Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, July 2015

I'm cutting it close I know, but I have blooms from plants I wasn't even sure would live, so that must be celebrated.

First: one of my two Hibiscus 'Midnight Marvel'. They're itty bitty - barely over 12 inches high - but they have 3-4 buds with each flush, and the flowers are about 5" big. 

Hibiscus 'Midnight Marvel'

The foliage isn't as dark as I'd hoped, but maybe when it gets bigger? We'll see if they survive the summer - they're a known risk.

Canna 'Blueberry Sparkler' seems finally to have decided it wants to live;

Canna 'Blueberry Sparkler'

If I were that Canna I'd feel a little self-conscious about my foliage, seeing as how it's catty-corner from the Canna 'Flambe'. But Canna 'Flambe' has no blooms to speak of, so I guess we all have our gifts.

And finally, the blooms I feared would never manifest: Brugmansia 'Double White'.

Brugmansia 'Double White'

[I'm kind of digging the collage feature in Picasa, if it isn't obvious from my recent posts.]

I had to google 'Brugmansia bloom' because it kept getting taller and leafy-er, but showed no inclination to do much else. Turns out the secrets are:

1. Fertilize excessively
2. Prune off foliage below the Y

That's all I did differently, and 2 weeks later I got blooms out the wazoo! Thanks Trumpetflowers.com!

Umm, is there a designated Garden Blogger's Day of Mourning or Fond Farewells? I'm still working through my emotions over the suddenly-dead Lamb's Ear, and the Passion Vine 'Incense' stripped of all its leaves by caterpillars. ALL of them. I better see some awesome freakin' butterflies....