Whats Looking Good in August....

Lovely photos over the last couple of days everyone ... I'm so jealous over all the vivid colours!

I've not seen a Justicia carnea, DaveP. How unusual. I have the old common J brandegeana but it's looking good at the moment. Must take another picture. Do you have a view of the whole plant / shrub?

[ 23. August 2006, 05:48 PM: Message edited by: Lady of Leisure ]

 

Okay, I found a bit of colour ...

.... Zinnias on the kitchen patio ...



.... mini Sunflowers ....

 

That is lovely Rich - bet it smells heavenly too esp. at night.

 

My cyclamen peeping through.

 

All the flower pics are just gorgeous
Here are some of mine from the other day:

Fuschia Paula Jane (see, I DO know some of their names )



Pieris Forest Flame



And a bit of colour

 

Sorry to DaveP for not responding. His information on Hedychiums was great and I shall hope to do better next year

 

Eucomis



Campsis grandiflora

 

Just time for a couple more...

Ipomoea indica - this is a tiny section of a plant that has run from a few inches in April to well over 20 feet. There must be thousands of buds ready to open.



This is Crinum moorei - one of the tidier growing of the Crinums with fine rosette of broad leaves that don't 'kink' easily on a very long necked bulb. The clump was lifted to make room for a tree fern in March and sat on a sheet of polythene until early June. The flowers are over 7 inches across on a 5 foot stem. A fair effort considering the abuse.



The summer has been brilliant for many of the 'flowering gingers' (Hedychiums). This is 'Tara', which has grown bigger and taller than ever. The flower spike is a whopping 15" long on top of a 7 foot 'cane'.

 

Morning, DaveP. How did you get your Morning Glory to be so bushy ... ours is very straggly.

 

It always grows like that. I feed and water it like crazy (it gets the same as the bananas) and make the shoots double back on themselves for the first few weeks when they really get moving. This way the lower horizontal levels are properly covered.

After that I let it do its own thing and only intervene when stray shoots try to invade where they shouldn't. It is really quite well behaved ... in a sort of puppy-dog fashion. Y'know what I mean - the occasional stern reprimand and everything is fine ... until the next time!

 

Got ya ... shall go out when it cools down (it's 33.5C now and I often do gardening at dusk) and start my training session. Ours was planted two years ago and only took off a couple of months ago. It's on irrigation but I don't feed it.

 

Think I'll have to get tara Dave, is it earlier with you than gardnerianum, mines usually latish and catches the bad weather sometimes, its just showing buds now.

 

My H. "Tara" has done ok this year, my first ginger (it's first year. It has one stem about 1m tall and 4 side shoots between 6" - 12".
Absolutely no sign of flowers :confused: so am a bit disappointed, and the way this weather is going, I'm not holding my breath............

 

My 'Tara' flower is fading now, but has several nice side shoots. What do I do with it when it's finished? Do I cut it down or leave it like a daff?