Some of the perennials and annuals like the heat and some don’t.
But this Okra can’t get enough of the hot, baking sun beating down on it every day.
I’m growing okra the size of my head (I know I’ve got to pick it faster!) and I have so much I am giving it away.
I sure hope it’s tasty. I picked a big bowl full of it off two plants yesterday to share with a friend before we left.
When I get home I am REALLY going to make okra pickles. Really, I am!
I’ve failed for Bloom Day — I missed it by a day and I didn’t get everything that was blooming. But it’s a long list and much of it has been posted lately, so I’m giving you the short and sweet edition.
The Butterflies are out in full force these days, so I try to keep lots of water (shallow) available for them. Like the birds and the deer, they get thirsty in these 100+ degree days, too.
Grandpa Ott Morning Glory.
My transplanted ditch lily, brought back to me in a bucket from Wisconsin from my good garden-blogging friend, Lori, at the Gardener of Good and Evil. 
My Tropical Punch Canna.
Another Morning Glory.
This isn’t technically a bloom yet, it’s going to be beautiful when this Little Gem Magnolia blooms while we are gone next week.
Thanks, Carol, at May Dreams Gardens for inviting us to share our garden beauties with on Bloom Day.
We’re headed to Indiana and Kentucky tomorrow, so look for some cooler posts from the Midwest if my new computer is set up.
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 wouldn’t call my garden particularly xeric — I have many natives and plants that don’t mind hot weather, but my beds are not full of agaves, succulents, grasses and cacti by any means.
I do have a few of those plants scattered about though, and they seem unfazed by this bout of miserably hot weather. It hit 106 and 105 this week, and there is no hope that the mercury will dip below 100 for the next 7 days.
But these guys don’t seem to mind:
After walking dogs and watering between 7:00-8:30 a.m. (the only truly tolerable part of the day) I went to a Master Gardeners Association seminar this morning on diagnosing plant problems and it was great. Much of it was refresher, taken from the TMGA courses I took to get my MG certification many years ago, but so good to be reminded and to get some new ideas for ways to deal with disease and pests.
Tonight (when it cools down to 80 degrees) I will be working on the stink bugs in my tomatoes. You’d think the tomato horn worms would have warned them about me!
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.
Well, let’s not get carried away, shall we?
Just had to show you my beautiful Anniversary bouquet from my sweetie. Isn’t it awesome? AND he came home from the grocery store with several bunches of flowers, too. Wow.
And these are the formerly-beautiful Sedums — Autumn Joy — that WERE going in the back bed. That is until I left them outside the garage in my “holding area” where my precious little deer decided they were another treat I’d put out for her along with the birdseed! Ooops! I think they will survive and I’ll plant them anyway — but INSIDE the fence!