Bloom day - July 15, 2011

104 today. 1-0-4. And the heat and drought carries on. What kind of stalwart-type plants can carry on through such a beating? These guys can:

Batface Cuphea:



Chocolate flower, Texas bluebells, and Mexican milkweed:



The always stunning in the dead heat of summer Pride of barbados:



Turks Cap:



Wrights skullcap:



Yellow primrose. I started out with 4 of these plants, I am down to three due to the drought, but these guys keep marching on:



Rock Penstemon. Still going strong and, along with the Turk's cap, helping to keep the hummers fed during this drought:



Yellow lantana. I find lantana a bit boring, but this stuff is tough as nails, puts on a great show, and I can find nothing better for the hell strip:



The Golden Leadball tree is loving the heat! It continues to bloom:



unfortunately, I lost a goodly chunk of this tree in the only spring storm we had this year back in April. Here is a branch that was shorn off and I had to cut back even more because that section of the trunk was all split.



So I lost about 1/3 of the tree. It seems to be making a fine recovery however, even in this heat. The leadball tree does love the hot and dry conditions!

And last but not least, the Duchess of Albany Clematis has been blooming. I thought I might lose it, since it is new this year and it has been so hot and dry, but I did plant it in the shade - it only gets a couple hours of morning sun - and it has been quietly growing, ever so slowly, up the garden arch making it's way towards the sun. (I don't think this plant knows what it is getting itself into. I mean, once those incinerating rays of the death star hit it, it is just gonna flash-burn right out of existence.):



Happy Bloom day everyone!