It’s the 15th, and time for another Bloom Day post. This month, I have much more to show off than I did in July. We’ve had about a week of long, soaking rains since then, so the garden recovered from the spell of over 100 degree days, and burst into bloom again. Here’s what’s blooming this morning, in the already blazing sun:

Crape myrtle trees in the backyard, above, and the front, at left. The whole back fence line is 30′ magenta crape myrtle trees—one of the few redeeming landscaping features I inherited from the previous owners. While they insisted on mutilating the trees by cropping the tops every year, and stripping away the sprouts at the sides, I’ve let the back fence go wild. The sun hits these full on in the morning, so it’s hard to see just how beautiful the brilliant magenta flowers are. The only down side: the flowers shed all over the place, creating a mess. I notice Bad Neighbor has been parking his truck in front of his own house since they started blooming…

Marigolds are still blooming in the vegetable bed. Since this is the one place that gets watered regularly, they’re happy as clams. I’ve been dropping the dried seed heads into the soil around the fall tomatoes, hoping they’ll sprout up and create a natural defense against pests—and also, crowd out the nut grass, which I seem to pull up daily.
Speaking of tomatoes, the fall vines are growing steadily, and already in flower. It’s been really hot here, so I don’t expect any fruit to set from these flowers—but it’s a good sign that they’re blooming, anyway.
In the herb bed, both the basil and the arugula have bolted, and are in flower. The arugula flowers are really lovely and delicate, so even though they indicate the end of tasty salad greens, I don’t mind. Soon, this whole bed will be disassembled, and the surviving perennials will move to a permanent wood bed.
Moving to the front yard, the Mexican petunias are still blooming a bit. These have really flowered for a long time, and all three plants have grown so much, they’re ready to be divided in the fall.

The rose bush I moved from the backyard trash pile is thriving in its new home. The blooms have been a little small, but still just as fragrant. I feel a little victory every time I walk past, because after years of fighting lack of sun in the shade bed, and then black mold in the backyard, it’s now green and healthy.

By this time last year, the coreopsis had already died down to the ground, and I didn’t think they’d come back. I moved them to the new yellow bed this spring, and they’ve been filling out very slowly, and giving a flower here and there. They’re not as tall as they should be, but seem happy, so I’m just waiting and watching to see what they decide to do.

Three little four nerve daisies have started to bloom, after suffering through late planting and intense heat. They still look a little pale, but they’re supposed to be pretty drough tolerant. They’re awfully sweet little flowers, so I hope they spread out when the temps cool a bit.

The Knockout roses have been blooming so much, I can’t keep up with the dead heading. They’re truly happy in the wretched heat. Right now, one is down by the sidewalk, and one is in the yellow bed. I think they should both be in the yellow bed, and I definitely have room, so maybe in the fall, I’ll do a little moving around.

The gauras are hard to photograph, but both grew like crazy, and sent up dozens of flowers after the rain.

The cherry sage is also blooming like crazy. Sadly, two of the three seem to be sick, and whole sections of them are dying. I’ve been trimming away the dead stuff, and hoping the plants will survive. This one has not fallen to whatever plague the other two have met, and is still round and lovely.

This lantana was a one gallon, spindly little plant a year ago. Now, it’s The Lantana That Ate Euless. It’s huge, and after the rain, it went from no flowers to covered with flowers. It’s amazing what a deep watering will do.

I’m not sure what the three giant liriope are doing. They’re half green, half brown, and sending up dozens of little purple flower stalks. I think I’ll dig these up in the fall, divide them, pull out the brown stuff if I can, and make sure they go back into bigger holes with more good dirt in them. I think I skimped on the digging when I planted them, and the roots are now hitting black clay.

Back for another month, the butterfly weed is still sitting in the holding pen on the front porch, waiting to be planted. I don’t know why I haven’t done anything with it. It seems like every time I head out to plant it, something else catches my attention, and I don’t get around to it. Still, as long as I remember to water the poor thing, it continues to bloom.

That’s it for this month!

This post is for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, gardeners from around the world show off what’s flowering in their gardens. If you have a garden, join in the fun!