Blooms and Foliage, July, 2013 .....

Here we are at the middle of July.

Wow...the year is going fast!

The middle of the month, is when we get together with 

Carol, at May Dreams Garden, for
Garden Bloggers Bloomday
and,
Pam at Digging, for
Foliage Follow-Up.

What we have around here, is mostly foliage.

There are a few blooms.  But, foliage seems to do the best.

There are some Impatiens.

And, some Begonias.

They hold up to the fierce Texas heat.

And, the Begonias at least, don't need a lot of water.

But, there's the Turk's Cap.

And, Firecracker Fern.

Which is hard for me to photograph.

The Thryallis is budding out.

And, surprising to me, some volunteer Snapdragons are trying to bloom.

The Plumbago was looking pretty good.  But, we had some heavy rain the last

couple days (Yay!!), and it beat the blooms down.

Dianella, purple heart, lamb's ear.

But, foliage makes up for any lack of blooms.

Japanese Aralia

We've been working hard, fighting off the effects of drought and heat.

Driveway Bed, with Opuntia, artimesia 'Powis Castle', Spanish Bayonet Yucca, 

Salvia greggii, Mexican Feather grass, Society Garlic.

Some plants handle heat and drought, better than others.

In fact, the artemesia and salvia in this bed looks better than any other,

in the front of the house.  And, they get the least water and most sun.

We're blaming tree roots, for sapping up all the water in the other beds.

And, the Mexican Feather grass seems to last without much water at all.

I was out 'combing' the seedheads out of these last week.

I wonder what the neighbors thought, 

if they saw me out there with that old, pink comb.

The front bed is looking pretty good. The Sago Palm didn't put on any new 

growth this year.  Maybe, because we moved it  It looks healthy, though.

I have to re-spread the mulch here often, thanks to Armadillos.

I'm glad I rescued this Agave, when our neighbor, Elli, cleaned them out.

They'd been badly shredded by the deer rubbing the velvet off their antlers.

I kept it inside some wire, and I'll be putting wire around this one, sometime 

soon.  The bucks will be messing things up again.

And, I need to get those pups out and put them in other places, while they're small.

Speaking of Elli....she's always trimming things and propagating things.

She gave me a few things, in hopes I can do the same.

She gave me these pieces of Cathedral Cactus.

I really hope it takes hold.  So far, so good.

This back bed is filling in pretty well.  The Softleaf Yucca is doing better

in that corner, than anything else has done.

There is other foliage, doing well.

This July, there are fewer things blooming, than last July.

I'm not sure why.  Another one of those Garden Mysteries.

But, if you have enough foliage, it can make up for few flowers.

*****************

Be sure to click on the links above,

and see what others' foliage and blooms are doing.

I think more rain might be on the way.

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~