Blooms around the yard this afternoon

August is a great month for blooms in my yard. Here's a pic of a few things I caught a pic of in my yard today. 

My Crape Myrtle is blooming in full force now. This is one of the smaller bloom heads.

Don't know what I'd do without some hibiscus plants in the yard!

Cannas are also amazing blooms. These dwarf cannas make great potted plants and are constantly blooming in summer heat.

You can see my desert rose blooming on the table. I can't think of a better flowering plant for a really hot and sunny location. They do love water when they have fast draining soil.

NEW PURCHASE: Brugmansia "Angel's Honeymoon"

I just received an awesome new Brugmansia in the mail today. I really love these plants for their easy overwintering and their amazing blooms. "Angel's Honeymoon" is an especially beautiful cultivator. If you aren't familiar with the plant, definitely give "Brugmansia 'Angel's Honeymoon'" a google. If all goes well, I'll be enjoying blooms from this plant next summer!

Here's a pic of some blooms from my current Brugmansia 

(Almost) in bloom in the yard today!

Here are some pictures of plants that are just beginning to bloom or are almost in bloom today in my yard!

Castor bean plant making some unusual blooms. I'm a little afraid of how poisonous these plants are but they are beautiful!

My brugmansia has a lot of blooms on at the moment, but I think that even the opening flowers have a beauty of their own...

Popcorn Cassia not only smells like popcorn, the buds kind of look like popcorn kernels too when they are young. Should put on a nice show in a few weeks. My University has these plants in there garden also and mine are right on schedule with the ones there. 

Here's a Stephanotis Floribunda (Madagascar Jasmine) flower. Such a cool plant. When I got it from home depot EVERY SINGLE FLOWER AND BUD dropped from the plant (typical I guess), but the plant itself remained happy and now that it's used to being in my yard, it decided to make some blooms again. It's also growing like crazy! 

Patiently waiting for my Scott Pratt Plumeria to start blooming. I looked at pics of it on August 3rd (2 weeks ago to date) and it has made decent progress, but based on that, it looks like I will not be getting blooms for another month. I hope September is a warm one so I can see the dark colors this plumeria has!

As always, thanks for looking!

Passiflora "Berkley" getting ready to bloom.

Possibly my most reliable passiflora is "Berkley" and it's not even cold hardy! I have it planted in the same pot as my Solandra Maxima and I had no problems with it during the winter indoors. It just sat there and did nothing, it didn't grow and it didn't die. Then when it went outside for the summer it started growing very quickly again. Now it's got a ton of buds that are ready to open any day!

Here's a pic from this afternoon...

And here's a pic of the bloom last year…

I think anyone trying to bring the tropics to there yard should grow passiflora vines! The flowers are so complex and beautiful. 

Butterfly Ginger about to bloom (early this year!)

I've had these plants since I got them in 2010 as little souvenir plants in tiny plastic bags from Hawaii 4 years ago. I never expected them to grow so vigorously and actually make yearly blooms, but they have!
This past winter, my butterfly ginger overwintered in my unheated garage and I was very very worried that it would rot from the severe winter we had. One or 2 of the rhizomes did rot, but the rest remained healthy regardless and when I took them indoors in March, they started to sprout. When they went outside they didn't skip a beat at all and the sprouts continued to grow vigorously. Fast forward 4 months and now I have some blooms forming. It should be in full bloom by mid September so it will be plenty warm enough for it to make healthy blooms. Last year it didn't start blooming until October so I did not get to enjoy the blooms. I am so happy it's blooming early enough for me to really enjoy it still!

Here's a picture of it this afternoon (you can see the bulge in the stamp and the little flag leaf on top). I'm excited! I may one day have the courage to overwinter these outdoors, but I like them too much to even risk losing them.

Last nights storm knocked over some things

Wow, last nights storm packed a real punch for some parts of my area. Long Island had over a FOOT of rain, all falling in a span of a few short hours. My yard ended up with only .57 inches of rain, but we had a lot of unexpected wind. Most of my big potted plants blew over, it was a mess to clean up, but after spending my spare time in the yard today, it is all cleaned up now and everything looks pretty much back to normal minus some tattered leaves.

Elephant ear leaf flew into the pool

Some potted plants blown over

Here's what I saw the next day

pool area BEFORE

pool area AFTER

Crape Myrtle bloom petals on Colocasia

Thanks for looking!

The yellow jacket nest is gone and my beautiful Brugmansia might be a goner too.

I have tried EVERYTHING to get rid of my yellow jacket nest without harming my plants. Unfortunately it was time to call a professional to get rid of it once and for all. While he promised to be as careful using the chemicals as possible (he is digging the nest out, but has to spray the nest a bit), the nest is right next to my brugmansia plant so it might be a goner. I am very very worried because my Brugmansia is looking great this year and I don't want to lose it. I'll be really upset if it gets damaged and will probably buy a new brugmansia ahead of time just in case something does happen. Wish me lots of luck. Say a prayer, it might need a miracle! Here are some pics of my Brugmansia, possibly the last pics of my Brugmansia, but hopefully not!