As we slide into August, the temperature this morning is only 72, a very unusual occurrence in TX. We have had rains all summer long which has made a lot of gardens turn into jungles.
Share your garden shots for this month so we can all enjoy.
My Pride of Barbados has been abused horribly the last two years, getting mowed repeatedly by son and husband. Such a happy plant it comes back and never fails to impress.
I think I still have some seeds around here for POB. I'll have to plant some and see what I get! I love the bright blooms.
Would love to get my hands on some seeds
It already has a couple seed pods, I will do my best to save you some this fall. No sweat.
TY very Much
Wow bloom pic almost looks neon! I haven't started my seeds either. I have the regular C. Pulcherrima, C. Pulcherrima 'Phoenix', and C. Gilliesii. Maybe if they germinate well, I'll have some for round up.
What's the best way to start these seeds? I've tried but never had any success.
Lisa, I would soak them overnight, then sit on a wet paper towel until roots appear. At that point, you could pot them up as they sprout. Maybe some bottom heat since they are tropical.
Good luck :)
I'm so excited! I have Monarch cats! Whoop!
Thats awesome!!! I wish them luck.
Yay, Joy!!
Congrats on the baby flutterbies :)
Also I sowed my POB and hope to have babies soon!
I have a few mixed into the veggies and forgotten what I planted stuff
Thanks Becky I think I will try that. I have soaked them before but never tried starting them using the paper towel method.
As for my August Blooms one of my Yellow Bells is blooming. This is the first time either one of them has bloomed before fall. I have no idea why.....
Kitt what kind of salvia is that second photo? I love it! Actually all your flowers look so happy :)
Hmm no idea about the yellow bells.. I don't have one of those. Yet. Lol
A couple of years ago, I planted a small creeping rosemary in a big planter. Then, I stuck in a red salvia and a Mealy Blue Sage because I needed a place to put them temporarily. The red salvia died and I potted the MB Sage up to trade. Last winter, the sage succumbed to the freeze. When I pulled it out, I found a small ruellia, probably Katie's Pink, so I left in in there. A couple of weeks later, I saw a few other things sprouting and left them alone. I now have a red salvia, a Mealy Blue Sage and the little Mexican Petunia growing in the planter! LOL
Here's the Red Salvia (NOID), but I did receive it in a trade a few years ago and a close up of the blooms. It's a bright sight out my kitchen window.
In other blooms, the West Texas Mistflower has started blooming as have the (dis)Obedient Plants. Lastly, I didn't realize that I'd planted both a Katie's Pink and a Katie's Blue ruellia by the border, but they're both blooming in the morning light.
Sweet you have bonus plants now! And I think the pink and blue ruellias look great together :))
One of my Monarch cats on a yellow milkweed.
Some of my echinacea.
My vitex hasn't stopped blooming this summer.
I think this is maybe cleome? Darn it, need to go see if I can find the tag.
My blanket flowers haven't stopped blooming this year either. Happy plants.
I will get you an id if I can find the tag- it is a Gregs something? From Arborgate in Magnolia. Their special salvia of this year, chuckl. I have been eyeballing it wondering if I can layer a cutting. My daughter is tryng to keep her thumb on it cuz the plants are skyward bound this yearand she reeaally wants them to behave better. Hehehe. At least she waters.
I think the Salvia Becky is asking about is Black & Blue, which can run rampant.
I'm in mourning. My husband, God love him because I could kill him, "thinned out" my coneflowers, WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE!!! When I surveyed the damage this morning, I could've just cried. He left all of about THREE plants and told me, "They'll grow back". It had taken me about 5 YEARS to get them as thick as they were and blooming nicely. I told him he could've just cut off the bloom stalks. *Sigh*
Oh, I would be crying too! I had a row with my husband a few days ago because he was determined to cut down my muscadines with the DR trimmer. Fortunately he only nicked the trunks before I came running at him screaming like a banshee.
Kitt, it is a shade bush/small tree that I got last year from ARE. It is covered with those delicate little flowers and is gorgeous. The tag should be under it, if not I will use my Leaf app to figure it out.
