A MIX OF FLOWERS & FOLIAGE FOR JULY GBBD

Howdy from Houston and welcome to my garden.

On the 15th of each month, our host Carol at May Dreams Gardens

invites us all to share our gardens. And my friend Pam at Digging, adds to the fun with a Foliage Follow-up on the 16th. It's a double header!

Fortunately, it has rained here during the past month and the garden is looking pretty good.
I've mixed my flowers with my foliage, so scroll down to what you'd like to see.

The Pride of Barbados has a little surprise. Do you see him? It's a tiny spider.

Speaking of surprises, I am delighted to tell you that the sun loving types (more like sun tolerant types) of coleus are getting better and better each year.

I'm a bit of a coleus freak, so this is great news. The one pictured above is probably 'Solar Sunrise'

from the Sunlover collection.

This sunlover is called 'Gay's Delight' . It's a sprinter and can grow about twice a fast as any coleus I've ever tried.

This one is called 'Redhead'. It is so velvety that you're tempted to pet it!

Here's 'Dijon' and it looks the part. Great name. It blends with dark greens perfectly.

Finally, here's my favorite called "You're So Vein". All of these can tolerate morning sun here in Texas.

Now back to the flowers.

The tiny Pearls of Opar (or Jewels of Opar) are popping up in the shade garden.

Our friendly cat 'Bear' poses next to the plant. See the tiny flowers?

Does anyone know how it got the name  'Pearls of Opar'? Sounds exotic...like it's from an Arabian fairy tale.

This is my first summer to grow Ice Plant. I think it's going to be a great little bloomer.

I'm also trying Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) for the first time. Anyone else LOVE this plant? I do.

And so does somebody else!

The lowly airplane plant is in bloom. I have it everywhere in the flower beds. It grows outdoors here in Houston.

This little Dahlberg Daisy has bloomed for an entire month. It loves sun!

Here's a larger view of the cottage garden with Gomphrena 'Buddy Purple' in the front.

Here's a larger view with some of the agaves. 

The silver plant is called Licorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare).

It is one of my favorite ground covers.

The agave is a hybrid called 'Sharkskin'.

Here's another view of the front garden. As you can see, I have to depend on plant foliage and textures rather than flowers at this point in the summer.

Our plumeria has finally decided to bloom after many years of waiting.

The scent transports me to tropical islands.

Here's the yellow one. It doesn't have the wonderful scent of the white one, but it's still nice to have around.

Perhaps my most difficult plant is this cycad. It has just put out its ONCE a YEAR set of leaves. That's it and the show is over until another year has passed. I must have the patience of Job to put up with this plant.

However, right now it is indeed beautiful.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is this lime green pothos. It has to be the fastest plant in my garden. I swear it adds a new leaf daily! Unfortunately, the bugs like to nibble on this one.

I am almost finished with a new fence. It's been the longest (literally) project I've ever done

and it's taken the longest time!

I'll close with this smiling dragon fly. They love to visit our pond. This particular species has absolutely no fear of humans. On the other hand, all the blue species are so paranoid that I can never photograph them.

Well, that's it for this month. 

I hope you enjoyed the July garden.

I'll see you next time.

Until then, happy growing!

David/:0)