It’s the 15th, and time for another Bloom Day. We’ve had a string of days over 90 degrees in June, so a lot of plants have shed their blooms for the moment. Here are pics of those few hearty souls that are still hanging in there…
In the backyard, the vegetable garden is producing, even when beset by heavy infestations of all sorts of pests, including ants, squash vine borers, and beetles. The cucumber vines are going nuts, and are covered with blossoms, though they’re not producing much. Still, they’re green and pretty, and occasionally cough up a lone cuke for my summer salads.
The eggplants are also covered in lovely purple flowers, though I’ve yet to see a single one turn into eggplanty goodness.
Over in the herb garden, the lantana is growing like a weed, and flowering constantly. The sweet potato vine started as a four inch pot about a month ago, and although it doesn’t flower, it gives plenty of bright green color to the struggling landscape. All around this planter is grass (really, weeds) that I don’t water, so it goes kind of grey in the heat. Soon, there will be three more beds like this one, gravel, stones, and no grass…
On the other side of the lantana and sweet potato vine is this big oregano, rescued from last year’s herb garden. It’s covered with tiny white flowers right now.
The crape myrtles along the back fence line are just starting to flower. These old trees are very tall, and for a few weeks every summer, are covered in these brilliant magenta blossoms. They’re one of the few redeeming features that came with the backyard, and I adore them. I’m happy to say that these photos were taken of the tree that was badly damaged in the winter snow. Even though most of the largest section of the tree went down, and had to be removed, it’s still happy as can be.
Moving to the front yard, the new purple bed seems to be happy right now. I planted these purple cone flowers this spring, and boy, are they flowering right now. The plant has more than doubled in size in about a month, and is growing taller every day. If this plant winters well, I’ll be getting more next spring.
Below the coneflowers are the small but mighty purple gazanias. Though the yellows seem to have given up for now, the purples are going strong.
Purple lantana is flowering nicely after a short break. This was an impulse buy, to fill the purple bed this year while the autumn sage and oregano grows in. I’ll probably replace them next spring with germander, which is growing nicely in the backyard, and is evergreen.
Tall Mexican petunias are flowering steadily. These aren’t as spectacular as their smaller cousins, but they grow tall quickly, so there’s at least one corner of the purple bed that looks lush rather than under planted.
In the yellow bed, the coreopsis is blooming faster than I can deadhead it. The flowers are coming in waves, and this plant is just at the end of the latest flurry of blooms. At its peak, each wave turns the entire bush bright yellow with cheery flowers.
Four nerve daisies are also blooming steadily, and faster than I can deadhead. I love these little plants.
The red yuccas are just about done with their flowering cycle. These are hard to photograph! The new blue yucca flowered a few weeks ago, and is a big disappointment. I think in the fall, I’ll move it to the side yard, and track down some of the hard to find yellow yuccas that flower like this instead.
That’s it for this month. I shot a few more things that are garden oddities, and will post those later.
This post was created for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, gardeners from around the world photograph whatever is blooming in their gardens, post the pics, and then add their link to the Bloom Day list. It’s a great way to see what’s in bloom right now all over the place. If you’re a gardener, join in!
