Bloom Day - August 2021

To my eyes, the pickings look slim this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  However, after looking back at last year's mid-August post, I found that, with a few exceptions, most of what was blooming then is also blooming now, albeit in smaller quantities in many cases.  Both last year and this year, the dahlias and zinnias I rely on for color during the hot, dry summer were late in getting their bloom on.  This year, I made a point of planting my dahlia tubers earlier, using temporary pots, but even so they've been slower still to bloom this year.  I even purchased three dahlias as plants this summer without much impact on net flower production.

Dahlia 'Akita' is the first of the plants I grew from tubers to bloom this year.  The flowers, photographed late yesterday afternoon, still weren't fully open.

Dahlia 'Cafe au Lait Royal' is lagging just behind 'Akita'

I bought a Dahlia 'Dark Side of the Sun' plant by mail order in June but it's only produced a few flowers thus far, usually one at a time.  The same has been true of Dahlia 'Mystic Illusion', purchased at a local garden center in July.

I've organized the rest of my Bloom Day photos by color, presenting just one or two stars in each category, while lumping the rest of my photos into color-coordinated collages in the interest of brevity.  The white flowers are up first.

Yucca 'Bright Star' surprised me with a bloom stalk this month

Top row: Abelia grandiflora 'Edward Goucher', A. 'Kaleidoscope', and Amaryllis belladonna 'Alba'
Middle row: Angelonia 'Archangel White', Centranthus ruber 'Albus', and Cosmos bipinnatus
Bottom row: Crassula pubescens, Eustoma grandiflora (aka Lisianthus), and Gaura lindheimeri

Top row: Magnolia grandiflora and Myrtus communis 'Compacta'
Middle row: Osteospermum '4D Silver', Pandorea jasminoides, and Penstemon 'Opal & Pearls'
Bottom row: noID Phalaenopsis, Phyla nodiflora, and Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum'

There's an ample variety of blue flowers, although the quantity of each species isn't large in most cases.

The flowers of native California aster, Symphyotrichum chilense, are plentiful but a lot of the flower stems turn brown and crispy before blooming due to inadequate water.  I'm trying to keep my water use as low as possible in response to calls to conserve water during California's severe drought.  The rain water I collected earlier is long gone and realistically we can't expect rain again until late October or November.

Clockwise from the upper left: Duranta 'Sapphire Showers', blue and lavender Eustoma grandiflorum, the last of the Limonium perezii for the year, Salvia 'Mystic Spires', Rotheca myricoides, noID Scaevola, and Trichostemma 'Midnight Magic'

Top row: Calibrachoa 'Calitastic Ice Blue', Convolvulus sabatius, and Lycianthes rantonnetii 'Variegata'
Middle row: Nierembergia, Ocimum 'African Blue Basil', and Osteospermum 'Violet Ice'
Bottom row: Pelargonium peltatum, Scabiosa columbaria 'Flutter Deep Blue', and Verbena bonariensis 'Lollipop'

The pinks are up next.

Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' produced a massive flush of peachy-pink blooms virtually overnight earlier this month.  A stretch of temperatures in the low to mid-90sF turned the flowers a pale tan color in less than a week.

The leaf-less bloom stalks of Amaryllis belladonna (aka naked lady lilies) have popped up throughout the backyard border, although there seem to be fewer blooms than last year

Top row: Cistus skanbergii, C. 'Sunset', and Cuphea 'Starfire Pink'
Middle row: Eustoma grandiflorum, Hoya carnosa, and Lycoris squamigera
Bottom row: noID miniature Phalaenopsis, Rosa 'Pink Meidiland', and Scabiosa columbaria 'Flutter Rose Pink'

There were a couple surprises in the red category.

Hemerocallis 'Spanish Harlem' finished up its bloom cycle in early June - or so I thought.  One plant produced a new bloom spike this month and has been offering me new blooms every other day or so.  This is a reblooming variety but I don't usually see the second round until late fall.

Stapelia grandiflora (aka starfish cactus and carrion plant) blooms on an irregular schedule and usually catches me by surprise.  The flower's odor attracts flies.  There are at least two more buds.

