What's Blooming Now?

[F, Calla & Luca]

The garden has been neglected all summer. It was just too hot and dry. But right now, I have some beautiful anemones blooming. Thank goodness for perennials.

What's blooming in your garden?

[F, Calla & Luca]

Oh, and I love that the flowers stand still to be photographed!

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

hee heee heeee. My laptop is jiggling. You mean you don't have to make clicking tongue sounds, have a cookie on your head, and funny noises to make them look at your camera?

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

In my backyard the hybrid teas are looking a litttle tatty from the heat as is the Japanese maple tree. But every single one of the Iceberg roses is covered in blooms, better than the first bloom of spring. I just replanted my hanging planters as the heat did them in, so now they are looking pretty and fresh, but need to fill in. The doodles have crushed the mondo grass with their afternoons in the pool, but they will bounce back when the weather cools.

All the perennials in the front are in full bloom. The pentas ( which are perennial here) attract hummingbirds every evening. Rubeckia, geranium and zinnias, the staples of hot southern California summers, are still lush with blooms, soaking up the heat like a model for suntan lotion. For some reason the two front porch pots ( lime green sweet potato vine, Mexican feather grass, and "Maple Sugar" hibicus have gone crazy growing huge in the heat. They look like blowsy aging matrons and looked ever so much better before the pale yellow petunias were crowded out, that were such a wonderful part of their youth.

All in all things look pretty good. August was extremely hot, in fact the heat just broke today. So I say "amen" to having heat tolerant perennials and roses developed to take the heat and ask for more. If I were not so attached to my tea roses I would rip them out. The first bloom in April is spectacular and the second bloom is good, but in July and August the poor buds blast open and die in what seems like hours. Now that our evenings will be cooler, I need to cut them back for a rest so I get a good bloom in late October and and a smaller one in December, before their long rest.

Does anyone have "Limelight" hydrangeas? I am so longing for one, but I just don't have a spot that stays cool enough. I can't think why DH won't let me rip out the hedge along the property line in front and replace it with "Limelight" hydrangeas!
It is the only place that gets some protection from the midday heat and right now it is just boring old green viburnam. Oh well. He puts up with my twin passions of dogs and plants pretty darn well. He even took them (the dogs) swimming today!

[F, Calla & Luca]

I love the way you right. The description of the of the front porch pots. Please, can you get us some pictures of the hummingbirds? I know how you feel about ripping some things out but I find it too hard both emotionally and physically. Just looked up the Pentas, very pretty. No limelight hydrangeas in my garden.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Oh my goodness, that should be write, of course. Something happened between the brain and the fingers.

[Leslie and Halas]

I think ragweed is in bloom in the field behind our condo. Does ragweed bloom?

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I may be goldenrod. The park we go to with the Doods has a lot of plants that I was thinking were ragweed, but they're actually goldenrod. They look similar, but the goldenrod has yellow blossoms on its stalks where the ragweed has just a hint of yellow....it looks like it's going to blossom but it never really does.

[Leslie and Halas]

I haven't noticed any yellow blossoms, but I try not to get too close. I think ragweed might be the cause of some of my allergy issues, so I try to stay away from it if I can.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Here are two pictures I found....one ragweed and the other goldenrod. If you aren't seeing fluffy yellow flowers on the ends of the stalks, I'm guessing ragweed. Our goldenrod is in full bloom. The ragweed looks like it's covered with buds, but they aren't flowers like you'd see on the goldenrod. Both are in full "bloom" here now.
Here's the ragweed...

Here's the goldenrod...

[Leslie and Halas]

Now that I see a pic, I think we do have some goldenrod in that field at times, but I haven't seen any yellow blooms yet. And that stuff is usually closer to the edge of the field by the woods. But the stuff I was thinking of is ragweed, and it's all over the field.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

From Wikipedia:
Probably due to their bright, golden yellow flower heads in late summer, the goldenrod is often unfairly blamed for causing hay fever in humans. The pollen causing these allergy problems is mainly produced by Ragweed (Ambrosia sp.), blooming at the same time as the goldenrod, but is wind-pollinated. Goldenrod pollen is too heavy and sticky to be blown far from the flowers, and is thus mainly pollinated by insects

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And goldenrod gets blamed for a lot of the misery that ragweed causes. Les, if you're suffering from pollen allergies right now, it's ragweed, and it's at it's peak right now. Don't worry about the patch behind your house, the pollen travels 400 miles.
Also causing misery right now are corn pollen, which doesn't travel very far but there you sit in Central IL, and a bunch of other weeds which are known to be severe allergens.