having a garden for me -- besides the color, the fragrance. I would also like to try Datura, as I know this is also very fragrant in the evenings. I wonder if I planted it now here in Southern California it would do okay or if I should wait until Spring. It seems that many of the rules of gardening do not apply in my Zone... plants seem to do whatever they want with our weather so a lot of times I go against the rules and have pretty good luck! I also have Brugmansia in bloom right now and again, that fragrance! I have the same color you do but also a white one. Both are in containers The first time the white bloomed, it did not have fragrance. It is about to bloom again so we'll see. The other one similar to yours smells amazing and has bloomed continuously. I try to find any reason to hang around that part of my garden just to take in the scent in the evenings. I am pretty sure my neighbors think I'm crazy since my bungalow court does not have much privacy. I'm curious about the 4 O'clocks... Are they fragrant?
ReplyDeleteI have no expertise about your zone of California and very little about my own, but I would think it would probably be wise to wait until winter or spring to plant the almond verbena. I had to move mine a couple of years ago and we did it in the dead of winter. Even so it pouted for several months before it settled into its new bed. But as you say, plants are gonna do what plants are gonna do and sometimes those numbers on the zone map don't seem to mean much. As for the 4 O'clocks, they do have a light fragrance, like many night-bloomers that depend on moths for their pollination. I also have a pink and a white brug, but neither of those are blooming yet - fingers crossed for later blooms.
DeleteOh what beautiful flowers, many of them unfamiliar to me. Is the Milk and wine lily a Crinum? I have never seen one with a stripe like that.
ReplyDeleteI love all your plants, they are all gorgeous.
You are spot on! Yes, the milk and wine lily is a crinum, one that is very traditional in Southern gardens.
DeleteWow...you have so many wonderful blooms in your Texas garden! I especially enjoyed the beautiful yellow water lilles in the first photograph and interesting milk and wine lilies which I have never seen before....just lovely!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy my little goldfish pond immensely and one of the reasons is the plants that grow there. I especially love it when the dragonflies come and perch there as they often do on these hot summer days.
DeleteDorothy it was nice to visit your garden...it is cooler here in August than I would like and my okra is blooming despite it. I have the same variety growing as you do. I love the red stems and okra and pale yellow flowers.
ReplyDeleteThis particular okra not only tastes good and is very prolific, but it is also so pretty it could live in mixed decorative border. I will be planting it again next year.
DeleteWow, Dorothy! Your garden blooms as splendidly as ever! Just beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I look forward to seeing your garden, too.
DeleteThose milk and wine lilies are so beautiful! Never seen those before... You have so many interesting blooms. That Cypress vine is lovely new one to me too!
ReplyDeleteMilk and wine lilies are an old standard here, as in fact are many of the plants in my garden - tried and true and tough. The same might be said of the cypress vine. It looks fragile but once it gets started, you can't keep it down. It will return every year.
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