Saturday morning finds heat and humidity in Florida – the Saharan sand drifting over the Atlantic is keeping the rain away and not much gardening is going on, except decapitating seed heads on weeds and watering. I have realized it is a bad idea to try and establish plants after May. Another backwards seasonality here, rest in summer and garden in winter. I am joining SOS today with summer flowers and foliage. To see more SOS posts, visit http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.
The Blanchetiana Bromeliads are shooting up flower stalks. Below is the yellow/chartreuse version – sometimes called Lemon. Aechmea blanchetiana “Lemon”.
I bought this Red Velvet Aerva (Aerva sanguinolenta) last year. It was touted as a tough plant from Africa that is drought tolerant and native to desert, sandy soils. Not quite believing this, I planted some in the sand and took a few cuttings in case this was not true. The plant in the sand is long gone, but the cuttings love being coddled in potting soil.
Another oops from research. Last year I wrote an article for The American Gardener about Bougainvillea. Research in many forms claim Bougs bloom in cycles and stop when day length exceeds 12 hours. This one has been blooming all summer during the longest days of the year. Another myth busted.
The culinary ginger is finally growing. These are heat lovers and make ginger root during the summer, the fresh ginger root is wonderful. I am looking forward to it in a couple of months.
The Purple Gem Dahlias are getting smaller and moldier day by day. I decided to leave the tubers in the pots and not water them after they go dormant to see what happens. I also bought some uber cheap tubers to refrigerate and try later. Research is planned to find what day length inspires Dahlias to flower.
A Queen butterfly on the Firebush. These are cousins of the now endangered Monarch. They are supposed to be year round here, but are relatively rare in my garden.
There, my Six for this summer Saturday.
Happy Gardening!!
The Shrub Queen 
Nice! What do Queens lay their eggs on? I grew up in San Diego and I feel like the bougainvillea bloomed year round, if not blooming, usually a gardener has trimmed it back. I had an apartment that had louvered windows and bougainvillea would grow into the shower.
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milkweed, I think…doesn’t do well here. I’m trying a native version, fingers crossed.
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I’m on my second stems of culinary ginger. The first was in February-March because I had forced the rhizome and the second will be ready at the end of August. The rhizome has gained a few centimeters too. Pretty white bougainvillea flowers ! Purples and pinks are more common
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I left the ginger in too much sun and it did not like that. We will see how it works now that it is in more shade. White bougainvilleas are hard to find, a friend in the landscape business found it for me. My house is painted peach and a few colors work with that..not purple!
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I love your lemon flower – nice and spikey. Will you keep the ginger in a pot?
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Thanks, Chris also called Lobsterclaw..it feels like one. The ginger stays in a pot, the sand in the garden does not hold enough water…
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The Bougainvillea is so beautiful.
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Thank you, I enjoy the bougainvillea, it is trained to a column on my front porch.
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What?! I was not aware that bougainvillea ever stopped blooming. I know that they can bloom in phases, and take a bit of time off, but they do so sporadically, with no regard to the seasons. They tend to bloom less through winter here than they do in Los Angeles, but only because they enjoy warmth.
What was the source of your ginger? I get frustrated with the many choices that are available online. I just want the sort that is available from the supermarket. Finally, it occurred to me that I should just grow a piece from the supermarket. duh.
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Gosh, I didn’t know that the Sahara sands reach Florida. We get them in the UK and I thought that was a long way to blow. I’m growing ginger too. Mine has got a massive leaf stalk with more growing, I hope mine has enough energy left to grow the actual ginger root.
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The sand goes all the way to Texas. This is my first ginger I left it in the sun too long so it is lagging behind, I think? We will see.
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We are a bit different at this end of the Gulf, but it was hard to understand the seasons and that many plants slept during the summer. Fall is our second spring. We also get the Sahara dust and it is supposed to keep hurricanes from forming.
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The seasons are definitely different. I don’t mind the sand too much for that reason.
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A nice variety within your six this week. Of course I love the Queen butterfly. That is a nice bougainvillea–good for you for adding to the scientific research. There’s something like that about tomatoes setting fruit I think. Mine aren’t doing much of anything so I can’t contribute to research.
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Thanks, Susie. I love the Queens too. We don’t grow tomatoes here in summer because high temps cause the pollen to become too heavy to pollinate the flowers. It may just be too hot there right now.
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