Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - September 2017

I didn't get to participate in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens in August, first because I was otherwise engaged at the time and second because I really didn't have much to show anyway. Now here we are in September and there's probably even less to show, but I'll give you a peek at what I've got.

In the interim, of course, we had a bit of excitement when Hurricane Harvey came calling. He was actually relatively gentle with my neighborhood. We had no destructive winds and we only got 24 inches of rain. Two feet of water is less than half of what some areas got. But even a "gentle" hurricane was no fun for my garden.

Plants that were in bloom at the time had their blooms shredded and knocked to the ground by the pounding rain. Several shrubs and perennials had many or most of their leaves knocked off and a lot of the leaves that were left quickly turned yellow. In short, it left the garden in a mess and, since I've been busy with other projects recently, more than two weeks later it is still in pretty much of a mess.

But enough with the moaning and groaning. Here's what is still blooming.  




Looking like the burning bush of fables, Hamelia patens, aka Mexican firebush or hummingbird bush, never skipped a beat. It is undaunted by hurricanes or drought. When the shrub is in full bloom, as it is from early summer until first frost, it can truly look like a bush on fire.




If it is September, it must be time for the asters to be in bloom



The candy-striped flowers of the milk and wine lilies keep popping up throughout summer and fall.



I love the daisy-like blossoms of the ground cover wedelia. It makes me happy just to look at them.


The tiny blue flowers of bindweed (Convolvulus) close up by mid-day, but while they remain open, they have a cooling effect.


Lantana is another tough plant that is a butterfly attractant.



This pink crape myrtle continues to bloom all summer long. It lost a lot of leaves in the storm, but, oddly, the fragile-looking flowers stood up well.



The weird little flowers of porterweed don't look like much to humans but butterflies find them really beautiful
  

Butterflies like this Painted Lady. Apparently it is Painted Lady season because there have been a lot of them in the garden this week.



The yellow cestrum is another shrub that had a lot of leaves knocked off or yellowed by the storm, but it still sports quite a few of these blossoms.



The old canna still has a few blooms as well.



On one of the bare branches of the yellow cestrum, this red skipper dragonfly was sunning itself.


The Duranta erecta has been covered in these golden berries that give the plant its popular name of "golden dewdrop". These berries are greatly loved by birds and you can probably see that a lot of them have already been stripped off by the hungry critters.



The Duranta still carries a few blooms as well. They are very attractive to butterflies of all kinds.



The beautyberries virtually glow, as they wait for hungry birds to find them.



On the muscadine vines, the grapes are beginning to turn color.


It's still summer for another week and the summer phlox still have a few blooms left.



Yellow milkweed in flower.



The 'Pride of Barbados' shrub has been in bloom since early summer and its flowers still hang on and are still visited by Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies.



Another shrub damaged by Harvey's hard rains was the blue potato bush, but it still manages to produce a few of its pretty blossoms.



This butterfly ginger bloom looks distinctly bedraggled but the butterflies and hummingbirds don't mind.



Observers report an increase in the number of Monarch butterflies this summer and here is another pair, perched on my crape myrtle tree, doing their part to ensure the continuation of their species.


The dwarf ruellia, 'Katie', blooms on.



Turk's cap blossoms are a favorite of migrating hummingbirds.



In the little goldfish pond, the water lilies continue to send out the occasional pretty flower.



I look forward to my walk around the garden each day to see which hibiscus is in bloom. Today it was this one.

I'm so glad you decided to spend some time in my garden this Bloom Day. I hope both you and your garden are flourishing. 

Happy gardening!

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