Garden Blogger's Bloom Day: August 2018

It's the 15th of the month and that mean one thing...It's Garden Blogger's Bloom Day!  Join me for a quick look at what is blooming in our garden.


We planted a lot of Gladiolus corms this year.  They've bloomed on and off and currently we have just a few left.  The best looking one is the nice buttery yellow flower.  I think it looks pretty cool close up.

Somehow it looks a little sad and lonely when you step back and see the whole bloom spike.  This particular Gladiola is in a stock tank near the patio and has sort of flopped over, so it's all by it's self.

A few other things are blooming on the patio right now.  The madevillas finally sent out a bloom or two.

The Plumeria we received as a gift from a friend in the Daylily Club has been blooming for a little while.  These flowers are often used in Hawaiian Leis and smell amazing. We had one at our house in New York and it never bloomed, so I'm enjoying this one a lot more.

Around the pool we really don't have many blooms, the Tropical Garden is based around foliage, but does have a few things.  The first is the Pereskia grandifolia.  It is showing it's first blooms of the year.  Looking back at last year, my GGBD post in September showed it covered with blooms and dropping pollen every where, so I'm looking forward to enjoying more of this interesting plant.

You can see it's shiny green foliage here mixed with a variety of things including some really ugly coleus (Don't tell the Plant Geek about that, I insisted on getting them because at the store they were a cool pink with splashed of other colors.  Certain family members said they were a seed variety and would flower too much and be a pain.  Now they look like a weird olive green color with touches of maroon and brown.  They have bloomed exactly once so far.  I should pull them out, but then there would be an empty spot, so they stay.)

The next secret pop of flowers are in these pots at the other end of the pool.  We have three all planted basically the same.  They are mostly coleus in the font (don't worry, vegetativly propagated varieties, so they were completely sanctioned by all family members) but tucked in the sides of these pots are some Plumbego.

They have purple-blue flowers that look nice with the blue pots they are in.  This is the second year we've had them in this spot.  The coleus sort of overwhelms them, but they are there doing their thing.  Maybe next year we will plant more plumbego and fewer coleus (or whatever plant we decide to go with).

We have a few lantanas around the pool at the edge of the beds.  They look great and the bright pinks and yellows are certainly tropical.  While you can't see it in this picture, they are planted near some 'Alabama Sunrise' Cloeus which is also yellow and pink.  The combination it pretty awesome. I've made a mental note to consider them again next year.

With a daylily collection as large are ours, there are always a few that are reblooming.  Here is 'Ambition'  looking pretty great.  The weeds around it, not so much.

The Verbena bonariensis is probably the best thing I added to our largest daylily bed (The Barrier Garden).  These purple blooms sit high above the daylily foliage and bob around in the Texas wind.  Pollinators are loving them too.

And of course my zinnias are still going strong.  They are also flopping all over everything, but have too many blooms to cut back.  Next year I think a shorter variety may be on my list.

Out in the Pollenator Garden there are always things blooming.  This year we even have a blast from the past that has reseeded itself outside the bed.  These Gomohrena 'Fireworks'  were planted on purpose a two years ago (I think).  They popped back up this year right along the driveway.  Since we recognized what they are they were sparred and are blooming like crazy.

The topical milkweed is blooming.  Only this one came back this year, but there are a lot of seeded in plants that haven't bloomed at all.  Maybe next year there will be a little more variety.  I know that many folks worry about how Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) infection can build up on tropical milkweed plants and impact Monarchs.  Since my tropical plants die back to the ground each year, the spores are not able to build up on the leaves.  If you live somewhere this isn't the case, you can simply cut your plants down to the ground a few times each year and this will help eliminate the problem.

All of the typically plants are blooming away.  A few things need to be cut back, but over all, this is probably the most attractive bed we have this time of year when it comes to flowers.

I added a fennel plant to the bed this year.  It's a host plant for swallowtails and I was hopping to attract some.  So far it's attracted lots and lots of pollinators, but no swallowtails.

With the rain, has come the rain lillies.  They are always welcome and look beautiful mixed in with all of the "dry" plants in the Agave Garden.

Thanks for stopping by my Garden Blogger's Bloom Day post for this month.  If you want to see more Blogger's gardens, head over to May Dreams Garden.