Blooms Of August 2021

 

Globularia x indubia 

Blooms of August, 2021.  Above, the first flowers from new plant Globularia x indubia, a cross of two species.  The small (1", 25mm) flowers appear in clusters. 

The usual year round bloomers are, no surprise, blooming.  Grevillea 'Peaches and Cream', for one.   A deep soak a few weeks ago stimulated a better than usual summer flush:

 'Ned Kelly', aka 'Masons Hybrid':

'Ned', a little more open.  'Ned' is not a prolific bloomer like 'Superb'.  He's slow, but he's steady.

'Robyn Gordon'.  I read this Grevillea was named for a little girl who told her dad to save this seedling because it was going to be beautiful.  She died very young.  Can you think of a more poignant name for a plant? 

Summer means Dahlias.  This year hasn't been so great, except for the formerly yellow and red striped 'Funny Face' that produced some tubers that bloomed red, and some other tubers that bloomed yellow. 

'Holland Festival':

 'Tahitian Sunrise':

Dahlia buds bitten off.  &%$*#$!! rabbits!

 A few roses, because I made the effort to spray the new growth with Spinosad against Chilli Thrips: 

Just the very newest growth needs treatment, before the flower buds get larger than a chocolate chip.

 The Spinosad eliminates the regular Thrips, too, providing pristine white rose flowers for a change.

'Moondance':

 

 

As has been posted before, the garden's August's highlight is Lagerstroemia 'Dynamite'

They make for a wonderful sight in the garden, but also a for a wonderful view outside the front windows:

Day lilys flower on and on...here with a neon pink Catharanthus, which is basically an annual.  If you are lucky, in Southern California you can get another year or two out of them.  They look very poorly over the winter and recover with warmer weather. I cut this one back as it began to perk up in April, gave it a big hit of fertilizer...

...and it is providing another summer of clashing neon pink, to remind me I should have bought the white flowered one instead.  Next year, maybe.  They would provide the splashes of bright white the Shasta daisies provide in Spring.  

'Bella Sera':

 'Victorian Lace':

 Echeveria  harmsii 'Ruby Slippers' is named for its fabulous foliage color, which would be a little better with more sun.  This clump is in part shade, giving it less ruby but also less heat stress.  Flowers are bright, too:

The oldest (five years plus??) Calylophus 'Southern Belle''s excellent performance prompted me to buy seven more of them this spring, with varying results.  It flowers like this until it goes dormant in October and  sprouts afresh come spring:

From a more flattering angle:

Pentas, like Cathanranthus, is another heat lover from the tropics that is an annual if the winter is wet and cold, or a short lived perennial if winter is disappointingly dry, as this past one was.  

 Supposedly butterflies like the flowers, though I rarely see any on them.  The butterflies far prefer the very ugly Senecio mandraliscae flowers. 

The butterflies like these better:

Compact Leucadendron 'Harlequin' is a few feet away from the Pentas.  No, it's not flowering, but it's so beautiful you want to see it anyway, right? 

Orlaya grandiflora blooming late.  I moved this seedling to provide some white flowers after the adjacent Rhodanthemum 'Casablanca' finished up, which it has.  A rare event:  something I planned actually worked.

Verbena--some look tired, some not.  This one looks great paired with Sedum nussbaumerianum 'Coppertone'

Some tired/some not holds true for Trachelium caeruleum, too:

 Common Myrtle, Myrtus communis (how about that--a common name almost the same as the botanical) is flowering a little late this year.  This is the variegated version.  Really an outstanding shrub for Southern California as it looks absolutely beautiful on no irrigation whatsoever: 

Another summer heat lover (I have more than I thought I did) is the Russellia equisetiformis.  I cut them all back very hard (to the ground) earlier this year and they are gorgeous again.  The two on the left are the typical growth habit.  The one on the right is a shrubbier, less draping version sold by Monrovia. 

There's also one with peachy flowers, one with pale yellow, and a sparsely growing version if you don't want to be overwhelmed by the size.  Here's the sparse version, which is, yes, sparse.  Spaced out stems, and not many of them.  

So, all the usual August flowers, except the Verbena, Catharanthus, and Globularia.  Can't complain, even though it's August. 

"Ahhhhh!  Hot concrete!"  says Lizzie:

Some do enjoy heat, after all.