Garden Blogger's Bloom Day: The Colors of a Garden

It's Garden Blogger's Bloom Day for August! On the 15th of every month, May Dreams Gardens sponsors a World Wide picture of how every one's gardens are growing. This has been a wonderful thing to participate in, as it gives me a chance to learn, find new blogs and to catch a glimpse of gardens I'd never be able to visit in person. It's a virtual Garden Tour!!

I'm all about color this month. These are the plants that have survived me not being able to go out to weed because of the heat, and now, because of some bronchitis. They are tough.

So, let us start with a Patriotic Salute:

Red, (Mr. Lincoln is blooming)

White, (JFK is blooming too, yesterday was its best day, but it still smells very sweet.

and Blue. A Morning Glory flower from the vines that may end up swallowing up my house if I don't get outside soon.

And then, my lovely Belinda, who has taken to blooming on interior canes as well as the top. The roses do look rather cool and refreshing there, don't they? It would be a grand place for a fairy to take a nap.

The Hibiscus have enjoyed the recent rainfall, (Edouard gave me about 2 1/2 inches .. oh for another 2 or 3!!).

This year, I planted a flower I'd never grown before. They are 4 O'Clocks... but I never seem to be able to catch them blooming. I mean, it's obvious that they have BEEN blooming...just never in my site. Perhaps this evening.


Hey, LOOK!! The water lily bloomed in time for bloom day!!

And now, on to the front yard:

Always begin with Hope, presenting: Esperanza. She's producing a LOT of seed just now. Anyone need some? I heartily recommend this plant. It's tough, blooms from Spring to Early Winter and the bees, butterflies and humming birds love it. It can self sow, but it is easily controlled. In the winter, if it freezes, I just cut back the dead branches near Spring-time, and it grows again. It tolerates pruning and shaping (not that I do it), I've seen some of the plants trained and pruned to one main trunk, with a fan of branches at the top.

And then, there's the fire bush behind it, a hummingbird favorite.

Portulaca blooms in the side bed, where the dessicated remains of my poor squash plants lay, reprovingly. I must get this bed cleaned up.

I have not seen very many bees this year. Usually, the Mexican heather is humming with them. This is the first time I've ever seen this kind of bee. It moved fast, almost frantically as it nectared. Is it a bee look-a-like?

The Honey Dijon rose is hanging in there.

And that PINK florescent rose is doing well. It gets shaded during the hottest parts of the day, and that seems to help. I wonder if that's one of the secrets of growing roses in Houston--- give them shade in the hot afternoon...

The Maid d'Orleans jasmine is blooming and it's spreading wayward branches that pop out and from under the dangdest places.

My poor garden bed. It's blooming, in spite of my lack of care.

God bless'm.

Oh, and may God bless you, too.