Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Tropical Garden #124, 1 by dyzzypyxxy

dyzzypyxxy wrote:
Drought, heat, floods, solar storms, and a fantastic (bad) year for bugs plus a really warm winter and early spring. Yup, I'd agree it's been a strange season everywhere, it seems. You're right, Alice, our crepe myrtles were late starting, too. My little white one is still in full bloom.

We have not had extreme heat here, in fact today was the second day all summer we have reached 92deg. But we've had bouts of heavy rain like the deluge from TS Debby, then a week or two of no rain at all. Must be confusing for the plants. Everything jumped up after Debby, bloomed, and some things grew bigger and bloomed more than I've ever seen. Then it seems as if a lot of things just stopped for a while - too much top growth and not enough water to sustain it even with irrigation?

I've had big success with the one EE 'Blue Hawaii' that is in the pool cage, and my begonias are variable, some are going like crazy and others are just sitting there looking at me sadly despite the same care for all of them. My brugs have not bloomed in over a month, and even then it was just a couple of flowers here and there. Insects have been their big problem, but still . . . . I water them every day and feed them generously. Who knows. Another deluge expected here from TS Isaac starting Sunday - maybe it will 'correct' things?