However since July Bloomday in my garden always means Yucca filamentosa flowers (love them!) I’ve decided to adopt them as my official birth-flower, tradition be damned…Yucca flowers for July babies!
Even this Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard' decided to get in on the celebration, this is the first year this plant has bloomed.
Here’s a glance at some of the other things blooming in my garden in July (in roughly alphabetical order too! Because that's how blogger uploaded them)...
Acanthus mollis
Agapanthus NOID
Alstroemeria isabellana
Crocosmia Lucifer
Echinops 'Arctic Glow'
Eryngium+agavifolium
Eryngium venustum
Eucomis 'Sparkling Burgundy'
Euphorbia horrida
Genista aetnensis
Grevillea victoriae 'Murray Queen'...not quite there yet but when those blooms start to open...it's gonna be HOT!
Hesperaloe parviflora...there are 5 of these bloom spikes in my garden this year and the hummingbirds are getting very territorial...
Hosta NOID (it's rare hosta blooms get to stick around...)
Hymenocallis zwanenburg, also rare are bulbs in my garden. My mom gifted me a few of these earlier in the spring and boy am I glad I took them, I really enjoyed these flowers.
Kniphofia, part of the "popsicle series" from Terra Nova.
Lewisia NOID
Lysimachia Paridiformis F. Stenophylla
Manfreda undulata 'Chocolate Chips' when it first started to open...
And now...
The plant underneath that 5 ft tall bloom...
Musella lasiocarpa (Chinese Yellow Banana)
Since this would be the first July Bloomday ever on my blog without a blue Hydrangea (ours went away last spring) I thought I'd share my neighbors plants along our driveway.
Opuntia humifusa, I'm hoping maybe some of last years fruit will breakdown and result in a seedling or three.
Did you notice the bee?
Sedum angelina
Sempervivum NOID
Because July also means tomatoes I had to share a 'Sungold' bloom...
Verbascum bombyciferum 'Arctic Summer'
And that's it! Happy July to everyone, isn't this just the best month? For more blooms visit our hostess Carol at May Dreams Gardens.
All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
These are so beautiful! I love the variety of colors and textures. Seeing the blooms is one of my favorite parts of the month :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by Cassidy!
DeleteI think I'll have to find a Hesperaloe parviflora, and maybe the Eucomis too. Love the Lewisia bloom but pretty sure I can't grow that here.
ReplyDeleteNo opuntia blooms for me this year. Guess they really wanted to get out of those pots :(
I bet a Hesperaloe parviflora would be very happy in your garden, and probably the Eucomis too (how cold do you get in the winter). I've got a round of opuntia blooms coming up soon on another plant who hasn't ever bloomed for me...I can't wait to see what color they are!
DeleteYucca flowers are beautiful aren't they. Which is why I am so jealous of all of yours. None of mine ever flower. I just bought a Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard' maybe next July that will be the first.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed for you Spiky O!
DeleteJuly is definitely the best month as I always have two weeks off work!
ReplyDeleteYour blooms are looking great Loree :)
Yay for vacations! Are you going anywhere special Adam?
DeleteHi Loree,
DeleteI have just come back from 3 nights away with my family and in-laws at Peebles Hydro Hotel. It was good fun.
My trip abroad was the last week of June when we went to The Algarve in Portugal.
Do you have any summer holidays lined up?
The San Francisco Garden Bloggers adventure was the big summer trip, there is also a long weekend at beach (Oregon Coast) to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary but that's about it...
DeleteI can see from your photos that you enjoyed your SFGB adventure a lot!
DeleteCongratulations to your parents on their golden wedding anniversary :)
That's a great achievement.
It's all beautiful!!!! I love Yucca flowers. I really need to include them in the gardens here somewhere.... Hmmm... I'll probably have to dig up more of the front lawn
ReplyDeleteBye bye lawn, hello yuccas!
DeleteHappy GBBD, pal! Your blooms look great! Love that crazy manfreda bloom and yucca blooms always surprise with their size and number. I got a 'Color Guard' early this spring and now, still in its pot it is throwing up a flower spike.
ReplyDeleteBlooming in its container huh? It must really like you.
DeleteNo flowers on any of my Yuccas yet. You can bet they would have been in my Bloom Day post if they were. I love the idea of you just deciding Yuccas should be your birth flower. It works for me. My birthday is in December, and I have no clue what my birth flower is. I don't know of anything that blooms then. I'm thinking maybe I'll be arbitrary too, and make Semps my birth flower.
ReplyDeleteI need some Hesperaloes in my garden. Hmm...I'm thinking next year.
Yes you do need a few hesperaloes! I went the longest time without any blooming (other than when I bought them) but now it seems to be a regular (annual) occurrence.
DeleteI looooove your birthday flowers! They are a great celebration! I too felt like ruby was a sad birthstone growing up. But it kind of sums up the summer loving spirit!! Big, bold, warm, summer loving goodness! Happy birthday month!
ReplyDeleteThank you Louis, I do like the ruby better now than I used to.
DeleteFunny juxtaposition: rubies, yuck; yuccas, birth flower of choice. I agree that we should not be stuck with some symbol handed down from on high. Good for you, and Happy Birth Month (birthday celebrations should go on for at least a month, IMO).
ReplyDeleteI agree, month long (or at least week long) celebrations are a must!
DeleteCongratulations upon throwing tradition aside and declaring yourself free to pick your own (appropriate and beloved) birth flower! Seeing your Hesperaloe reminded me that I need to find one (or more) of those for my own garden. Thanks for sharing your Bloom Day posts.
