Two summer lovers for July Bloom Day
Water lilies, Turk’s cap, sweet almond verbena, globemallow, catmint, Mexican oregano, hymenoxys, flame acanthus, Mexican honeysuckle, golden thryallis, plumbago, agastache, Salvia coccinea — all are blooming in my garden this Bloom Day. But you know what? After 31 days at or above 100F so far this summer, it’s just too hot for an extended photo shoot.
OK, so y’all know summer is not my favorite gardening season. But here are a couple of flowering plants that love summer. I admire their beauty, which defies, even thrives, in the heat of the Death Star.
Pictured above: ‘Senorita Rosalita’ cleome, flowering summer-long in afternoon sun in the front garden. Fair warning, your results may vary. I first recommended this Proven Winners annual in 2009, when I received it as a free trial plant. It grew bushy and full and flowered all summer. The next year I bought replacements and watched in bafflement as half withered away and died. One survivor performed beautifully. I heard from other Austin gardeners with similar mixed results.
I tried again this year and again had a 50-50 success rate. This one is gorgeous. The other shriveled up for weeks until I yanked it out. It’s one of the eternal mysteries. But I’m willing to keep trying in order to get a result like this.
Here’s a much shorter success story: unnamed pink echeveria, blooming its little head off in bright shade in a sharp-draining container. Easy summer color, whether it flowers or not. But even better when it does.
To see what’s blooming in other gardens around the world on this date, visit the Bloom Day hostess, May Dreams Gardens.
Remember to brag on your favorite leaves tomorrow for Foliage Follow-Up. The party starts here! Leave your links in the comments of tomorrow’s post.
All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I like the idea of featuring a couple of plants…brings them more attention. The cleome looks so healthy…not stressed at all. Happy GBBD!
I’m hiding also..nice blooms. Happy Cool in the House GBBD!
We in the East are bracing ourselves if your heatwave is coming our way! lovely shot of the Echeveria
glimpsesofglory-karen.blogspot.com/
Pam, that first photo is gorgeous! After last year’s mixed bag with Srta. Rosalita, I chose not to purchase any this year. It seems Proven Winners still has a little ways to go on this one before it is proven to be a winner consistently. Like you, it’s just too darned hot outside for photo taking, so I’m touring other blogs on bloom day. Nice post.
Lovely especially the pink echeveria. I don’t think i’ve ever seen a flowering one.
Happy GBBD 🙂
Your first picture has a beautiful combination of plant shapes and colors. The pink echeveria is beautiful. Such a delicate combination of colors. I would love to know how you get such good closeup shots as these.
Yael
Thanks, Yael. My main piece of advice about garden photography is to take lots of shots from different angles; when you look at the images online you can decide which you like best, discarding those that are out of focus or not as well composed. I probably took 6 or 7 shots for each of these compositions. I winnowed out the obviously inferior ones and then cropped two or three of the better ones for a final look before choosing the one I liked best. For the close-up shot of the echeveria, I didn’t use the macro setting on my camera, although that might have worked well too. I simply stood directly above the plant and shot down at it. A tight crop gave it the prominence I was going for. —Pam
What do you mean? Spending hours outside taking picture in the brutal sunshine as temperatures and humidity soar isn’t your idea of fun? (I’ve been experimenting with using a telephoto lens to take plant pictures through the window of an air conditioned room.) Happy (hot) GBBD!
You chose two very good flowers for this month. Even in my garden things are looking a little wilty. I can’t complain to you though. Your summer has been record breaking horrible I hear. Happy GBBD anyway.
Oh Pam… I don’t know how you Texas folks manage in all that heat and apparently lack of rain this year? We are expecting a week in the 90’s starting Sunday, with high humidity… I expect it’s a good time to finish the lamp I’m making and doing some woodworking. Early mornings will be reserved for picture taking however! Thankfully these spells are generally short lived for us. I’ve seen Rosalita once here and it was very attractive, although I haven’t tried it myself. Stay cool! Larry
Happy bloom day Pam! Can’t imagine how hot that would be – we’ve had highs in the low 70s again, just like last year. Do I mind? No, actually, it’s fine by me.
Pam — we’ve been having days in the low to mid 90s which is way too hot for me. So I can only imagine what you are going through. Keep reading the stories in the news and none of them are good. As for your GBBD flowers, it is always a mystery why plants behave the way they do. Often seems like everything you learn one year is useless the next!
I love echiveria and your image champions the species.
I just wrote a post you mig ht enjoy a about philosophy of life based on hens and chickens.
I couldn’t find Rosalita last year. Not too many places sell it here. This summer I found it at Ace Hardware in large containers. I went ahead and bought it, and both are doing well. I’ve had to break off sections to keep it from becoming too bushy and taking over plants. Remember, when I visited your mom’s, and she had such good luck with Euphorbia Diamond Frost and mine died I placed them in partial shade this year, and they are performing much better, but they still don’t do for me what they did in her garden. Of course, the heat here is endless this year as you know. Mostly TX and Mexico type plants are doing best.
Plants are weird. See you next week.~~Dee
‘Diamond Frost’ euphorbia does best in mostly shade in my garden, Dee, especially in baking hot years like this. —Pam
It rained really hard the last 2 days here in SW Georgia and there is water standing everywhere. There were a million newly hatched frogs singing in the drainage pond next door so loud I could hear them inside the house. Amazing chorus really.
It was so cool today that I’ve been outside all day looking at swapping plants with a new neighbor and even shopping at the local warehouse which has been fans only and like an oven since May…It’s so nice to be outside once more.
Albany, GA is it just as hot as Austin but it is so humid you can’t breathe. It’s worse than Houston where I lived and attended college. I thought I was tough until I met this humid South East weather. Even my year round Jock husband hides indoors for weeks when it’s this humid. I’m so grateful for the rain and hope you guys get some soon!
I was surprised when I read the flowers in the first photo are cleomes. I had to go look again. They are beautiful! Your other little one is a beauty, too. We’ve had lots of hot weather, too, with high humidity. Whew!
I love the cinderblock idea. I have plenty of those lying around. Going to try to recreate it! thx for sharing. Your site is amazing. I am a newbie. 😀
Thanks for visiting, Succulentchica! Have fun making your own cinderblock planter wall. —Pam
Well I’ve planted Senorita Rosalita for two years now. The first year it was …meh…ok. This year it branched out into a beautiful full bush of a plant loaded with blooms. Didn’t even wilt in the heat. Now I’ve been getting up at 5 and watering (we’re on water restrictions in HOUSTON-can you believe it?). So I don’t know how much of what has happened is due to stress on the plant. Twice now major stems have split right off at the main stem during watering. I use a metal fan head spike and try not to aim it right AT anything. The plant just split right down and lay over. The plant has survived this, but I wonder if this is a weakness in the hybrid.
ChrisF, in my three years of growing it, I’ve found that ‘Senorita Rosalita’ does tend to split mid-summer during rainstorms or even routine watering, as you’ve found. I now provide a trellis made of bent cattle panel for it to grow through, which supports its stems as it gets larger. —Pam
Oh wow, never thought of bending cattle panel. What a great idea. That will help me with the zinnias too!