Bloom Day - August 2024 (Early Edition)

August is the low point for floral color in my garden.  If it wasn't for a burst of new blooms from my cutting garden, I'm not sure it'd be worth publishing a Bloom Day post.  After a slow start the Dahlias are off and running as the stars of my cutting garden, with Rudbeckias and Zinnias rolling up behind them.

Dahlia 'Creme de Cognac', new to my garden this year, is perhaps the most floriferous at the moment but then I planted 2 clumps of tubers in this case

Dahlia 'Summer's End' is almost as prolific but all its flowers are the product of one small clump saved from last year

I planted 2 clumps of Dahlia 'Catching Fire' saved from last year too, both of which are putting on a good show, albeit on a staggered schedule

I picked up a Dahlia 'Vancouver' at my local garden center in early June when I got a late start planting my dahlia tubers.  As the temperatures have soared, its floral production has stepped up but, for some reason, the flowers have also taken a spidery shape.  Maybe that's a response to heat - or possibly a virus?

Dahlia 'Break Out' is a slow bloomer but pretty

Dahlia 'Mikayla Miranda' produced its first flowers last week.  This is one of my favorites from last year.

Dahlia 'La Luna' is another of last year's favorites.  I originally planted the tuber in 2022.  Reportedly a "late bloomer," it never flowered at all that year.  I thought I'd dug up the tuber and tossed it, only to find it make a surprise appearance in 2023.  I divided it and planted 2 out tubers this year.  It produced its first flower this week with more on the way.

At the moment, all but two of the remaining dahlia tubers I planted out have buds in development.  Those I expect to see in the next few weeks include: 'Brown Sugar','Excentric', 'Fairway Spur', 'Iceberg', 'Labyrinth', and 'Lady Darlene'.  The other 2, which still offer promise, are 'Belle of Barmera' (which sprouted just when I'd decided to toss it) and 'Hometown Hero', one of this year's new acquisitions.

Additional inhabitants of my cutting garden currently in bloom include the following:

Rudbeckia hirta 'Sahara', planted as pubs I received by mail order in May.  All the plants look slightly different from one another.

The Zinnia elegans seeds I sowed in June are off to a relatively slow start.  Clockwise from the upper left, they include: 'Benary's Giant Purple', 'Benary's Giant Wine' (which looks remarkably similar to 'BNP'), 'Golden Hour', 'Raspberry Limeade', and 'Zinderella Peach'.

Clockwise from the upper left, miscellaneous other plants currently in bloom include: Cuphea 'Honeybells', Pelargonium hortorum 'Hot Pink', Digitalis purpurea, Pandorea jasminoides, Dipladenia hybrid, noID Scaevola, and Tanacetum parthenium

This is a poor photo but this squash flower growing underneath Dahlia 'La Luna' in one of my raised planters was a big surprise!  I haven't grown vegetables in this area for 7 or 8 years and I don't think I ever grew squash in this particular planter.

There are only a few flowers elsewhere in the garden that have recently made a splash.

Amaryllis belladonna always seem to catch me by surprise.  I noticed the first bloom stalks last week and there seem to be more each day, all pink this far.

Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' produced a flush of peachy-pink blooms at the end of July.  As the older flowers turn a buff-beige color, new ones are still appearing.

The first flowers of Crassula perfoliata falcata (aka propeller or airplane plant) are getting started

The 6 Hemerocallis 'Spanish Harlem' in my front garden finished up in June, yet one plant produced a new flower stalk this month.  The plants often produce another round of blooms in the fall and this one is apparently getting an early start.

I've thrown the best of the rest into collages organized by color as I usually do.

Clockwise from the upper left: Gaillardia 'Arizona Sun', Grevillea 'Superb', Hesperaloe parviflora, Lantana camara 'Orange', Leonotis leonurus, and Leucadendron 'Blush'

Left to right: Alstroemeria 'Inca Sundance', Grevillea 'Moonlight', and Lantana 'Lucky Yellow'

Clockwise from the upper left: Abelia grandiflora 'Kaleidoscope', Alstroemeria 'Claire', A. 'Inca Vienna', Crassula pubescens radicans, Fuchsia 'Windchimes White', Magnolia grandiflora. Myrtus communis, and Oenothera lindhiemeri (formerly classified as Gaura)

Clockwise from the upper left: Begonia 'Roseform', Cistus x skanbergii, Cuphea 'Starfire Pink', Eustoma grandiflorum, Grevillea sericea, Lantana camara 'Irene', noID Pelargonium

Clockwise from upper left: noID Ageratum, Eustoma grandiflorum, Nemesia hybrid 'Bicolor', Agapanthus 'Elaine', Osteospermum 'Purple Spoon', Verbena bonariensis, Wahlenbergia speciosa 'Blue Cloud', and Agapanthus 'Stevie's Wonder'

We hope for cooler temperatures in September, although the prospects aren't looking particularly favorable at present.  At best, we probably can't expect rain until late October either but who knows?  Maybe we'll get an errant tropical storm like we did last year.  Actually, there are residents in a nearby area that are dealing with a landslide who are hoping that La Nina conditions will minimize the level of rain during the 2025 "water year."  The slow-moving landslide, inadvertently triggered by construction activity in 1956, has started moving much faster after two years of heavier-than-usual rain, jeopardizing homes and recently leading the gas company to cut off service to 135 homes as the land moves as much as a foot a week in some cases and water "seepage" reportedly amounts to as much as fifteen gallons per minute in other spots.  If only that water could be captured and safely stored!  At the moment, what's diverted is being directed into the ocean.

For more flower-focused posts, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens, the host of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, on August 15th.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party