Bloom Day August 2019

 Oh, you shouldn't have.  Please offset before you die... 
Achemea chantinii 'Black'
A few days ago...

 I don't think it will offset, as it was sold as "cut" (no root system?).  Nothing to generate offsets.  Not that these plants have much of a root system, but they need something, right?  (My knowledge of bromeliads is still very primitive.) 
Opening up...the flowers are those yellow bits.  They are not yet open.

 On the other hand, this blooming Achmea argentea is an offset of the original big-box store purchase two or three years ago.  The original rosette is just now dried up.  There are other rosettes besides this one, none yet flowering.   

  Abutilon 'Souvenir de Bonn' is producing a few flowers, to the delight of the hummingbirds, and the hummingbird watchers.

 Dahlia time continues.  Black-foliaged Lagerstroemia obscuring 'Holland Festival'.  No flowers on the Lagerstroemia as yet--they are very late this year.

This next Dahlia bloom was supposed to be 'Avignon', but it isn't. Do you get unexpected flowers from you Dahlia clumps?  'Funny Face', yellow with red specks, has a stem producing pure yellow flowers, and a stem producing pure red flowers. 
Not complaining--beautiful!

 Can't remember what this one was supposed to be, but it wasn't supposed to be what it is.  Also very tall.  Also last year it was yellow, not white.  Also the last flower was a creamy pink-beige, like the coveted 'Cafe au Lait'. 

New this year, one of the dark-foliaged varieties.  This little beauty has an odd habit:  as the flowers mature, they drop off the stem right at the base of the flower.  Flaw, or self-cleaning?  

  Surprise!  Summer flowers from Spreakelia formosissima.  More than a dozen flowers from the little clump this spring.  Summer flowers are a bonus. 

 Proteas 'Brenda',  'Sylvia', and 'Pink Ice' all have buds close to opening.  Wheee!!!!

'Brenda' is opening first.  This is first flower from this plant--it did not bloom last year or the previous one--the plant was a single 5" tall stem at purchase.  The flower bud is as long as the plant was when I bought it.  

 Late afternoon lights up the foliage. 

  Bougainvillea 'Imperial Thai''s bright color holds up to the hot August sun.

 Aloe dhufarensis is a summer bloomer. 

 This Dahlia flower seemed to be looking at something...what? 

 Why, it's a Lily!  Cool!  I love the extravagant beauty of lilies, but they do not thrive in southern California--they need a winter chill colder than they get here, so they are small, short, and short-lived.  This one came back from last year.  A special treat hidden amid Dahlia foliage. 

Back from near demise, Begonia 'Irene Nuss' came back strongly this year after having a giant Fuchsia root system pulled away from her more modest one.  Plus, Winter Rain Is Magic.  The panicles of flowers are as large as my hand.  Welcome back!

  Though I pulled most of them six weeks ago, a few Orlaya grandiflora plants bloom on.  No complaints. 

Smeary-arty photo attempt of Salvia clevelandii, which is extremely popular with honey, bumble, and solitary native bees as well as multiple small native butterflies.  The seed-eating songbirds will be at the dried flowers soon, too.  A big mess of a plant, but it feeds so many. 

I was driving somewhere the other day and passed a house with a dried-jungle of a front yard--some sprawling mostly dormant native plants, tiny pale flowers of something, and a whole lot of weeds, probably the bane of the tidy green-lawned, cubed-shrub neighborhood.  Yet, it hosted an eye-popping dance of butterflies--butterflies everywhere, a cloud, a froth rising and sinking above the plants like foam on a freshly poured beer.  There's a lesson there. 

But I digress.  The lone survivor of last year's Eustomas.  They bloom better the second year.  So tidy, so lovely.  The occasional bee does visit.  

Lastly, back in the gully Salvia 'Amistad' is feeding all the lady  hummers chased away from the front garden Grevilleas by territory-crazy males.

Bloom Day, the Ides of every month, is a long-running garden bloggers meme originated by May Dreams.