Summer is here in Texas, and the heat is on, with temps in the 90s all this week. While I’ll miss cooler temps, the collection of cacti on the deck loves it, blooming in unison for the second time this month.

Satin flowers of pumpkin orange and carnation pink pop out of the spiny plants in crown-like clusters.

These beautiful flowers look a bit unreal, as if pasted on.

Out front, a wavy prickly pear glows with ruffled yellow flowers.

Cacti aren’t the only plants showing off right now. Lantana’s fiery blossoms glow even in dappled shade.

Though it’s hard to see in this evening shot, masses of lavender-flowered heartleaf skullcap are blooming throughout my garden, including along the sunburst paving around the stock-tank pond.

No flowers here, and it’s not even my garden, but I’ve been enjoying this sight on my walks around the block: my neighbor’s sedge “lawn.” Planted with what appears to be two different varieties of sedge, it’s luminous with grassy tufts of yellow-green and forest-green. So much prettier than regular turf grass if you have a shady area and don’t care to mow and edge all summer, don’t you think?

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Digging Deeper

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