My friend Janice is falling down on her job again but in her absence, I'll start the new thread. We came from The thread "Show Us Your Garden 25, July 2012" in Orchids forum

This is a chance for us orchid lovers to share the rest of our gardens. Please join us.

I'll start out with my tibouchina, which is putting on a wonderful show after not blooming at all last year.

Jim




Here is the purple garden with the big bougainvillea and the Mexican petunia.


The rose of sharon is in full bloom.


A general view of the rose garden with the massive cherries jubilee alamanda over the pergola.


I love ginger flowers.


The Amorphophallas is huge and to think it will go completely away in the winter.


This is a general view. The passion vine is on the far right, the ribbon palm in the middle with a gardenia below, the tibouchina with the purple flowers and hibiscus below.

Jim, that tibouchina is just magnificent! I've tried a couple of times to grow that, and failed miserably. Looks like it enjoys a lot of water, huh?

I just took a couple of pictures of another Costus 'Rainbow' before I came in to sit down and cool off. It's got variegated leaves with red reverses, and funny little tubular yellow flowers with a red stripe inside.

PInecone gingers have big fat red cones now. Still lots of shampoo available, too.

Jim, The yard must have enjoyed the flooding! That Tibouchina is spectaculer!

Elaine, love your gingers! They don't do well here.

Oh, beautiful! I agree, the Tibouchina is spectacular!!
I need to take a picture of my Amorphophallus, I have a lot of smaller plants surounding the main plant, but it all still fits into a pot. Jim, yours looks awesome, such great foliage.

Pretty Ginger too, Elaine.

Nice start of the month!!

Let me start out by saying that the wine is especially sweet tonight and thet I miss Janice. I hope she chimes in at some point.

I took a walk about after the rain that lasted most of the morning and into the early afternoon. I am back to soggy as the descriptoive word of the day. I received this Abutilon 'Souvenir de Bonn', or flowering maple as most call it here, at a MG plant swap. I don't think I have shown it before.


The agapanthus continues to bloom.


The tibouchina is beyond discription.


This is a red fire spike.


The cherries jubilee allamanda is about to take over the rose garden.


This is a bird of paradise plant. I have four of them.


I just may OD on papaya.


Argentine pampas grass.


Rose of Sharon and Jacobenia from the tropical garden.


The sticky picky garden.


And on a sad note, can you believe the mealy bug infestation I found on this Spanish dagger plant? I promise you there will be a long line into mealy bug heaven tomorrow.

Murderer!
Otherwise I am so smitten! And I love Abutilons!

Fantastic, Jim. Especially your cultivation of mealybugs there . ..

I have pale yellow, pink and red Abutilons that I started from seed, but just love that stripey one you showed. If it makes seeds in the fall, would you save me some?

Can't get over how much they look like little hibiscus flowers.

I also came home to a pretty treat - bought these Heliconia 'Lady Di' before I left and just plunked the pots into the border where they would get watered. They sure seem to have liked where I put them, because from zero flowers when I left 10 days ago, here's what they look like today. Think I might go back and buy some more! Can't have too many plants that thrive on neglect.


Had a couple of lovely garden experiences while I was up in BC. These shots from Milner Gardens in Parksville, BC halfway "up" Vancouver Island. It is an old waterfront estate that was donated to the province by the owners, and simply amazing..



These are "Chocolate Cosmos" which I've tried and tried to grow here because they really do smell like chocolate! Pretty too. They grow through the spring here then die about June. Need cool nights I guess.


Lovely little patio with statuary, and they have made the old swimming pool into a water garden, recently. Should be magnificent when they get it blooming.

I like the Chocolate Cosmos!

The last few weeks brought a lot of rain to our area and with that the Mushrooms are plentiful. Here is a pretty one, probably one of the Boletus, on the side of the road through the woods.


The Arrowheads are growing around the edge of the pond and they are now in bloom.


And there is Virgin's Bower /Clematis virginiana making its first appearance in all these years. Lots of growth and fragrant blooms.

Lovely, Ursula. The pond shots are just sublime.

Red and pink Abutilons opened flowers today after some heavy rain last night.


I got a dark red Mandevilla, now I don't know where to plant it!

I love the Abutilons!

Our place in Pennsy was very enjoyable this weekend, the weather was gorgeous.
I haven't had the time to start googling - does anyone know what these huge blooming bushes are? I have never seen them blooming like THAT. They grow really wild here in some places.


And some Teasels/Dipsacus


Fall is around the corner, the Solidago starts adding a lot of yellow color to the landscape


And there are the Mushrooms


I didn't catch the Doll's Eyes ( Baneberry/Actaea pachypoda)) at the optimal stage, but I thought they were still interesting looking. These grow only in one spot on a cliff of sorts in the woods.

I hope that's not Japanese knotweed.

Oh my! Kathy, that's exactly it! I see it at the neighbors place, they knocked down a house and now this grows around it. These bushes are really huge. I also see it along the highway flowering.
Thanks Kathy!

It's a very hardy invasive here. It squeezes out all the indigenous plants. A beautiful enemy!

In other words, pull it out if see it around our place. Now if one could just get a handle on those Viburnums!

Warning! They are very hard to remove!!! The roots spread underground and don't pull out. http://forums.gardenweb.com/fo...

Flame thrower? Oh boy!

You sound like me, Ursula. I tell all my gardening friends that my all time favorite anniversary gift from my husband was a chain saw! He's an engineer, what can I say? If I ask for tools I get awesome ones. Clothes and jewelry just aren't in his realm of reality.

For underground roots his Sawzall works great. It works even better if I can convince him to wield it for me.

Just a few from my walk around the garden this morning. A big gust as Isaac went by sent my EE for a swim in the pool. They like water, but maybe not the chlorine?

My variegated spiral ginger is putting up more flower heads, and getting more stripey as the sun is gentler now.

These are the white version of Beach Buttercup, Turnera ulmifolia var. alba - they open new flowers every morning and finish by noonish.

Purple Achimenes covering itself with flowers.