Welcome to my very wet zone 9a garden near Houston. Our unusual summer has continued with almost daily rain. (Too bad we can't send some of it out west where our friends really need it.)
Our summers are typically very hot and humid but mostly dry. Sometimes very dry. This summer we still have the heat, although not as hot as we generally experience, but it is the rain that has been the real feature of the season. The plants have loved all the moisture but some of them have taken a real beating from the torrential downpours. Then a few days ago we had a wind storm that broke limbs, blew plants around, and generally made a mess of things. Bottom line: My garden isn't looking so good right now. Still, there are blooms. Here are some of them.
Blooms of the Texas sage are triggered by rain, so there have been a lot of blooms from it this summer.
And more gerbera daisies.
A rain-drenched water lily in the little goldfish pond.
Native butterfly weed,
Asclepias tuberosa. There have been a few Monarch butterflies through here this year but none seem to have utilized my plants as a nursery for their offspring.
There's also tropical milkweed which we now know is not the greatest for our milkweed butterflies. I'll probably dig mine out before next season.
Blown sideways by the wind, the yellow canna is still blooming.
My old species canna with its attendant skipper butterfly.
Even the liriope is getting into the action with its unobtrusive little blossoms.
A bird-planted sunflower.
Groundcover wedelia. The purple-tinted leaves are from
Tradescantia pallida, 'Purple Heart' that grows with the wedelia.
The hamelia is beginning to bloom which makes the hummingbirds happy.
Plumbago, possibly my most dependable summer bloomer.
Crinum 'Ellen Bosanquet.'
Milk and wine lilies bloom sporadically throughout the summer.
This is the third crop of Black Swallowtail caterpillars that have been incubated on my fennel plants this summer. Although butterflies have not been seen in abundance in the garden this year, the Black Swallowtails are doing very well indeed.
Sweet-smelling blossoms of almond verbena.
Mexican hydrangea, 'Cashmere Bouquet.'
Mexican sunflower,
Tithonia.
Purple echinacea with one very happy bee.
Thank you for visiting my garden this month. I hope you and your garden are doing well. Thank you to
Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting us once again. Happy gardening!
The milk and wine lilies are so freaking stunning! And I love the sunflowers. Even though your garden has taken a beating, it's still so lovely.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Carrie.
DeleteYour garden is looking really good...especially considering all the beatings that flowers have taken around here for the last several weeks. Ours is in bad shape. I hesitate to wish too hard for the rains to end because I don't want to trigger a drought. :-)
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean, Sam. I remember well the terrible drought we had a few years ago with the wildfires and trees dying all around us. I definitely prefer too much rain to too little.
DeleteI'm sorry you are having similar weather to what we are experiencing in upstate New York - except I'm sure it's hotter and even more humid. So - tropical milkweed. I've never seen that. For some reason the flowers remind me a little (just a little) of some lantanas. I love crocosomia but for some reason, the two years we tried it, it never seemed to do well for us. As usual, many of your offerings are plants I've never seen, or rarely have seen, except virtually. Like the milk and wine lilies, which I "think" I saw in Columbia, SC when we visited there in August of 2017 for the total eclipse. So pretty! Almond verbena, too. But I think this month's favorite is the plumbago. I just love that color. Thank you for bringing your blooms to us this month.
ReplyDeletePlumbago is a favorite of mine as well, mainly because it is so tough and reliable. And blue. Blue is often hard to come by in the garden.
DeleteI am not usually a fan of lilies, but the milk and wine is striking. Your state has certainly gotten its share of weird weather in the past year. Nice to have the swallowtails. When I planted fennel I didn't realize my swallowtails are not the fennel lovers.
ReplyDeleteThe Black Swallowtails usually go for my dill first, but I don't have any this year so they settled for the fennel.
DeleteThe plumbago and Mexican hydrangea are new to me - just lovely how beautiful your garden grows.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Diane.
DeleteBeautiful
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteGorgeous blooms! This is my second bloom day post showing plumbago, which is a new flower to me. Must be a sign!
ReplyDeleteThe plumbago blooms for about eight months of the year in our climate, one flush of blooms after another. It is definitely a valuable plant in my garden.
DeleteBeautiful! Wonderful variety of blooms!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lea.
DeleteYour Pride of Barbados gave me instant childhood flashbacks. In Puerto Rico we call it Flamboyan. My grandma's house still ahs one to this day that is at least 50 yrs old and it is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteMine is not quite that old - more like 15 years - but it has proved a very resilient plant and is a favorite with the butterflies and with me.
DeleteYour blooms are still beautiful, Dorothy, but gentle rain would be lovely wouldn't it, not these torrential downpours that batter everything to the ground. Weather is crazy all over. Yesterday a tornado touched down in Barrie, ON doing a great deal of damage.
ReplyDeleteWeird weather has become the norm. I wonder what could possibly be causing it. It couldn't possibly be that thing that all the climate scientists have tried to warn us about for years, could it?
DeleteSplendid blooms, Crinum ' Ellan Bosanquet ' is one variety I want to grow in my garden. Thanks for visiting my blog.
ReplyDelete'Ellen' is a great crinum. I get lots of blooms from her every summer.
DeleteSome of my favorite flowers are included here, and some beautiful ideas for next year! What a wonderful garden you have to enjoy. We've had fewer bees and butterflies than ever before, and I have been blaming the parish mosquito spraying for this for years. We've had more rain than usual this year and the mosquitoes have been ferocious. I plant to attract both bees and butterflies, but while the mosquito trucks don't seem to help with mosquitoes, the lack of bees and butterflies is obvious.
ReplyDeleteMosquitoes are a bane to our lives, but indiscriminate spraying is not the way to combat them. It does so much damage to all the insects that we need and want in our lives.
DeleteWhat a fabulous garden. We have been focusing on adding native species, a few at a time. We've never seen as many butterflies as we have this year.
ReplyDeleteNative plants are definitely the way to go in order to attract butterflies and pollinators.
DeleteThanks for the blog loaded with so many information. Stopping by your blog helped me to get what I was looking for. Best landscaping company
ReplyDeleteBlack swallowtails are usually abundant in my yard also, but I do have many plant that attract them and host their caterpillars. Love your caterpillar photo. So many colors in your garden, and despite the storms, they all seem to be quite happy.
ReplyDelete