Gerbera Daisy
Showing your sizzling July blooms...
Zinnia Gone Wild
Hydrangeas.
next.
One of my favorite places. :-)
I'm really loving this thread. Texas is really blooming away. Thanks podster for the ginger offer. I'll take you up on it sometime in the future.
trunnels, how do you get your Hosta to grow so big? My gets to a certain size (not large!) and then sort of poops out.
mimi825 Is your red Penta planted in sun or partial shade. I have bought a nice one and have a sunny bed that gets afternoon West sun and a bed that gets filtered afternoon sun. Which would you recommend
Bobyrd, I assume you are buying hostas that are supposed to be large? I think hostas have a hard time in your zone. Do you grow the varigated ginger plant? I believe they do much better in your area than hostas. They are beautiful in the landscape and give a similar look.
bobyrd, I grow all of my pentas in full sun.
Here is a great article on hostas in the south.
http://www.hostapatch.com/articles.php
Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower). The leaves tend to wilt just a bit during the heat of the day, but otherwise it is one happy plant.
Carla
Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) -- close up of the flower.
Carla
trunnels
Thank you for the information. I have obviously been trying to grow something that was probably doomed for failure. Next time I try I will pick one more likely to be a success!
I do have some varigated ginger that I bought last year but it hasn't done much. It is planted in a spot that gets filtered sun part of the day. I have another ginger (don't know what kind) but it grows like crazy but has never produced any blooms. Is there a ginger that doesn't flower? (If there is I probably have it. :O))
Bonnie
Great looking plants. Wow that Tithonia really sizzles!
Love the Tithonia Carla and I understand how it feels... I tend to wilt just a bit during the heat of the day! LOL
I've grown these for years but put them in ground this spring. First blooms of the year ~
Belamcamda chinensis or blackberry lily...
Stuffed the N. longifolia in ground too and it loves it.
Walking iris
Hamela patens ~ both the hummers & I love it!
Lysimachia ~ with nodding yellow blooms.
A cheery favorite that blooms the summer thru...
This plant broke off from a pot and volunteers every summer. Setcreasea pallida
podster, love 'em all. How large does the Hamela patens get? Always looking for new stuff to attract the hummers and butterflies.
Pod, can you imagine the surprise of all the people I have given seedlings to, telling them this is a cone flower? About to bloom any day now.
Chris
Don't what this is or where I got it. (par for the course) If you look very close to the bottom right corner of the picture you will see a bloom. They are beginning to cover the entire plant and some of them are fluffing out a soft lavender color. Probably came from Randy.
In the foreground is the morning glory tree from Randy. Behind is the "stand" of turks cap.
Too far away to see it but it is covered with red blooms from now till frost.
Christi, I love all your pics! I'm curious to know what that purpley plant is in the first pic will turn out to be! I love Turk's Cap! Mine put out it's first little flower today. I got a cutting from my dad's neighbor's plant last spring when I went to visit. I need to get it in the ground this fall.
Christi, are you seeing hummingbirds at your Turks Cap?
Carla
whoever was asking how big H patens gets this shot was taken early Sunday am before they finished a fencing project here for documentation (in case they really messed up). the privacy fence to the left is 6' high, the one perpendicular (which if continued would run on the right of the shrub) is 7' high. This one shrub is about 10 years old. It will freeze to ground level every single winter here and is cut back that far. that's ok though, a lot of winter-growing, spring blooming bulbs live around the base of it (well hidden and sleeping now). This will get another foot or so talll and definitely add another 2' width in all directions.
that was for total size--here's a closer view of height taken just a few ago--6' fence to the left, 7' fence to the right
That is a gorgeous shrub Debbie, sure wish it was a Texas native.
WOW!!! My Mexican Firebush only gets ~4 feet tall. Do you feed it some special "Super Size" fertilizer? That is a beautiful specimen.
Carla
me too Josephine, me too. I just don't have the heart to dig it out.
I did get all the shrubs out last winter except for a vitex that are non-native--got too late on me in the season to dig that one, got busy with other plants. It goes this winter--its all that's on my list. I did a few US native rhododendron's this spring as replacements. The Florida native Rhododendron austrinum is growing by leaps and bounds, R prunifolium is growing some, and the others are sleeping through the heat. But definitely not dying, so we shall see how they do when it cools off a bit.
I'm down to only 3 non US native shrubs now: the H patens, a huge Clerondendron ugandense, and a Lespedeza thunbergii. The H patens I haven't the heart to dig out, it performs so well; the C ugandense I can take or leave (it may go this winter too), one of those is definitely enough. And I dearly love the Lespedeza thunbergii because it blooms fall-I love October-November blooming stuff. Its finally cool enough to really enjoy them.
no Loonie--it gets no fertilizer, no supplemental watering, no nothing but mulched heavily in spring. really low maintenance and drought tolerant after about the 3rd year--I do have really good soil though.
;)
Hey, Carla, my turk's caps are small (shade and bad soil), so I don't see too many hummers there. Oddly enough, I never do see hummers at the things I planted specifically to attract them. However, they come to the hot lips salvia that would've been tossed long ago if not for them. We've had a ruby throat there every night for the last week, getting a little pre-bedtime snack.
Well Pattie, that's the way of it isn't it -- the birds and butterflies go where they want, not to where we think they should. :-) The only experience I have with Turks Cap is that it is the #1 hummingbird attractor at a friend's house. I don't currently have room for it in my backyard. But if this drought kills off any of the weaker stuff, I might find some room.
Carla
I grow turks cap mainly because it grows in shade, in the caliche in my front lawn. They don't get as big or bloomiferous (is that a word?) as the ones I've seen growing in full sun. I was hoping for hummers too. But the fact that they will grow where nothing else will, and still make those cute little flowers, is enough.
You are right, though, it really is funny how it works. I made room for a butterfly bush, and deal with the thug-ness of cypress vine, specifically because a neighbor was hogging all the neighborhood hummers with those things. I also have hamelia patens, agastache, hibiscus, turks cap,and several other things that are supposed to be hummer magnets. But in my yard, they never go near any of those things. They like the pomegranate, and--out of all the salvias I grow--the ONE that I want to dig up!
This message was edited Jul 15, 2008 9:14 PM
Hmmm.... Hummer blooms. I have the Turks cap but they don't seem interested. The red Salvia and four different Agastaches are well received by the little birds. On Monday, I sat and watched them work over two different Cuphea plants.
Mimi, DMJ1218 answered your size question on the Hamelia patens. I don't expect it to get that large in this zone but the Hummingbirds exhibited avid interest in it Monday also. It is still small as it is a new acquisition for me. I think I am in love!
BTW, Mimi ~ what zone are you in?
My hamelia patens (until this year) get about 6' tall in North Texas. They've been there about 10 years. Unfortunately mine don't have room to branch out and get bushy like Deb's. I had no idea how big they would get, or would never have planted them in the cramped space they're in. But they still reach almost the same height here as hers do in Houston.
Do you prune them back or are they only limited by space?
Nah, I've never pruned them. They're just in a tiny foundation bed that's only about 2x3 feet. I do cut them to the ground when they die back in the fall.
Here's one of my "sizzling July blooms...." Ceejay's Phillipine lily from the CS RU in April. Just partially opened tonight. Hey, Ceejay, thanks so much!
Daylily Final Touch, in its third season but blooming for the first time this year. Worth the wait!
