To my eyes, the pickings look slim this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. However, after looking back at last year's mid-August post, I found that, with a few exceptions, most of what was blooming then is also blooming now, albeit in smaller quantities in many cases. Both last year and this year, the dahlias and zinnias I rely on for color during the hot, dry summer were late in getting their bloom on. This year, I made a point of planting my dahlia tubers earlier, using temporary pots, but even so they've been slower still to bloom this year. I even purchased three dahlias as plants this summer without much impact on net flower production.
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| Dahlia 'Akita' is the first of the plants I grew from tubers to bloom this year. The flowers, photographed late yesterday afternoon, still weren't fully open. |
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| Dahlia 'Cafe au Lait Royal' is lagging just behind 'Akita' |
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| I bought a Dahlia 'Dark Side of the Sun' plant by mail order in June but it's only produced a few flowers thus far, usually one at a time. The same has been true of Dahlia 'Mystic Illusion', purchased at a local garden center in July. |
I've organized the rest of my Bloom Day photos by color, presenting just one or two stars in each category, while lumping the rest of my photos into color-coordinated collages in the interest of brevity. The white flowers are up first.
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| Yucca 'Bright Star' surprised me with a bloom stalk this month |
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| Top row: Abelia grandiflora 'Edward Goucher', A. 'Kaleidoscope', and Amaryllis belladonna 'Alba' Middle row: Angelonia 'Archangel White', Centranthus ruber 'Albus', and Cosmos bipinnatus Bottom row: Crassula pubescens, Eustoma grandiflora (aka Lisianthus), and Gaura lindheimeri |
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| Top row: Magnolia grandiflora and Myrtus communis 'Compacta' Middle row: Osteospermum '4D Silver', Pandorea jasminoides, and Penstemon 'Opal & Pearls' Bottom row: noID Phalaenopsis, Phyla nodiflora, and Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum' |
There's an ample variety of blue flowers, although the quantity of each species isn't large in most cases.
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| The flowers of native California aster, Symphyotrichum chilense, are plentiful but a lot of the flower stems turn brown and crispy before blooming due to inadequate water. I'm trying to keep my water use as low as possible in response to calls to conserve water during California's severe drought. The rain water I collected earlier is long gone and realistically we can't expect rain again until late October or November. |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Duranta 'Sapphire Showers', blue and lavender Eustoma grandiflorum, the last of the Limonium perezii for the year, Salvia 'Mystic Spires', Rotheca myricoides, noID Scaevola, and Trichostemma 'Midnight Magic' |
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| Top row: Calibrachoa 'Calitastic Ice Blue', Convolvulus sabatius, and Lycianthes rantonnetii 'Variegata' Middle row: Nierembergia, Ocimum 'African Blue Basil', and Osteospermum 'Violet Ice' Bottom row: Pelargonium peltatum, Scabiosa columbaria 'Flutter Deep Blue', and Verbena bonariensis 'Lollipop' |
The pinks are up next.
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| Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' produced a massive flush of peachy-pink blooms virtually overnight earlier this month. A stretch of temperatures in the low to mid-90sF turned the flowers a pale tan color in less than a week. |
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| The leaf-less bloom stalks of Amaryllis belladonna (aka naked lady lilies) have popped up throughout the backyard border, although there seem to be fewer blooms than last year |
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| Top row: Cistus skanbergii, C. 'Sunset', and Cuphea 'Starfire Pink' Middle row: Eustoma grandiflorum, Hoya carnosa, and Lycoris squamigera Bottom row: noID miniature Phalaenopsis, Rosa 'Pink Meidiland', and Scabiosa columbaria 'Flutter Rose Pink' |
There were a couple surprises in the red category.
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| Hemerocallis 'Spanish Harlem' finished up its bloom cycle in early June - or so I thought. One plant produced a new bloom spike this month and has been offering me new blooms every other day or so. This is a reblooming variety but I don't usually see the second round until late fall. |
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| Stapelia grandiflora (aka starfish cactus and carrion plant) blooms on an irregular schedule and usually catches me by surprise. The flower's odor attracts flies. There are at least two more buds. |
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| Top row: Crassula perfoliata falcata, Gaillardia 'Amazon Sun', and Penstemon mexicali 'Mini-bells Red' Middle row: Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy', Zinnia 'Profusion Red', and Z. elegans 'Queen Red Lime' Bottom row: Cosmos bipinnatus, Daucus carota 'Dara', and Pelargonium sidiodes |
The orange category contains a few new favorites as well as some old standbys.
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| Intergeneric hybrid Echibeckia 'Summerina Orange' is new to me. Regrettably, it's requiring a surprising amount of water. |
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| Top row: Agastache 'Sunrise Orange', Cotyledon orbiculata, and noID Gazania Middle row: Grevillea 'Superb', Hesperaloe parviflora, and Leonotis leonurus Bottom row: Xerochrysum bracteatum and 2 incarnations of Zinnia elegans 'Queen Lime Orange' |
Last up are the yellow flowers, headlined by one of my favorite year-round bloomers.
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| In addition to blooming year-round, Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' is beloved by bees and hummingbirds |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Alstroemeria 'Inca Vienna', Coreopsis 'Big Bang Redshift', noID miniature Phalaenopsis, Zinnia 'Profusion Yellow', Phlomis fruticosa, and Lantana mix |
That's it for my August Bloom Day wrap up. Hopefully, I'll have more dahlias - and zinnias - to share in September. My post is one day ahead of schedule this month but you can visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens for more GBBD posts on August 15th. Best wishes for a pleasant weekend!
All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party