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.
