GBBD MEETS MACRO MONDAY: PURPLE,BLUE,VIOLET & PINK AT TROPICAL TEXANA

Agaves with Blue Daze (Evolvulus nuttallianus) and Pink skullcap (Scutellaria suffrutescens)

Since this is the only time Macro Monday and GBBD both fall on a Monday, I thought it fitting to do a lot of close-up shots.

Purple, blue, and violet/pink are my color mainstays. I mix a few yellows for a nice balance.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens & Lisa at Lisa's Chaos for hosting. Both are on my 44 Fabulous Flora Fanatics Blog Roll. Go visit when you get the chance!

Melochia tomentosa (in the chocolate family)

Setcreasea pallida with green leaf & purple edge.

Young Crepe Myrtle shoot blooms in front of Arkansas yucca. When you cut through a Crepe Myrtle root, the damaged root sends up shoots that are the same mature age as the parent. They can bloom as a one foot sprig! These are a beautiful nusance.

Kaempferia pulchra, also known as Peacock Ginger blooms all summer here.

Lantana trifolia 'Fruity Pebbles'

The unusual Oxalis triangularis grows wild in my zone 9 woodland garden. It needs a dormant period, then suddenly pops up again.

Ruellia nudiflora. I'm convinced there are two wild varieties ~ both a light and dark purple type. Or maybe we have two species growing side by side along the highways.

A new flower (Oxypetalum caeruleum) I'm trying with soft fuzzy leaves and these heavenly blue flowers. It sprawls all over the other plants. A drought tolerant member of the milkweed family.

A bromeliad called Neoregellia 'Midnight'.

Probably native Ruellia humilis (groundcover with hairy leaves and stems)

More purple leaves of Tradescantia.

Angelonia reminds me of tiny orchids. I love this plant!

Wisteria is blooming for a third time this year.

Here's one of the yellows I talked about. This is Mussaenda luteola.

My Blue Agave garden. I want to mention that Houston is now on mandatory lawn watering restrictions(twice weekly). Good-bye green grass. Though small, I have one of the last green lawns on our street. I will still water the flower beds. The 2011 drought is breaking all known records and has now surpassed the drought of 1917 by 5 fewer inches of rainfall at this point in the calendar. 

Normal yearly rainfall: 48 inches. So far this year: 10.83 inches. 

AND FINALLY......

"The Secret Rooster?"

This week, we've heard a muffled 'ur-ur-ur-ur-errrrrrrrrrrrrr'  first thing in the morning and suspect that our Nina is really a NED!

We'll have to give Ned back if those feathers turn into rooster feathers. That leaves us 5 hens...as long as there are no more surprises!

David/ :-)

Houston, Texas

GARDEN BLOGGERS MONTHLY BOUQUET ~ FIRST OF THE YEAR

My garden friend,Noelle at http://www.azplantlady.com/  over in Arizona, is once again hosting another year of bountiful bouquets from garden bloggers around the world. During  the 4th week of the month, all are invited to make a bouquet from garden flowers and foliage from your garden.
I've picked the last of the trailing Wisteria, added some gray Artemesia, and some wild snapdragons for a Lavender flower bouquet. I gave it to my wife and she, of course, was surprised since there was no holiday attached to the flowers.
Join in on the fun next month if you have some flowers blooming and surprise someone around you. Happy GBMB! :0)

"Bee" careful around wisteria...it's like a small airport buzzing with activity!

Thanks for visiting.

David/

WILD ABOUT WILD GERANIUMS: HAPPY MACRO MONDAY

This little geranium pops up occasionally in my shady garden. It has a beautiful, deeply incised leaf and the flower, when magnified is stunning. It surprised me when I finally viewed one up close. Wild geraniums can be pink, white, blue, and even dark red.
The Latin name for this one is Geranium pusillum and its common name is Small-flowered Cranesbill. The best image I could find to confirm this was from a wonderful botanical garden blog in...RUSSIA! So how did this little guy get in my garden and gardens all across the U.S.? Visit our wonderful host Lisa to see other mysteries at http://lisaschaos.com/ . It's a fun group!
By the way, our garden variety Geraniums aren't in the Geranium family! David/ Tropical Texana

The little bee or fly is extremely tiny...measured in millimeters!

Here's the leaf and actual size.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

GBBD: Welcome to AUGUST BLOOM DAY! :-)

No rain, endless heat, high humidity, and lots of shade. Can anything still be blooming? Well, yes!
Welcome to our shady tropical garden in Houston, Texas.  Anything blooming at this point gets the thumbs up to stay around in future years.

These beautiful peacock gingers bloom all summer in dense shade (Kaempferia pulchra)

Their foliage makes them twice as nice.

In the front yard, Blue Daze (Evolvulus) has bloomed all summer long. It has the unenviable spot right next to the road. (Think dogs walking by..okay?)

The Cleomes looked better earlier in the summer, but still manage to bloom early in the morning.

My favorite drought tolerant plant so far is the small mounding Black Foot Daisy (Melampodium leucanthum). This is first time I've tried this plant. I put it in between Agaves for contrasting foliage.

The bright colored Four O'clocks are blooming now. Almost everything else is conserving energy to survive the dry spell.

I thought Ruellias only came in shades of purple. This is my first red Ruellia and it is taking the heat and still blooming. It's a native of South America and should be hardy here in zone 9B. You grow them from stem cuttings since they are in the Acanthus family. I'm growing to love the Acanthus family.

Do you see the camouflaged insect on this coreopsis? I wish I knew the name.

These zinnias totally surprise me. No powdery mildew this year.

Zinnias are native to Mexico and seem to love heat.

I showed the White Orchid tree last month and some are still blooming.

By the way, are you keeping track of all the colors so far? What am I missing?

 Finally, not all the colors in our August garden are from flowers. Here's a glimpse of our bromeliad collection. The brown spots are a reminder of the hard freeze we had in January.

Well, that's it from the hardest gardening month at Tropical Texana.

Those northern gardens are probably jam packed with gorgeous flowers!

Please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens and see her wonderful flowers. She thought up the idea and has a list of over a hundred gardens that participate.

She'd love to have you drop by.

http://www.maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/