Whats Looking Good In August

Yes, mine will get included in the evening watering round.

 

Thank you, @pete. I like the leaf colour, beans or no beans!

 

The Catalpa flowers are quite pretty, but even though I didn't trim it, mine didn't produce them very often

 

Mine is just the green version, about 40 yrs old and also pollarded, I couldn't accommodate the un pollarded version sadly.
No they won't flower if pollarded.

The sky today has been brilliant all day.


Lagerstroemia in full tilt.


Very similar to @NigelJ Chitalpa but Podranea, same family. The flowers on my Chilopsis are too far up to photograph.


Bougainvillea.


From @noisette47 a few years ago, she sent me cuttings. Erythrina bidwillii. The picture is not great to be honest, but much more interesting in the flesh.


Eucomis bicolor.


Hedychium "tara".

 

One in the park flowers very well every year but is a very wide spreading tree, hanging with beans now.

 

Caesalpinia gilliesii. I think some bright spark has changed the name now.


Brugmansia Grand marnier.


Sinningia tubiflora.

 

Fantastic pics @pete - the little lagerstroemia you gave me is flowering its heart out too. I will repot it as a reward. I assume yours it outside permanently?

 

Yes been hardy outside for over 30 yrs, just likes a good sunny spot.
I've got a purple one flowering this year as well.

 

Mine should be here today. It got lost in the transit and tracking shows it at a standstill for ten days and arrived at my Post Office yesterday ... but there was a note on their door they were closed! U guess it will be dead.

Still not a sign of blooms on my potted Brugmansias, almost no leaves either. Things have given up here.

 

Pity, the post these days is not good, although I must admit I find parcels get through better than letters for some reason.

 

They've recently switched to every 2nd day for letters @pete, but parcels are different, and haven't changed. I only know that because I had to send a parcel a coupe of weeks ago,and asked the lady in the P. Off about it. She also said they get/process far more parcels now than letters. That day, they had 50 bags of parcels and only 1 or 2 of letters.
Perhaps the high price of stamps is preventing it, and also the rise in emailing, texting etc to stay in contact with people.

 

* @pete officially joins @NigelJ at the top of my "GC posters with the most plants I have never heard of" list*

I feel embarrassed adding news of all my bog-standard, anyone-could-manage-to-grow-that plants!

 

Cotinus Grace with Helenium "Sahin's Early Flowerer" and Panicum "Northwind" catching the afternoon sun.

 

I grow the other dark Ipomoea @ViewAhead - Black Knight. It's almost identical to Grandpa Ott. Very easy from seed, and also easy to collect the seed - they come true, and you get hundreds from one stem!
Re the ongoing problems with peat free compost @simone_in_wiltshire , I wonder if people in drier areas would be better off buying bags of soil [or collecting mole hill soil if you can] instead, and just mixing in some grit for drainage, and a little slow release food- depending on what you're growing. Most people have the food anyway, and you can get grit cheaply from B&Q. You ca get it online, but some of the posh brands are very expensive, and the B&Q stuff is fine, albeit a little muckier. A quick wash through a fine sieve or similar soon cleans it up well for using right away, but you can also leave it in a bucket or spare container with holes in the bottom, and let the winter rain do the job for you. Old washing up basins are ideal for that.
I got a bag of grit the other day as I use it for top dressing pots of bulbs. It's £6 for a good sized bag, and mine was even better as the only bags they still had were damaged, so I picked the best one and got if half price
That mix is particularly good for pots, as it dries out less rapidly.

 

Nothing to be embarrassed about, most people grow plants they like, I've still got a fair few not so unusual plants that I like.
The problem I find is you hear of something new to you and often it just grabs your interest, next thing you know is you're trying to grow it.
Lots of failures along the way.
Now they are embarrassing.