Color Combo

The two 'Barbara Karst' Bougainvillea shrubs are heavy with bracts, which is surprising because a lot of rain usually brings excessive leaf growth with fewer bracts.

My lone Coral Aloe  has a very small inflorescence compared with last year's fat multi-stalks. This size variation from year to year is inexplicable.




First Argentine Giant cactus flower of the season.

This small containerized Meyer Lemon is loaded with blossoms, and I will have to thin out most of the fruit that forms, as the trunk is just too spindly to support a lot of fruit.  I do love Meyer lemons, but I think my main reason I have this little tree is to smell the blossoms in spring.

This is my one surviving Blackfoot Daisy. It is quite large now, and will bloom for another month or so.  It gets more shade than the others did, and I think that's why it is still alive. 

For the first time, my roses were hit with Powdery Mildew, and I spent a good amount of time last week trying to get it under control. Right now, it seems most of it is gone. However, most of the buds and quite a few leaves are deformed on my eleven rose bushes, so I don't know if I'll have any nice spring roses. When I visited a friend this past week, I noticed her roses also had the infection. All the rain we had this spring, followed by warming weather, probably made the conditions just right for the infection. The rose shown here is Rosa 'Lady Elsie Mae', a mid-sized landscape shrub rose. Last year, this rose struggled in the heat, and even with its crispy leaves burnt by the sun, it continued to produce blooms, albeit very small ones.