ReplyDeleteWow I'm so glad my garden is inspiring so many people to need/want hesperaloes!!!
DeleteAnd here I've been oblivious to birth stones. I couldn't tell you what mine is (early April?) Opals would be cool, but I doubt that's mine. The more I know about you, the more interesting you become! I'm seeing 'Sparkling Burgundy' local as a dark flower with green leaves, which is what mine is too, when what I want is the dark-leaved eucomis. Maybe if I order 'Oakhurst' I'll get the dark leaves?
ReplyDeleteI think you've got the diamond Denise...
DeleteOakhurst is definitely worth trying. I've got a couple of both and can't tell the difference.
We can choose our Birthday Month Flower...awesome! Love the Verbascum!
ReplyDeleteSo what's yours Scott? (birthflower I mean)
DeleteLove the pale color of your acanthus and your robust yucca blooms! My Y. 'Color Guard' was a poor show this year and has already departed to bloom heaven. I have that same NOID sempervivum (which now I can't help but think of as Hens and Dicks, thanks to Alison!) As for your Hesperaloe blooms - totally jealous!
ReplyDeleteYep me too (Hens and Dicks)...perhaps she needs to come up with her own hybrid and patent that name.
DeleteThose yuccas are something else. Love the Manfreda undulata. And thanks for introducing me to a new form of Lysimachia. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteThat lysimachia is a fav, so cheery with it's yellow flowers forming the center of a green leaved flower.
DeleteThat's so funny, my birth stone is diamond/CZ but I always wanted something more interesting, like a ruby or sapphire. Why not pick your own flower or birth stone? They were just made up by a marketer inside Hallmark, right?
ReplyDeleteEucomis blooms always look like a little man wearing a hat to me, much like the man on the Pringles can. :) That Hymenocallis bloom is so cool!
I think the American Gem Society might have had something to do with the birthstones but a company like FTD probably came up with the flowers...pretty close to Hallmark!
DeleteAndrew is a Pringles addict yet I can't even picture what the man on the can looks like!
I love the euphorbia horrida - it's so surprising and the name is perfect. The lewisia is so pretty, even though I'm not usually drawn to pink. Lewisia is definitely on my plant want-list. And I'm a sucker for all sedum!
ReplyDeleteThose Lewisia flowers start out much more orange, I wish they stayed that way.
DeleteThe picture of Verbascum flowers is amazing. Very pretty, as always.
ReplyDeleteThank you Lisa!
DeleteI'm amazed at the number of yucca blooms you have and they do look beautiful. Manfreda blooms have to be the tallest blooms from the smallest plants around.
ReplyDeleteThe Larkspur is my birth flower too and it's a common native here so I have plenty of them in the spring.
Well happy birthday month Shirley!
DeleteYou may not like rubies, but at least you are fortunate enough to be born in the best month to have a birthday. Recently I went to a pot luck dinner where someone brought wild harvested yucca blossoms, minus the more bitter pistols and stamens, that had been stuffed with a slightly sweet cream cheese mixed with tiny wild harvested blueberries. They were delicious.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I have always loved that my birthday is in July. Well except when I was a kid and jealous that I never got the birthday attention other kids did in school.
DeleteSomeday I'm going to try eating a yucca bloom...
Great idea to pick your own birth flower! I actually have no idea what mine is, but now you have me intrigued! But if I had to choose, it would take me a while to do so.... so many pretties!! Anyway, your garden looks fantastic! That verbascum is so cool!
ReplyDeleteIndeed the choice could be difficult.
DeleteJuly is a fabulous month indeed, the best! BTW, the three of us share the same birthstone ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, we're also more than happy to adopt Yucca flowers as birth flower, with its spectacular inflorescence why shouldn't it be?
Great selection of blooms, just shows how wonderful summer is!
Really we're all July babies? I wonder if July babies are pre-destined to become plant lovers? Indeed why not? Especially if Shirley has larkspur blooming in the spring...that's wrong! It should be something that blooms in July.
DeleteYour garden is so incredible! I would sure love to see it in person one day. But your photos are so great if I didn't I would still be satisfied. And hey does the chocolate chips die after the bloom?
ReplyDeleteNope, thankfully it's not monocarpic, or at least it shouldn't be. Mines not the most robust plant so I hope this doesn't take too much out of it.
DeleteThe Yuccas put on quite a show here this year. Unfortunately I learned the hard way that deer like to eat Yucca flowers :(. And Opuntia. Who would have guessed? Still trying to find those popsicle Kniphofias around here...
ReplyDeleteHappy GBBD!
Come out to Portland next year for the Fling and you can ship yourself home some popsicles! (I'd offer to divide mine but I just planted them so they're still really small)
DeleteYour garden is so exotic. I like your red Hesperaloe and Alstroemeria, anything for hummers. I have Crocosmia 'Lucifer' blooming too, as well as lots of tomato flowers.;-P I'm a December birthday, which kind of sucks. I did finally embrace Turquoise, I found an artsy pendant I like, and flower is Narcissus, which at least is very fragrant. I am growing Larkspurs this year, they are a lovely blue. I used one for my Blue Monday post. I have been noticing a lot of Yuccas blooms when driving around recently. They must be getting more popular. I had no idea they were edible.
ReplyDeleteAnnual larkspur (native to Europe and the Mediterranean) is commonly grown here in central Texas as a substitute for heat-hating delphiniums, and also because it's easy to grow from seed. We sow the seeds in the fall and get larkspur flowers in spring -- definitely not July. Obviously the person who came up with birth-month flowers lived in a much more temperate climate!
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, your post caused me to look up my October birth-month flower: Calendula/marigold. That works for me. :-)