Lots of July Photos around the yard

Here's a collection of the photos you haven't seen of my yard this month!

A Few Close - Ups

Hibiscus "Mandarin Wind"

Hibiscus flowers look especially beautiful in the early morning when they first open up.

Another hibiscus closeup

A close up on some of the elephant ears and cannas in the front yard bed.

Colocasia "Nancy Revenge" Looking very full and healthy

These lantanas survived the winter well inside the house and are blooming beautifully!

Water makes a great back drop for anything, especially these canna blooms!

Cleome closeup

The butterflies love these fuzzy blooms

Passiflora incarnata is definitely a winner! 

My potted confederate jasmine did most of its blooming in March but it is throwing up a few blooms now which is great! I love the fragrance.

I got this oleander on clearance last fall. It's a heavy bloomer!

Underneath my Crape Myrtle, daylilies provide some extra color.

I got these orchids in January and they won't stop blooming. There are lots of new buds ready to open. They are in full shade.

New Things

It's Gardenia season! I got this Frostproof Gardenia from home depot a few weeks ago for only $30. There are a ton of blooms on it and the fragrance is really incredible.

Chuck Hayes Gardenia only blooms once a season, but when it blooms you can barely see the leaves. Here are a few of the blooms. 

A local nursery had heliconias in stock so I had to get one! They did not label them, but it looks like it may be Heliconia psittacorum "Lady Di"

Some NYC Winter Survivors

My Livistona Chinensis is coming back from another NYC winter. It completely defoliated this winter as it does every year, but they are very good at coming back. The Purple hearts have also survived 5 winters. 

Petnas, azaleas, camellias, and hardy hibiscus. A surprisingly nice combo and other than the petnas, completely hardy! 

Can't remember the ID of these striped shade loving plants but they survived their first winter and are coming back with a vengence. They are in complete shade so I highly recommend these for bringing the tropical look to the shade garden.

Here is my Sabal Birmingham and Cleomes and some very dwarf cannas. The birmingham really struggled with it's first winter. The cannas survived without any issues. 

One of my Sabal minors survived the winter without any issues but this one struggled a lot. I've had it for 6 years now and it's very tender but also fast growing.

These are "Summer Storm Hibiscus" which are supposed to be an improvement to "Kopper King" (which you wouldn't think even needed improving!). I got them last summer and they were sending out blooms into NOVEMBER which is really impressive for a hardy hibiscus. I am excited to see what these plants are capable of! 

These castor beans are volunteers from last year. They are a purple variety but look green right now. I think they'll become purple now that they are starting to outcompete the cannas for sunlight. I might have to move my basil since it's very close to the castor beans and castor beans are very posionous! 

Southern Magnolias are about as southern as it gets. My tree has been transplanted several times in the past 4 years and is still in some shock. The foliage is pretty sparse, but it is definitely blooming normally!

Other Scenes around the Yard 

My potted Livistona and bottle palms.

My Staghorn fern is filling out nicely. They can't get enough of our east coast humidity! 

My front stairs.

Definitely disappointed with the growth rate on my Musa Basjoo in the front yard. It's newly planted and already has a lot of pups which is great. I think it will start to push out more growth as the season progresses but I am not expecting it to be too impressive this season.

These cannas will hopefully cover up this machinery by the end of the month. It's a bit of an eyesore right now.

My favorite spot to sit and relax! 

Everything is starting to fill out but there's definitely more growing to do!

I counted 9 plumeria plants in this photo! 

I will end with one of my favorite views in the yard this year. The Ensete banana is doing amazingly well in its second year especially considering how hard of a time I have getting them to overwinter. I feel the spanish moss and farfargum add a lot of texture and character to the scene.

A close up on my Ensete banana with a combination of potato vine, begonias, and caladiums underneath. The potato vine always gets way out of hand so this year I planted it in its original nursery pot to keep it contained.

Thanks for looking! 

Things are slowly coming along (weekend update!)

It took about an entire week of work in the summer-like heat but the yard is finally coming along! Lots of things are planted out and things are starting to come together. Here are some pics prior to the significant amount of rain we had on Sunday (9.93 in/hr rain rates!)

Here's al of the palms:
My livistonas have been around since 2010. One of my favorite plants!

Here the 2 are together.

I got this coconut palm back in 2009. One of the older palms I own although still pretty small in size.

This is the 3rd of 4th sumer for my bottle palm. Its a little tired looking from a winter indoors but not too bad. It will look as good as new when it sprouts a fresh frond or 2.

