Summer color in the hot garden
June 19, 2012
Cheery color for you on this almost-summer Tuesday! This is purple skullcap (Scutellaria wrightii), a low-growing native suitable for a sunny rock garden. ‘Color Guard’ yucca catches the sun’s rays behind it.
Another long-blooming Texas native, hymenoxys, or four-nerve daisy (Tetraneuris scaposa), blooms its yellow head off spring through fall, and sometimes even in winter.
The non-native of the bunch is hot-flowered Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), a tender perennial here in central Texas, but it loves our long, hot summers.
How about you, fellow Texans? Are you ready for summer?
All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I love, love, love Pride of Barbados! I googled it to find out more information on the plant and I was directed to your post from 2007. LOL
Were you? Funny—I must have been writing about it in someone else’s garden. I’m trying it for the first time in my own garden this summer. So far so good—it’s a beauty! —Pam
Ready for summer? Never!
Yeah, me neither, Lori. Although I do appreciate the break from the busy school schedule. —Pam
Love the Purple Skullcap…so intense! Good luck to you and your fellow Texans as the Death Star bears down on you this summer!
Thanks, Scott. The season of endurance will be here all too soon. Meantime, enjoy your Portland summer after the damp purgatory of winter and spring. —Pam
Hi Pam! Enjoying your recent pictures – and your new pops of orange! Summer…..well…..ready….hmmmm…..nope! I just don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for these temperatures. Although you know….plants amaze me. So many of the texas natives thriving in this heat. Blows my mind! My plants are ready (I hope) even though I am not 😉
Like you, Heather, I count on the plants to soldier through, even if I melt 😉 —Pam
I can’t believe how green every thing is. Here everything is yellow and will remain like that till the end of summer. (except where I water, of course)
Central Texas usually reaches that straw-like phase by July or August. This spring we were blessed with abundant rain, and although we could sure use some more at this point, things are still looking pretty green. I hope you get some rain soon too, Ruth. —Pam
I’ll take summer over >2 weeks of winter, but I’m not a Texan with the Lone (Death) Star on everything to remind me:-) I try not to look at the plants outside from 9 am – 6 pm…all but the toughest look so shriveled…you should feel our sun at 4000-6000′ with the heat. Well, maybe not! The depth of colors on this post’s photos are envious, so rich and inviting.
High-elevation sunlight IS intense—I’ve felt it in Colorado. Yes, better not to look too closely at the garden during wilting hours. Morning and evening are much better. —Pam
I’m not in Texas, Florida is terribly hot just the same though. Are ya’ll as humid as we are? The yellow daisy flower looks similar to coreopsis doesn’t it? You will not believe what I have blooming right now!
We’re not quite as humid as Florida or even Houston, Darla, but Austin does get pretty sticky in the summer thanks to prevailing southeast winds, bringing moisture from the Gulf. Sometimes it also brings rain, if we’re lucky. —Pam
Yea, You said you would love to have one but it would be too big for the garden you had at the time. :0)
https://www.penick.net/digging/?p=330
Thanks for the link to remind me, Randy. And now I CAN do the can-can! —Pam
Summer’s here…ready or not.
Love the Pride of Barbados. I’d love to have one, but no room in the sunny area of the Fenced Yard. The deer don’t eat the foliage. But, we had one for a short time, and they ate the flowers. Enjoy yours…
Mine is planted in back, but a few neighbors have Pride of Barbados in the deer zone, and they seems to leave the flowers alone here. Just goes to show what differing tastes deer populations exhibit. —Pam
Every time I see Pride of Barbados I fall in love with it over and over. Thought about getting Color Guard for a second yesterday…but didn’t have a plan on where to plant it. Love the variegated foliage.
What restraint, Janet! I recently bought two Agave ‘Green Goblet’ and still haven’t decided where to put them. —Pam