Top row: Crassula perfoliata falcata, Gaillardia 'Amazon Sun', and Penstemon mexicali 'Mini-bells Red'
Middle row: Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy', Zinnia 'Profusion Red', and Z. elegans 'Queen Red Lime'
Bottom row: Cosmos bipinnatus, Daucus carota 'Dara', and Pelargonium sidiodes

The orange category contains a few new favorites as well as some old standbys.

Intergeneric hybrid Echibeckia 'Summerina Orange' is new to me.  Regrettably, it's requiring a surprising amount of water.

Top row: Agastache 'Sunrise Orange', Cotyledon orbiculata, and noID Gazania
Middle row: Grevillea 'Superb', Hesperaloe parviflora, and Leonotis leonurus
Bottom row: Xerochrysum bracteatum and 2 incarnations of Zinnia elegans 'Queen Lime Orange'

Last up are the yellow flowers, headlined by one of my favorite year-round bloomers.

In addition to blooming year-round, Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' is beloved by bees and hummingbirds

Clockwise from the upper left: Alstroemeria 'Inca Vienna', Coreopsis 'Big Bang Redshift', noID miniature Phalaenopsis, Zinnia 'Profusion Yellow', Phlomis fruticosa, and Lantana mix

That's it for my August Bloom Day wrap up.  Hopefully, I'll have more dahlias - and zinnias - to share in September.  My post is one day ahead of schedule this month but you can visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens for more GBBD posts on August 15th.  Best wishes for a pleasant weekend!

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Dreaming of Autumn

It's most definitely still summer, although I can't help dreaming that autumn is just around the corner.  It's been warmer this past week and humidity has been running higher than normal, making the heat more unpleasant.  Traditionally, Southern California has been known for its dry heat but it seems that, like so many weather trends, that may be a thing of the past.  Our temperature hit 90F (32C) for a time yesterday afternoon but, as summers go, it hasn't been bad here thus far.  (In contrast, the inland valleys are seeing much higher temperatures.)  However, it's still very dry.  My collected rainwater is long gone and, realistically, we won't see rain until late October or November.  I have to think twice before I water anything given the need to conserve water state-wide.  

My first arrangement this week is a mixture of spring and summer flowers.  One of the Hippeastrum bulbs I planted in my front garden last fall surprised me with a bloom last week.  I grew these bulbs in the ground in my former garden with no difficulty but I've had a hard time getting them established in my current garden.  When I didn't see any blooms this spring, I thought I was out of luck again but perhaps the bulb just needed extra time to settle in.  I hope this success signifies that I've finally found the right spot for them.

Hippeastrum are commonly referred to as Amaryllis even by bulb sellers, but they're a different genus than the true Amaryllis, although both are part of the Amaryllidaceae family.  This one is 'Zombie'.  I inadvertently managed to break one of the flowers off the main stem so I popped it into a tiny vase.

The back view is dressed up with Zinnia 'Queen Lime Orange', grown from seed

The top view shows off strawflowers (Xerochrysum bracteatum) grown from a single seedling received as a gift from blogger friend Denise of A Growing Obsession.  She gave me four seedlings but the rabbits apparently ate the three I planted in a backyard bed.

Clockwise from the upper left: Abelia grandiflora 'Hopley's Variegated', Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Hippeastrum 'Zombie', Leucadendron 'Jester' (pale pink rather than red as it's planted in shade), Xerochrysum bracteatum, and Zinnia elegans 'Queen Lime Orange'

My second arrangement is channeling an autumn mood with colors of red, gold and brown.  The centerpiece is a new-to-me Echibeckia, which is an intergeneric hybrid of Echinacea and Rudbeckia.

I bought the Echibeckia 'Summerina Orange' on a whim a few weeks ago

Back view, filled out with a couple of stems of Leonotis leonurus

Top view, showing off the feathery plumes of Pennisetum 'Rubrum', which are only just beginning to make their annual appearance in my garden

Clockwise from the upper left: Echibeckia 'Summerina Orange', Lantana 'Lucky Orange', Leonotis leanurus, Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum', Plectranthus scutellariodes 'Pineapple' (aka coleus), and a prop celebrating summer harvest season

As usual, last week's most presentable leftovers went into a small vase to brighten our kitchen island.