You can see my ti plants in this larger shot. They are not too happy but are already bouncing back so they should start looking good by the end of the month.

I got this Adondila palm back in 2012 and it has looked very nice for me ever since. It's a pretty reliable indoor/outdoor palm, I recommend them as potted palms. 

A combo of Dipladenia, Lantana, purple heats, and a majesty palm.

Now a bit more of the hardy stuff. Here's the pool plantings for the season. The trachys are on their 6th summer now and had no real damage after the rough winter we had thanks to their protection.They definitely saw some temperatures in the teens but they were spared anything close to the brutal cold we had. I am also trying a musa basjoo again for my first time in years. Wish me luck! 

Close up on the basjoo. 

I have been treating this livistona almost as a dieback perennial palm. It receives protection and is definitely past it's heyday but by the end of the season it looks nice enough to make it worth protecting! 

No formal protection for my Chamaerops cerifera or purple heart. The Chamerops has proven to be really worthwhile growing. One day I would like to try one that is a larger size. It has survived single digit temperatures and recovered even from spear pull. Hope more people try these in their palm collections up north! 

My Washy recieved significant protection this winter and did pretty well. Only one frond remained after this winter but it is quickly growing back. The newest frond has a horizontal line of rot down the middle of the frond. Not sure if it's bug damage or winter damage that is just showing up now but it has already pushed out 2 healthy fronds this season so I am optimistic it will recover from the issue. 

You can also see my Loquat in this picture. It survived it's first winter with protection. It saw temperatures probably into the teens and had some minor foliage damage.

Here's a pic of my old Sabal Minor and my new Sabal Birmingham from triple oaks! My Sabal Minor came from lowes in 2010 and surprisingly one of my least hardy palms I am growing. It has a decent growth rate though so it recovers fully from the damage every year. Hopefully my Sabal birmingham proves a bit more hardy. It will be well protected though!

Here's my new Sabal minor also from Triple Oaks in NJ. It looks much more robust tham my S. minor from Lowes and it is also in one of the best microclimates I have. I think it may be able to survive without protection once it's established but I will be protecting it this coming winter.

My Chamaerops humilis was completely defoliated from a night of 3F in 2014 but after significant protection since and a nice growing season, it has fully recovered. They might have a rep for being slow growers but they are very good at recovering from defoliation.

My needle palm isn't planted yet but the spot is picked out and I am looking forward to a good growing season! 

Here are some pics of the new - non palm - plantings I will be overwintering this season!

One of my most exciting BLE finds was this Daphniphyllum macropodum. I think it's a very worthy replacement for my awesome red oleander that used to be in it's place 

Here's a throwback to my Oleander.

Speaking of oleanders, I did find a double yellow oleander which I am looking forward to trying to overwinter. Next to it is a Fleming and Kopper King Hibiscus from Triple oaks. This area should be filled with blooms in a few weeks. 

This year is the first I am growing Mahonias. I have an M. aquifolium and M. eurybracteata "Soft Caress". I don't think the Soft Caress will be winter hardy here so I will probably pile a ton of leaves over it as winter protection and cross my fingers.

Here are a few bloom pics! 

Theres geranium blooms were destroyed by the rain we got yesterday but I am sure it will look good as new in another week. 

I've been getting plumeria blooms all winter long indoors and they have not quit now that they are outside. My "Jenny" just started blooming outdoors. The first few flowers were not opening properly but now they are opening normally again and looking good.

My "Crazy" has been blooming like crazy as promised. It's been in bloom for about 3 months now.

My big plumeria started blooming around Christmas time and currently is focusing on leaf growth instead but I am sure blooms will start to show up later on this summer.

Rosa Rugosa is a very cool plant. I am keeping them potted for now since I don't have the space in the ground. 

My Knockout rose has been blooming really well this season. 

I always enjoy having tropical hibiscus blooms around. The plants I bring inside during the winter are still pretty bare so I bought another bush to enjoy those blooms in the meantime.

Portulacas are awesome for hot and sunny tables

Very firey looking Lantana

The unofficial start to summer happens when I see my Kopper King Hibiscus sprouting because it is always the last thing to come up.

I had to get a few of these cannas because they are pretty cool. I have never seen them so tiny before. The blooms are almost the size of the entire plant!

My Eastern Prickly Pears went years without blooms but are making up for the lost time this season.

Black and blue Salvia

And just a few random pics

Thanks for looking!