heat

While some of the early spring-through-fall bloomers are taking a break in all this heat, some of the mid-summer bloomers are putting on a show.

I love this thryallis in the front xeric bed.  It’s a focal point and should have plenty of room to grow and shine.

One of my all-time go-to favorite plants, Mexican oregano.  It’s tough as nails and tolerates the heat and the drought.

The the new-ish plants in the back shade bed are starting to fill in and making a lovely cool landscape.

After going after the new gold lantana with a machete (just kidding, but I DO own a machete!), I can now see the agave Americana var.  I know it won’t be long before it’s a giant.

The combination of my transplanted coneflowers next to the May night salvias makes a nice contrast.

After a little pruning and clean up of the dead spring flowers last week, the cutting garden has new bloomers.  The larkspur and bluebonnets are all gone and the Klondyke cosmos, blackberry lilies and Clematis are blooming.

Now it’s time to prune all the other early bloomers so we have time for another flush of blooms.  Too hot to plant, but sadly, not too hot to prune and weed!  After 109 on Monday, today’s high of 88 with cloud cover was great and I spent a long time deadheading and pruning the lamb’s ears, narrow-leaf zinnias and the Santolina.  It was really delightful with a little breeze.

So, as the Death Star blazes on (100+ for as long as I can remember …103 today), some things in my garden are still doing well — many things, in fact. These plants have popped up recently and come into their own. These are some of my hot St. Tropez-on-the-beach-loving plants!
Grandpa Ott morning glories greeting the day on the back fence in the cutting garden.
Look hard for the 3 new Butterfly weed plants in the center of the bed – finally filling a hole left by last year’s Viburnum exorcism!
Coral trumpet vine is bursting with trumpets — can you hear her?
The huge Duranta bush looks like purple fireworks exploding in this corner.
And one of my very favorites, the Pride of Barbados, is giving us a long show this year. This tropical normally doesn’t bloom until August and I’m so excited to see them so early. I hope they can last the whole, hot summer.
Another Pride of Barbados.
Like the Pride of Barbados, this Cassia alata, or Candlestick Tree, normally blooms in August. I have two in a slightly less than perfect spot – they routinely stop growing at about 2-2-1/2 feet tall, and this one is blooming already! My other 3 are in a hot protected corner in the back and they are easily 10 feet tall! They aren’t blooming yet, but they never even died back during our mild winter last year. Can’t wait to show them to you.
A few spindly vines still have wonderful tropical colors to offer. They just need to GROW and fill in! The orange one is a Mexican Flame Vine and the other is a Morning Glory.

Ok – did enjoy the tour?

You might want to shield your eyes now — parental discretion is advised for the following photos. These are the bad and the ugly. Things stressed by the heat and the sun and not enough water, or, conversely, too much water or scalding on the leaves. I desperately try to water before 9 a.m., but life doesn’t always cooperate and at 106, 1 missed day of watering can mean death. So, sometimes even careful watering with warmer temps can damage.

Ready? Are you sitting down?
My new Avocado plant. I think it fried in the heat, I thought it like sun…maybe not OUR sun, though.
My lacebark elm is stressed and I’m going to have to get a drip hose on it to deep water tomorrow.
A Mandavilla vine recently planted with roots too close to the surface in the cutting bed.
The variegated lemon tree has a few sad leaves.
And the Sago is suffering, too.
The black elephant ears were great until about 2 weeks ago. These are in full sun, and on a less than scorching summer, which we USED to have, they are fine that way. But, that’s not this year!
Variegated shell ginger struggles, too
And apparently, I have the dreaded day lily rust that came to Texas in the last year or two. I may have to remove them before the other plants in the bed succumb to it.
Even the tropical Plumeria has a few sad spots.
And this one is just plain UGLY. But amazing, nonetheless. This is a Texas Bluebonnet. They normally bloom in March, but I did see my first bloom this year on February 28th and posted about how amazing THAT was in this Seriously? post.

Seems we could all write a lot of “Seriously?” posts these days, couldn’t we?

I was wandering around this morning, feeling remiss for not having posted for a while, and looking for things of interest in the garden.

Here are a few bright spots in the oppressive heat … Esperanza.
Desert Rose
Duranta
Coneflowers
Pride of Barbados
The mixed pot by the front door with Mexican Heather, Rudbeckia, Hibiscus, Zinnias, Potato Vine and Snapdragons.

Bonnie, at Kiss of Sun, posted about the sad and sagging plants in her hot Central Texas garden, and thus inspired me to post my dying plant pictures, too!

So, here is a lovely garden tour of the hot, dry, or dying plants in my veggie garden. The top photo is half-dead tomato plants with a few dessicated marigolds around the perimeter.
Here are some more dehydrating tomatoes!
The lush, green plant is a malabar spinach, and the white, paper-like leaves are the remnants of the wonderful cucumbers we had earlier in the season.
This is the biggest casualty of our vacation — this tomatillo completely gave up the ghost while we were gone. I spent about an hour out there today cutting all the dead stalks off and then pulling it out of the ground. There’s a tomato growing under it, so it now occupies that cage and maybe it will be happier with some room to grow.

What you can’t really see is the prolific Cypress vines that continue to HAUNT me!

I jokingly told Bonnie that I think when the earth stops spinning, only cockroaches and Cypress vines will remain! The one, measly little vine that I planted last year is trying to come back by the thousands and just won’t give up. But I am bound and determined to win, so I just keep plucking them out of the ground, otherwise they will choke everything in the garden. They are definitely POT only plants (like mint!).

So, what’s dying in your hot, summer garden?!!

I bought this variegated hibiscus several months ago and have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of its mystery blooms.

I had no idea what color they would be, but I fell in love with the beautiful foliage. It’s in the corner of the Day Lily bed, which will soon be full of many different colors, so I figured it would go with anything.

And three of the lilies are about to bloom – I think they will be the lemon-yellow ones – yummy!
Wow. I was floored this morning when I walked outside and found that my Saucer hibiscus had produced not one, but two, beautiful blooms.
The deer will most certainly eat them, as this was a last summer experiment that proved that eat even our native hibiscus varieties, not just the tropical ones. So, I rushed in to get the camera and show you!
We’ve had a phenomenal heat wave here – 15 days over 100 degrees already and it isn’t even Summer yet. But today we got a break. Cloud cover and a few sprinkles came on the edge of a front. (The real rain missed us — again.) And it was 86 when I went out a little while ago. What a relief.

We’re sending prayers to our neighbors in the Midwest who are suffering in the rain and the floods. Our family up there had some flooding in their business and had to move horses from the barn to higher ground, but mercifully it didn’t last too long and the clean up is manageable so far.