Summer flowers are budding and blooming in the garden this Saturday. I know this seems picky but the days seem too long now; but I know the Summer Solstice is just around the corner and they will soon be shorter. In December I am certain to be complaining that the days are too short. Follow the link to Jim’s blog gardenruminations to see more SOS garden tours.
Aechmea rubens Bromeliad buds. Once this blooms, the flowers last for months and then dry into red straw. They are big and sharp.
Buds on Billbergia pyramidalis, the flowers are pyramid shaped once they open and many people call this Hurricane Lilies (?) as they flower during hurricane season, which starts today.
Pineland Lantana (Lantana depressa) flowering for the first time. It seems very strange to me that I cannot grow New Gold Lantana, so I decided to try this native Lantana and it seems to be thriving. Go figure.
Miss Alice Bougainvillea has finally recovered from whatever was ailing her and is dressed for summer.
Another garden first, a Day lily photo bombed by a White Flame Salvia. This is a Purple Stella Daylily (Hemerocallis) it is reported to bloom all summer long.
The Mophead Hydrangea of the tropics, Blue Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) is in full bloom in my garden. I enjoy these so much and never water, fertilize or even think about them. A summer favorite.
That is all from my garden this Saturday. I am hoping for rain, but currently enjoying a nice, cooling breeze off the ocean.
Happy Gardening!!
The Shrub Queen 
I was surprised to see Purple Stella Daylily in your garden, I had it in my gardens in New Hampshire and it did bloom most of the summer.
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I’m also surprised. It’s in a pot nestled in the perennial bed. I don’t think it would last in the sand or the rabbits would eat it.. we’ll see how it copes with summer.
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Looking good! Love that plumbago and Miss Alice is back, thank goodness. 🙂
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Thanks, Miss Alice remains a mystery.
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Lovely plants. I love that lantana, I have never seen one like that before. And what a pretty bougainvillea.
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Thank you, Liz. Most of the Lantanas that produce seed are a disaster here. That is Lantana depressa, native to the Rocklands of Florida, a dry and dusty place.
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This daylily is very pretty. Mine is starting to flower too. I would have thought the weather at your place would be too hot for them. I love plumbago flowers. Something I can’t grow here, too tender.
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Thanks, Fred. The grower said the Daylily would grow here..we will see. It is in a pot for rabbit avoidance. I love Plumbago, too – it stands in for Hydrangeas in the summer.
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There seems to be lots of plants with the name hurricane. They say this could be a bad year…yuck. Your Bougainvillea is beautiful. I have one that bloomed once and this winter it froze. I thought it was dead but it has come back. Of course I took the trellis down.
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yes and double yuck!! Bougainvillea can be pretty resilient. If you still had the trellis the plant probably would not have made it!
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I was at a plant fair today and someone was selling a bromeliad that I know if I’d asked they’d have told me was hardy. So it may have been but compared to all your stunning types it was a dull thing. Maybe I’m finally realising that just being rare or unusual isn’t enough.
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There are between 3 and 4 thousand types of bromeliads. The Neoregelia breeders in Costa Rica are just incredible. I cannot imagine one that is hardy in the UK. There are a few here that will take frost, so maybe? I tend to buy the sort of passalong types that are not persnickety.
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Miss Alice bougainvillea seems happy now. The pair or White Stripe bougainvillea here are still rather wimpy. They dislike cool winter weather, but should be growing better by now. They do not get big, so I want them to do what they are going to do as soon as possible, in order to be more resilient to frost when it happens.
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I have no clue what happened to Miss Alice. Suddenly she was okay. I just looked up white stripe, I have not seen these look great for containers.
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That is how they recover from minor frost damage. They seem to be dead, and then suddenly regenerate foliage as if nothing ever happened. However, nothing else replicates frost damage. If it desiccated, it would take time to repair damaged roots. ‘White Stripe’ was not planned. I just grabbed it while in a rush to leave, merely because it was there. I should have gotten a cultivar that grows larger and more vigorously. Besides, I am unimpressed with the variegation, particularly with white bloom. Even if they survive, I may add a pair of common ‘Jamaica White’ to grow up and above them, and let them sprawl on the ground below. I am certainly no landscape designer, but white on white with more white may not be such a good idea. Hey, I just mentioned that in the blog, in regard to Brent’s New Guinea impatiens and ivy geranium, but at least those are two different species.
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I think we had 38 degrees in January.. but no frost.
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Oh, I get it. I was merely comparing the recovery process. Mine actually got frosted, but only mildly. They are all recovering. I want them to grow up fast though, since they can get damaged a bit more severely as soon as next winter. That is how I ended up with ‘White Stripe’ as replacements to the previous pair.
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Miss Alice looks gorgeous again, and so do your Plumbago flowers. How lovely to have that blue all summer long. The Lantana is a fabulous vivid yellow… is this native one always yellow? I have recently discovered how many different hybrids there are and so many variations of colour. I bought myself a pink one for a summer container and will try and keep it through the winter indoors. Summer isn’t quite here yet, but almost!
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Thanks..I think there’s a white native Lantana that is not as showy..there are so many Lantana now.
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Miss Alice is quite the charmer! We don’t see that variety here, but tons of the other pink and purple ones. Love the lanatana, too. So cheery!
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It’s called Singapore White on the west coast for some reason. I’m hoping the Lantana makes it.
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