Brillantaisia nitens (Tropical Giant Sage or Salvia) Flowering

Very pretty looks like a bird on the wing.

Thanks. :>))

I'll have to get some better photos of the flowers. It wasn't the best pic.

Yes do I shall look forward to seeing them Andy.

There's several flower on different plants. I made many cutting because the drought almost killed my original plant in the ground.

Thats great . I dont blame you taking cuttings with the drought. Dont you dig a well around your plants so when you water it holds the moisture better or do you mulch which holds moisture and feeds your plants having so much heat out there.

Yes, I try to have burms around the plants. It's difficult in hard rocky soil, though. The plants must be watered every day or sometimes twice a day because they dry out extremely fast during very hot weather.

Yes it would be hard having burms and being rocky means good drainage for the plant.

Yes, very good drainage, too good! lol! It's been very, very hot here. Tomorrow and Saturday even hotter! :>))

lol it's hot here to but cooler than what it was no rain either yet they keep saying thunder storms even for yesterday but we never get them . I pretty you all over there Andy keep cool . Our farmers are short of rain from April so heaven knows how they are coping no doubt the price of food will rise we ha e already been warned butter and cream will be scarce and the prices will rise high for Christmas.

Stay cool. :>)) I know the heat must be harder to deal with there than here. It's typically pretty warm to hot most of the year here. I know the UK is typically cooler...so, I'm sure when it gets hot most people are not used to it. Heat can be so dangerous! I heard on the news so many thousands of calves have died (California's Central Valley) in the heat wave.

Here's the article. It's really sad.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cow-carcasses-pile-up-in-california-as-heat-wave-causes-mass-death/

That is very sad Andy how come they dont make dew ponds out there like we do here for them I see they are Friesian cows to which are the best for producing milk they originate from the Dutch it was where the uk got its black and white fashion of cloths etc from back in the sixties.

I think they have ponds. Not sure how long the ponds would last with the extreme heat of the Central Valley. They most likely would dry up very quickly when the temps are over 100 degrees (38ºC) every day during summer.

Not sure if you understand or know what dew ponds do Andy they are man made from clay and straw. They are usually shallow, saucer-shaped and lined with puddled clay, chalk or marl on an insulating straw layer over a bottom layer of chalk or lime

Already, the search for remedies to what it is feared will be the direst water shortages in southern England since the summer of 1976 (despite May being unusually wet) has led to discussion in the House of Commons of scenarios that sound like science fiction, including icebergs towed from the Arctic Ocean, and a giant desalination plant on the Essex coast. Yet nothing could be simpler than a dew pond.

These small ponds can be found scattered across the downs, wherever sheep and cattle traditionally went for summer grazing, in Hampshire, Sussex, the Peak District and Yorkshire. Surviving ponds probably number at least 500 across the country, although they are often overgrown nowadays, their banks badly trampled by livestock, serving as little more than picturesque havens for butterflies or a romantic spot for picnicking ramblers.

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But they still have a magical and highly significant property. ‘People have noticed that they rarely run dry, even in the hottest summer, and it is apparent that, during the night, they receive a supply of water sufficient to counter-balance the great drags that are made upon them by cattle and evaporation,’ notes Edward Martin, in a research paper entitled Dew Ponds: History, Observation and Experiment.

The great mystery is where the water that fills them up at night can come from. These ponds?also known as ‘mist ponds’ or ‘fog ponds’ lie on the downs far above the level at which streams begin to form, nor does any piped-water supply reach them. The name ‘dew pond’ is the clue. According to folklore, it is the overnight dew itself, falling on the round-backed downs and on the ponds themselves.