Friday, August 13, 2021

August Garden Blogger's Bloomday, and then some

Yes, I'm posting early. Garden Blogger's Bloomday isn't until Sunday, the 15th. Then again this isn't just a Bloomday post. When I'm out there taking Bloomday photos I tend to get distracted by many things, so many things! Our first subject; fruit and seedpods, after all they they used to be flowers...

Bumpy canna lily seed pods...

I did not notice my Pseudorhipsalis ramulosa blooming, but it must have, since there are now seeds forming.

A bloom on Quesnelia marmorata 'Tim Plowman' has morphed into this gorgeous thing. 

Podophyllum pleianthum and its dangly bits.

Poncirus trifoliata, aka the trifoliate orange.

Oh this poor mahonia! It's a Mahonia nervosa and it's been buried by my Callistemon 'Woodlander's Hardy Red' and the poncirus. Still, it bloomed... I didn't see the blooms but now I see the berries...

Next subject: things that are not flowers but my eye sees color and thinks they are, like this extremely bright cryptanthus. Andrew keeps referring to it as a silk flower, that seems about right.

Ditto for these newly formed nepenthes pitchers, that color is so flower-like.

Hmm, next up; the almost flowers. These are all aralias, their flowers never really scream flower, it's hard to tell where on the spectrum they are at any given time, Metapanax delavayi...

Schefflera brevipedunculata

Schefflera delavayi

So, those are the were, never were, and will be... how about some actual flowers? This NOID cactus came home with me last May, adopted from my friend Lance.

Crocosmia NOID A...

Crocosmia NOID B...

Paris polyphylla 'Heronswood Form'

I managed to capture both the flowers and the incredibly ugly post-flower fluff of Albizia julibrissin ‘Summer Chocolate’ in this photo, taken out our bedroom window. Every morning I lay there looking at that beautiful foliage thinking about how much I hate those flowers and the mess they make.

Still looking up towards the sky, Hibiscus syriacus 'Red Heart'.

And Lonicera x brownii 'Dropmore Scarlet', ya... I know. But I could not get the camera to focus on the flowers.

Back down on the ground, Chasmanthium latifolium.

Thalictrum ichangense 'Evening Star'  which has been blooming for months.

Such perfect little stars.

That begonia I wrote about last week and said the flowers were lame (Begonia semperflorens ‘Harmony Plus White'), well they're also prolific. I can't keep up with the pinching, and they're starting to grow on me.

Walking out into the front garden, to do a floral inventory, and this petal in the driveway, caught my eye. It looks like a rose petal don't you think? I have no idea where it came from.

Indigofera amblyantha

Grevillea x gaudichaudii 

Calluna vulgaris 'I'm too lazy to try and find the specific name A'

Calluna vulgaris 'I'm too lazy to try and find the specific name B' (which is not to say I don't love them!)

Salvia clevelandii

Mahonia gracilipes

And friend...

Sempervivum NOID

And I'll wrap up this post with the passionflowers. My Passiflora 'Amethyst Jewel' refused to open any blooms in time to be photographed.

Passiflora 'Snow Queen' however put on a nice little show. I first noticed a bud slowly opening, its petals covered with moisture droplets. 

As I walked by it, a time or two, I realized I was seeing something unusual, yellow. I was busy and didn't think too much about it until I walked by again and the yellow was gone. 

The anthers flip and the pistils move to face down. Watch this short video...pretty cool eh?

That's my Bloomday "with bonus" post for August. On Sunday the 15th Carol who blogs at May Dreams Gardens will host the round up of all the bloggers playing by the calendar rules and posting flower pictures. Click on over to her blog for the round-up.

All material © 2009-2021 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

23 comments:

  1. Lots of lovelies!
    Hope you and your garden are bearing up with the latest heat. Is it Sept. yet?

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    1. The garden did marvelous, thanks to a couple friends who stepped in while I was gone over the weekend. I am one of the few it seems who is not wishing for September...

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  2. Having fun doing close-ups again? I am in lush and beautiful envy!

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  3. THAT is amazing about the Passifloras! Wow!

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    1. Right!? So happy to have learned about that.

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  4. Thanks for all your lovely photos

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  5. Beautiful blooms and pods and seedheads. That Passiflora is fascinating, indeed, and gorgeous. I'm growing Passiflora incarnata for the first time. It seems to be settling in...it will be interesting to see if it survives the winter here.

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    1. Fingers crossed for your passion flower.

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  6. There's so much to love here! Hibiscus 'Red Heart' is gorgeous. Your passionflowers are beautiful too. I'm still waiting to see if my passionflower will grace me with a bloom or two this year but given my skimpy watering routine, I suspect I'm going to be out of luck. I'm even jealous of your Canna - I went to the trouble of mail ordering a 'Phasion' rhizome this year (for the foliage rather than the flower!) and got a plant with very plain foliage and not even any flowers.

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    1. Oh no! Did they send you the wrong canna?

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  7. And with all that punishing heat (and a broken ankle) your garden still looks like this?! Love the brevipenduculata's seedheads/flowers. I wonder if that mimosa would respond to cutting back like is done for a smoke tree, which keeps it from blooming...? That little thalictrum is a sweetie. So glad you're back to puttering on two feet with August ahead of you!

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    1. Yes, I've learned that you can cut it back (the mimosa) and it will act like a multi-trunked shrub. That's where I'll start, rather than just completely removing it. Well, not that mess with trying to dig it out...

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  8. Very cool video on the Passiflora anthers. The plant world has so many cool surprises. Lots of beautiful and interesting things happening in your garden. Nice to see water droplets on the Passiflora bloom. We are so hot and dry everything is either drooping or crispy.

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    1. Yes, drooping, crispy and smoky pretty much sums up here too. Although the back garden is my little oasis.

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  9. First year I'm growing Cana. I have a flower bud. I'll keep an eye to see if a cool seed pod develops. Stunning eye candy that cryptanthus is, and in a perfect gray pot too!
    If only the Albizia blooms could grow on you, (as the begonia's flowers did). Granted, not pretty when spent, but I think of the African crowned crane when I see them. Beautiful photo of Grevillea x gaudichaudii from an unusual angle, looks like you laid on your stomach to take it.
    The flipping anthers is the most amazingly cool thing. I love it!

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    1. If there were fewer of those albizia blooms they might stand a chance. There are just so many! The grevillea shot was taken with the camera sitting on the sidewalk. My ankle is still making sitting down on the ground challenging.

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  10. Still jealous of 'Snow Queen' but my experience with 'Blue Horizon' and it's wandering ways have put me off Passifloras for the time being.

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    1. Last year I found a coupld 'Snow Queen' starts popping up around the garden, easily pulled. This year I haven't seen a single one.

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  11. Loved all those seed heads. I have a few things I always let go to seed because i like the pods as much as the flowers. Always fun to see what's blooming in your garden because most of it is unknown to me. Some I am not even sure how to pronounce!

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    1. The pods or fruit definitely add another level of interest to many plants.

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