Summer Flowers

Mandevilla - Apocynaceae

Typically I do not purchase nursery stock from the big box stores; but last summer I picked up a Mandevilla at Lowe's.  It caught my eye, the price was right, and I took a gamble.  It has done alright.  Last summer it did well and made it through the winter.  The current streak of blazing hot weather really brought on the blooms.  I have it in a ceramic pot with bamboo stakes for it to climb; but it's pretty much stuck as a short, squatty vine. The pot is under the wisteria pergola so it receives sun and shade throughout the day.  It's only watered once a day.  Mandevilla seems to be suited to zone 8-9.

Bougainvillas - Scarlett O'Hara & San Diego Red

I once had a garden wall draped with loads of bougainvillea (Scarlet O'Hara and San Diego Red).  It was a beautiful, thorny deterrent to anyone contemplating scaling my old garden wall.  These varieties look the same to me.  The names were probably the result of legal junk with different nurseries.  These plants were all zapped during a freeze one winter.  They were cut down and discarded except for one.  I still have a Scarlett O'Hara hanging on in a pot - fiddle-de-dee.  The old wall is long gone and has been replaced with a much taller wall to protect the garden from encroaching suburbia.


Bougainvilla - Nyctaginaceae

  Over the 4th of July holiday, while on another hardware run with Farmer MacGregor, I picked up the smallest bougainvillea I have ever seen. The purpose was to plant this Barbara Karst variety in a hanging basket on the shed.  It was put out on the pergola table that day with hopes of planting in the evening.  The poor little plant was fried.  Any flowers that it had dropped and lots of leaves were scorched.  I brought it into the shade of the patio for a week and am now giving it smaller doses of sun until it builds up its tolerance.  It has already started to sprout some fresh growth.  This tender gal may not be a very good candidate for full sun.  With time, however, she may prove to be just as determined as good old Scarlett O'Hara.



Vines

Mandevilla "Rio Deep Red"

Tender vining, compact shrub with glossy leaves and large, 3" dark red trumpet shaped flowers.  Great for hot, humid areas.  Water regularly and plant in a well drained acid, raised bed or container.  Protect from frost.
I picked up a red Mandevilla recently at Lowe's.  I do not typically purchase nursery items from box stores; but I was there while Farmer MacGregor was on a hardware run.  (He doesn't bother going to my favorite local hardware store - Floyd's.)  Now I'm searching for an unusual trellis.

This has been potted and placed on the east side of the pergola.  The pot rests on large pebbles in a saucer on terra cota feet.  It must be loving the recent hot, humid weather (aka swamp pants weather).

Sweet Potato Vine

I also picked up a sweet potato vine.  It's a vigorous grower that can make a big impact.It comes in chartreuse or purple.  I like chartreuse. Sweet potato vines do best during the warm days of summer and prefer moist, well-drained soil. They thrive in sun or shade.  This guy is in a hanging basket on the west side of the pergola and receives hot sun from mid-day until sunset.

Other non-edible vines in the garden are Wisteria and Jasemine.  Wisteria grows on the pergola to shade the east side.  Jasemine grows on the east side of the house getting punched by the sun from mid-morning to early afternoon.  So far, so good.  Everyone seems happy.  That's good because it has been too danged opressive out there to tend to anything. 

Come on October!  Let me hear you.