I dont have the black n blue salvia, the hummingbird one is a deep royal purple. The other one was tagged as Imperial something last year and it survived this past winter and returned- but hasnt apparently thrown seeds. The red reseeds and dies. I shall see what the purple does, but I dont see any seedlings from it either. I cant get to my laptops where the info was snugged safely in- or unsafely since the devices quit. Tears here. I miss my pix. My everlasting Sage is mixed into the Imperial but no blooms from it this year. The golden lantana came back and is spreading itself around claiming more real estate...With the rain its a comedy trying to stay ahead of the jungle and I wasnt much help while I was in this time. Love you guys pix
Ok. I wrote a sentence that disappeared. Surely I am not totally losing it? The hummingbird salvia deep purple was tagged as Gregs something or other. I have a tag, but I left it at home under the plant... Thanx Joy.
This message was edited Aug 10, 2014 6:53 PM
Should have known black and blue salvia.. Very pretty :)
Sorry about the accidental "clean up" by your husband. At least he was trying to help. Lol
I told him he was not allowed to do anything in the flower bed without specific instructions from me.
And even more so from now on!! LMAO!!
I don't know what he was thinking....
last year , my son, borrowing my tractor, decided my quarter acre prairie patch needed mowing , only the bunch grasses and wildflower seeds were not ready. SCALPED IT I was not a happy fella.he even managed to knock down a thriving stand of Opuntia.
Oh my, the damage that some guys can inflict thinking they are helping.
Oh no! Sounds like he should mow for the highway depts!!!
Would the salvia in question be Mystic Blue Spires? I have one of those & it's surviving everything for several years now.
I bought a Pink Muhly grass & got bonus pink ruella with it. It's very pretty but boy does it spread EVERYWHERE! I finally looked & saw the seeds. Well, they're interesting...
I also have a gigantic cosmos that is finally blooming. But it isn't very colorful so I'm wondering if it could be a parent of a hybrid that came up?
Violacious bottlebrush & another that was supposedto be the same but is white/cream blooming again.
Strawflower hanging on. I just love those!
Freebie red salvia--thank you birds or wind.
Grandpa Otts morning glory. Sooo vivid😊
I'll post pics when I have time to flip them. Grrrr. Janet
Rouxcrew Is it possible that pic #4 is some kind of Clerodemdrum? I have the Butterfly Blue one that came from ARE and it looks very similar. Unfortunately, for some reason mine has not bloomed yet this year. Things aren't behaving normally this year it seems.
Mystic Spires, hmmm. Sounds familiar - there were 3 colors offered and I took the deepest color on a whim. My red is struggling this year, not sure if i will be home til Sept this trip. Will ask my daughter if she gets a chance to find the tags.
Yep, that is it. Clerodendron, Blue Wing. Found the tag tucked in by the base. It is much taller than I thought, pushing five feet and change. But it is suddenly covering itself with blooms, a very nice look.
I was rather disappointed that it waited so long, I thought it was supposed to bloom all summer. But as you mentioned, it has been a weird one.
I was going to take cuttings from my tomatoes for fall and have decided against it. This year they are unbelievably healthy, still putting on growth and tomatoes. Normally I would have yanked them by now.
My zinnias are seeing it tough with the heat, wilting every afternoon but soak watering brings them back and they are still lovely. Hoping they will free seed for next year.
My heirloom morning glory is going crazy with growth on my arch but nary a bloom while the ones on my fence are covered with blooms and not much foliage. Go figure.
Post oak, I think I would have scalped him!! Lol maybe not over the opuntia though.. We could stand to lose a few of those no problem :)
After reading abt the "husband help" all I can think is what they would do if you messed with their stuff? I hate to say this but I'm so glad I'm divorced....no more begging for him to leave my patch of wildflowers alone. On 8 acres he had plenty else to do. I think he (they) do it just to make us mad. Now the sound of a lawn mower no longer makes me wonder what of mine is going to get mowed over. I always wish he would have actually done what I ask instead of what he wanted. I no longer need a lawn mower....I removed the grass I thought it was a waste of time and energy.
Stephanie I'm sorry your flowers were culled. My sons' know better then to do anything without asking....they know that I don't mess with their stuff so they don't mess with mine.
I found out that he didn't pull them up, he just chopped them to the ground and left the roots. Maybe they'll grow back?? We'll see.
Opuntia grow back? Yes without fail. Makes em bloom at ground level all at once. Only problem is, if he didnt bag what he cut down, then he just quadrubled that patch. chuckl
He scalped the coneflower area of my flower bed, but left about 4 sprouts. I have to see if I have any seeds left from when I harvested seeds a few years ago.
Here is the pink ruella growing in the muhly
Grandpa Otts. I can probably bring "offspring" for adoption to R/U.
