Garden Blogger's Bloom Day - July 2015

I'm notorious for forgetting to participate in Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, hosted on the 15th of each month by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Here we are in July and I have participated a total of ZERO times this year!  Until today, that is.

I was reminded of GBBD, as it is affectionately know, when another Houston area garden blogger, Dorothy of The Nature of Things, posted a link to her GBBD post on Facebook this morning.

So, before I forget again, here are some blooms from our garden.

 
The Profusion zinnia threatened to take over the entire garden this year.  I had to do some major thinning and there are still more of them than anything else in the garden.  I'm not complaining though, they shrug off the heat and humidity and the butterflies and bees love them.

To offset all the orange, I interspersed some Angelonia.  I should have added some salvia as well, for the bees and hummingbirds, but I've not had much success with it in the past and just didn't get around to planting any this year.

I like this white Angelonia too.

In the back border, this Gomphrena adds another splash of purple amid all the orange.

This Philippine lily caught me by surprise.  It was a passalong from a gardening friend a few years ago and it's tucked in behind the shrubs in the front border.  I had forgotten about it until the beautiful blooms caught my eye as I was heading out the front door yesterday.  I took this photo today, so I didn't cheat! LOL.

Some of the daylilies are still hanging on, such as this little gold one -- Stella D'Oro, perhaps?

And finally, more zinnias, as well as a very exuberant Turk's Cap.  I even saw a hummingbird on this just the other day.

That's it from me today.  Once again, thank you Carol for hosting Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

 

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Daylilies ..mainstay of the island bed

I didn't think it was possible, but the weather has been even more hot and humid since my last post.  So much so that other than fill the bird bath and water the container plants around it, I've spent very little time in the garden.

I have, however, taken a few minutes here and there to get some photos of the summer garden.  

I love the way the afternoon sun catches this Crepe Myrtle as it sets.  I also like the fact that, now the Crepe Myrtle is growing up, it's not so susceptible to the ugly black fungus it kept getting for the first couple of years. I'm not sure if they all develop a resistance as they grown and get older, but I'm thankful that this one has.

And now here follow some photos of the Daylilies which are blooming prolifically in the island bed. 

  
As I've mentioned before, I don't know which varieties they are, I just enjoy them for their beauty.

Some of them produce single blooms, some produce great clusters of blooms.  I think these photos are of the same plant, taken a few days apart.  The one below was taken today. There are still more buds to open :-)

Sorry this post is rather brief.  It's been a long hard week at work.  Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday.  I promise to catch up on my blog reading over the weekend - at least I know it will be too hot to spend much time in the garden!!

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

All is Not Dead - In Fact, Quite the Opposite

With the severe drought we're having, I really didn't think I'd have anything to share.  But I saw a couple of unexpected surprises in the garden this evening and headed out with the camera.  As I snapped shots, I was quite astounded at how well things are doing, considering hot and dry it has been.
 Our area is on voluntary water restrictions so I've moderated the sprinkler schedule and it seems to be working.  Basically I run the sprinklers in the middle of the night twice a week, and I run them for an abbreviated amount of time, and then repeat.  So it's not using any more water than before, but more of the water is soaking in and not running down the street to the storm drain and it's not evaporating as soon as it hits the ground. 

I love it and the garden seems to like it as well. As usual, the photos will enlarge when you tap them.

In the repurposed grill-turned-planter, the vinca that I planted has put out a zillion seedlings. Not sure what I'll do with them, but I should be able to get at least a couple of plants going from this lot.

I forget what this is, and apparently didn't make a note in my garden journal (tsk. tsk)  It was looking pretty ragged a few days ago, but I trimmed off the dead bits, gave it a drink and it rewarded me with some new flowers.

I suppose I'm going to have to trim the "Scentless Star Jasmine" as we call it.  It's growing so rampantly there's almost as much on the other side of the fence as there is on ours.  Or perhaps future neighbors won't mind a vine taking over the fence?

Amazingly, in spite of being subject to benign neglect and drying out completely more than once, this petunia is still putting out blooms.  I've been deadheading and trying to keep it evenly moist this week and it seems to be thanking me.  As I was putting birdseed out early this morning, there was a hummingbird moth nectaring on it  which was neat, but I didn't get photos.

Underneath it, I almost missed this bloom on the Tropi-Canna.  It looks like there are some more blooms on the way too.

Underneath the Southern Wax Myrtle, this Dutchman's Pipe Vine languished for a long time.  Now suddenly it's growing and even flowering (see pic below).

 In front of the lattice hiding the phone and cable utility boxes, the bulbine is blooming.  I nearly lost this early in the year, so I'm thrilled to see the little blooms on it.

That's all I got photos of today in the back garden.  This doesn't include the Rose of Sharon, the Vitex and the Texas Star Hibiscus, which are all still blooming, but I thought it was time to show you the front.

Beside the driveway, this little bed bids you Welcome, and offers a view of the new house being built on the lot.

More rampant plants - this time sweet potato vines.  Does anything kill this plant? 

And when I looked closer, I spotted this daylily getting ready to rebloom (it even looks like I missed one bloom today)

 Elsewhere in the front, lots of Lantana "New Gold" (as well as "White Gold" not shown)  Can't kill this stuff either - I love it!

 Underneath the seedling Live Oak, a Guallardia "Fanfare" has been blooming for months.  I'm resisting the temptation to deadhead it and letting it reseed if it wants to.

Speaking of reseeding - last year's tropical milkweed reseeded everywhere. They seem to be doing well this year and you know what I noticed?

NO UGLY ORANGE APHIDS THIS YEAR!  Last year they were COVERED with those nasty things.  This year, not a one (YET)

And finally, one more reblooming daylily about to bloom. Please just ignore the raggedy-looking verbena. It needs trimming back, but I've been on the injured list this week and haven't done any weeding at all --- that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.