It has been so hot and so dry that for most of August the garden kind of curled up on itself. We've had a little bit of rain and a few stretches of cooler days, and I almost think I heard the roses sighing as they bloomed again.The Dame de Coeur is the most intense red and has bloomed valiantly in the last two weeks. I've brought several blossoms in the house, but it's so lovely, drawing your eye before anything else in the garden, that I've left most of the blooms on the rose!
The dahlias continue to amaze me. All of the plants are heavy with buds right now, and over the last month they have produced a few spectacular blossoms and quite a few misshapen ones. I'm guessing the imperfect ones are due to the heat and lack of water (I've been firm about watering thoroughly just once a week). With days growing cooler, I'm so anxious to see how these do. Mama has been to High Hampton and says she's a convert now to dahlia's almost-gross exuberance. She found a wonderful way to bring them in the house - float them instead of letting them nod their heads (as mine want to do) in an arrangement. I've been putting them with Genovese Basil in a bowl and Pete says they are his favorite flower now!
The hibiscus is about to bloom again, too, a survivor of the heat and the Japanese beetles. This is another of those plants that command your attention in the garden, with its enormous red flowers.
My friend Cheryl gave me another "Jack and the Beanstalk" (hyacinth bean) vine this summer and I failed to do anything - I mean anything - with it except stick it in the ground. It has
thumbed its nose at me and proceeded to adopt the air conditioner as it's trellis. That spot in our garden is so problematic - definitely an addition design flaw to have the air conditioners where they are. It's a sound and sight camouflage challenge that I know I need to take on. I didn't this summer, so I'm grateful for that intrepid little vine!
Two other spots in the garden are definite keepers through the hot and dry times. The herb garden, with the salvia microphylla shooting out through the basil and rosemary, has flourished in the heat.
Black and blue salvia has finally taken off and the hummingbirds love it. I like this one, especially with the Perle d'Or rose blooming behind it. It's just as evil smelling and "black and blue" as that rose is sweet. I didn't think it through when planting, but I think they compliment one another beautifully.What didn't do so well this summer? The Zephirine Drouhin rose was absolutely devoured by Japanese beetles and so stressed that I didn't fertilize it after it bloomed in early July. Unlike the other roses, it doesn't seem to have recovered. I'm planning to prune it gently today, clean up around it (it looks like a rose battlefield with all the dropped leaves) and try some water and Rose Tone to see if it will come back for fall blooming now that it's not so hot. I also lost a couple of ferns and ginger that Mama had brought from Athens this spring. Maybe related to the weather, but probably having more to do with the severe pruning we gave it in late winter, the chaste tree has not bloomed much and is just looking very tall and spindly. I miss it's old plump and informal shape, so I think we will leave off with the drastic pruning!
