Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August 2016

Our two month long dry spell was broken over the weekend with a considerable amount of rain. We've gotten over six inches of rain so far and it is continuing. 

The rain was welcomed by the thirsty garden and the gardener. It came too late for a few of my plants, which are going to have to be replaced, but it gives a second lease on life to many others.

And then there are the tough plants that just keep on keeping on, rain or shine. Those are the plants I love. 

Texas sage (Leucophyllum frutescens) has blooms that are triggered by rainfall. My plant is in full bloom now. 


The 'Graham Thomas' rose is at its best in the autumn and it is getting a head start on the season.

Blue plumbago just never quits.

All the beautyberries are sporting a bumper crop of berries this late summer, including the white variety... 

...and the purple variety.

The 'Pride of Barbados' (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) continues its long season of bloom.

As do all the crape myrtles.


Duranta erecta 'Golden dewdrop.'

Joe Pye weed.

Almond verbena.

African blue basil. I grow it for the butterflies, bees, and other pollinators, all of which love it. It's not so great for culinary use. 

Anisacanthus wrightii is coming into its own now.

And, of course, I couldn't do an August post without including the Hamelia patens (hummingbird bush or Mexican firebush) which is a staple of my late summer and fall garden.

I hope you and your garden are thriving as we get ready for fall. It can't come too soon for me!

Happy Bloom Day to all and thank you, Carol of May Dreams Gardens, for hosting us each month. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride: A review

Image
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, now likely extinct, was the largest woodpecker endemic to North America. Twenty inches long with a wingspan of thirty inches, it was an impressive sight in flight, so impressive that folks who saw it were known to exclaim in awe, "Good lord!" And so, the story goes, it became known colloquially as the Good Lord Bird. The Good Lord Bird was a denizen of the forests and swamps of the southeastern United States. It's unlikely that it ever lived on the prairies of Kansas except in James McBride's imagination. McBride imagines the bird there in the middle of the nineteenth century, sharing "Bleeding Kansas" with the abolitionist John Brown and his "army." In his telling, the woodpecker became a talisman for the abolitionist. He carried its feathers as a good luck charm, a symbol of hope. Like many, I suppose, I have only the most rudimentary knowledge of John Brown and his campaign to destroy the institution of slavery. I am...
Read more

Election Day

It was primary day in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Oregon, and an interesting one it was, too. At this hour, it has been determined that the tea party candidate, Rand Paul, has won the Republican primary for senator of Kentucky. The Democratic race for that office has been much closer with two strong candidates, the current Attorney General and Lt. Governor of the state. At present the Attorney General has a slim lead. Interestingly, both the Attorney General and the Lt. Governor have received more votes than Rand Paul did! I wonder if the mainstream media will mention that. I would guess not. In Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter found that switching parties was not the golden ticket to continued incumbency that he had thought. Rep. Joe Sestak beat him rather decisively. It will be a tough battle for Sestak in the general election, but he might just pull it off. He's a pretty tough campaigner. The really interesting race in Pennsylvania was the special election for the...
Read more

Poetry Sunday: To Daffodils by Robert Herrick

Gardening is a hobby, some might say an obsession, of mine. I live in an area with a growing season that is virtually year-round so there's always something going on in the garden and I spend a lot of time attempting to grow many different kinds of plants. Many plants thrive here and it is very rewarding to watch them grow. But there are some that I've tried to grow that have been a bust. Among those failures are daffodils. You might think daffs would be easy. I mean you can see them growing wild around old abandoned home sites with no one to care for them, but there is something about the heat and humidity here, or maybe it's the soil, or perhaps a combination of both that is inimical to the growth of daffodils. I plant them and they bloom for one year and then they disappear, so I've pretty much given up on them and moved on to other things. Poets love daffodils, of course. One always thinks of William Wordsworth, but Robert Herrick was fond of them, too, and he saw t...
Read more