What's blooming in your yard?

[tobiwobi]

Here's a Duranta. Not too common, at least I don't see it often. I've got it trained into a standard. Very forgiving - last year I was battling what I thought were spider mites so I kept submerging the tree in a tub, but then they turned out to be some strange looking aphids, not the kind you normally see, and long story short I cut back severely and removed every single leaf and sprayed like crazy, and the plant recovered nicely this year, like nothing happened. The flowers attract bees, and its supposed to have yellow berries after flowers but it hasn't happened to me yet.

[marstec]

I've never heard of duranta...love that shade of bluish purple, tobiwobi! Is it a perennial, or do you take it in for the winter?

[tobiwobi]

I've never heard of duranta...love that shade of bluish purple, tobiwobi! Is it a perennial, or do you take it in for the winter?

Thanks! It's a perennial but not winter hardy. I believe it is native to South America. I take it inside in November through March and it's annoying in my little space to be tripping all over it whole winter, but when it flowers it's worth it. Hard to take a decent pic cos the flowers are small and dainty, but there are cascades of them and they're a nice colour

[marstec]

Another hot day today, and humid too.

Here's a wide shot of one of my flower beds and another daylily, called South Seas.

[walkonby]

My hibiscus tree had many blooms the other day

[marstec]

That's lovely, walkonby. Your hibiscus looks very happy - that braided "trunk" is sure neat!

[Tweetybird999]

Cucumbers are blooming and found two about 18" each....oh the things I love to do with cucumbers!

[marstec]

Cucumbers are blooming and found two about 18" each....oh the things I love to do with cucumbers!

Tweety, you are so lucky none of us on this thread has a dirty mind.

[walkonby]

Tweety, you are so lucky none of us on this thread has a dirty mind.

give it time marstec, someone will say something inappropriate in three....two....one

" That's What She Said!!!! "

[sweet sparrow]

give it time marstec, someone will say something inappropriate in three....two....one

" That's What She Said!!!! "

Troublemaker.

To all the amazing lily growers, I bought a few lilies on sale. Can I wait to put them in the ground in fall or should I plant them now? I bought them a little while ago and didn't have time to put them in the ground. Will they die if they dry out in the pots?

[marstec]

sweet sparrow,

What kind of lilies are they? Asiatic, Oriental, daylilies? Is the foliage still green? I would put them in the ground as soon as you can...check to make sure there are some good roots when you take them out of the pot to plant. Real lilies need to have their roots established in the ground going into winter, that's why you wait for the foliage to die down naturally with them...it's when they are building up energy reserves for next year's flowering.

Daylilies can probably be planted whenever, but you still need to keep them from drying out...and a plant is always going to do better with an established root system, so in the ground sooner than later is good.

[sweet sparrow]

sweet sparrow,

What kind of lilies are they? Asiatic, Oriental, daylilies? Is the foliage still green? I would put them in the ground as soon as you can...check to make sure there are some good roots when you take them out of the pot to plant. Real lilies need to have their roots established in the ground going into winter, that's why you wait for the foliage to die down naturally with them...it's when they are building up energy reserves for next year's flowering.

Daylilies can probably be planted whenever, but you still need to keep them from drying out...and a plant is always going to do better with an established root system, so in the ground sooner than later is good.

Oh dear. I think most of them are still green. They're asiatic and oriental. I'll give them a good soaking tonight before putting them in the ground tomorrow. Thanks for the tip!

[janetta]

Fraise du Bois! aka. Alpine strawberries or in this case strawberry.
I managed to save this one before critters got to it!

[AliceStewart21]

Fraise du Bois! aka. Alpine strawberries or in this case strawberry.
I managed to save this one before critters got to it!

It's beautiful

[marstec]

Here are a few blooming this week:

Pink lavatera* - I have white too. My mil gave me some seeds one year and I've been growing them ever since. They are really easy...just direct sow or starts some indoors in the Spring. I was told they don't transplant that well but it's been good for me. They are an annual and like full-sun. These come true to seed, just wait until the seeds are black before harvesting them.

*my silly computer keeps wanting to autocorrect this word to lavatory!

Pinky Winky hydrangea - this is fully hardy for here; it starts off with white blossoms and you can just see the pink appearing on the right hand side. It only gets to about three feet for me, but I actually like that it stays short.

Oriental lily...these barely survive in my zone - they tend to do really well the first year and then dwindle to nothing. I didn't buy any more this year.