Eustoma grandiflorum (Lisianthus), Tanacetum parthenium, and Leucadendron 'Jubilee Crown' all have long vase lives

For more IAVOM posts, visit our host, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Summer Spruce Up

Summer is my least favorite season.  It's hot and it's very, very dry.  Many of my plants shut down or go into hiding.  Gaps develop in spots throughout the garden.  I hesitate to fill them as new plants need more water and, with California's request to reduce water consumption by 15 percent, there's too little to go around.  Try as I can to shut my eyes and wait out summer, hoping for rain in the fall, I usually break down and do at least some planting.  I consider succulents fair game but this year I've gone a bit off the rails.

The bed in the foreground here was driving me crazy.  This photo was taken at the end of June.  The white-flowered Argyranthemum looked worse with every passing day thereafter and all the filler plants around them did too.  I considered planting the whole area in succulents but fell prey to a pretty face in the form of a new-to-me Echibeckia.

I brought home the Echibeckia, an intergeneric hybrid of Echinacea and Rudbeckia, and purchased inexpensive 6-packs of other plants to fill in the area around it.  The coleus was labeled as suitable for sun or shade and, although I feared I'd been sold a bill of goods on their sun tolerance, I planted them anyway.

Clockwise from the upper left, the plants I used included Echibeckia 'Summerina Orange', Dymondia margaretae, Gazania 'Tiger Stripe Mix', and Plectranthus scuttelariodes 'Rustic Orange' (aka coleus)

Deciding that the coleus wasn't going to branch out unless I cut it back, I did just that.  Now the area looks scruffy again but I'm hoping the coleus bounces back quickly.

The coleus stems I cut were trimmed down and put in water to root.  If the plants in the ground die due to exposure to full sun, at least I should have some rooted cuttings to plant elsewhere (in the shade).

I've added some small plants here and there to fill gaps in other beds too but this week I focused on sprucing up selected containers.

Actually, I augmented this half barrel in early June, filling in a gap left when I pulled out rust-encrusted snapdragons with a Dahlia 'Waltzing Matilda' tuber purchased during a last-chance sale and a strawflower seedling (Xerochrysum bracteatum) given to me by Denise of A Growing Obsession

Even through the dahlia isn't blooming yet, I love the look of the barrel.  The yellow and orange Lantana has been in the barrel for at least 2 years now but I cut it back hard in June and it's looking great again.

There had been pansies and a yellow Argyranthemum in this pot with the dark blue Scaevola.  I pulled the dead pansies, cut back the Scaevola, and replaced the Argyranthemum with Helianthus 'Choco Sun', a dwarf sunflower.  Argyranthemum will come back here but it doesn't look at all good in its off season.

Earlier this week I read a post by Margaret at The Gardening Me about refreshing her front door pots and decided I really should do something about the two largest pots by my own front door, both of which were looking truly awful.

It didn't help that I haven't been watering these pots enough.  The pansies and Bacopa were dead and the shrubs, Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata' and Boronia 'Shark's Bay', were looking sad.  I left the shrubs but I may yet pull the Boronias as they've been disappointing.

I filled in with two groundcover plants at the base.  As I'd allowed the soil in the pot to dry out more than I should have, I used a wetting agent (surfactant) when I watered.  It seems to have helped.

The groundcover plants I used were Calibrachoa 'Double Lemon' (top) and Scaevola 'Bondi Blue' (bottom)

I haven't entirely ignored succulents this summer.  I filled two new containers, one of which I inserted in a garden bed to fill a hole.

I booted the plant that had been in this pot and popped in my new Mangave 'Night Owl'

Another recent purchase, bromeliad Orthophytum 'Gerkenii', went into an empty pot I had tucked behind our garage.  It's new home is my lath (shade) house.

Do you plant during the summer months, or wait until temperatures are cooler?

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party