Early August flowers
7 comments
August is hot (highs in the 25-27° and humid) with lots of humidity and very little wind, which is the real problem. It would feel so much cooler if there was a breeze. But some flowers are putting in an appearance.
A surprise is an Aloe. Normally they bloom in the winter, but I cleared all the vegetation around it and now have Aloe striatula in bloom. I had planted one clump and it sent out shoots along the ground to a distance of 2 meters.
A lovely Hibiscus has started flowering, H. ‘Cosmic Dancer’.
I haven’t had a lot of success growing Hedychium from the dried seed you can get online, so a couple of years ago I crossed 2 that I had, Hedychium rubrum x Hedychium gardneranum. It got a few flowers last year, but the heads were small and I had just put it in the ground, so the stalks were short. This year it has grown up and has lots of flowers in a bright orange-red color. The pod plant is red and the pollen plant is yellow.
In the way of daylilies, ‘Wild Horses’ has put in an appearance.
4 Aug, 2022
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Comments
Hedychium is in the ginger family, although the rhizomes are not a ginger substitute. Other species are used in the Hawaiian lei and can be very strongly scented.
4 Aug, 2022
Another interesting & helpful blog, Wylie!
Some years ago we had an Aloe in the church I go to. It wasn't doing very well & I tried to look after it a bit. It flowered a couple of times but I remember putting a paper sign on it asking people not to water it so often as it was in quite poor condition. It did recover & I even got an offset to grow for a time. Sadly I don't know what happened to the mother plant or to the offset I got to grow. 😢
5 Aug, 2022
Most of the time aloes flower here in December, when it is cooler and very wet. I am surprised at how many succulents do well here, as long as they are able to drain all the rain away (lava rock, which is the basis for the soil, dries out very fast in the summer).
7 Aug, 2022
How do your Daylilies cope in really high temperatures, do they go dormant early?
Love your Hedychium cross.
10 Aug, 2022
We have not been having above normal temperatures. It has remained 27° or lower, so everything is fine. We did have a thunderstorm the other night that sent 11 people to the hospital and killed over 30 cows!
I was talking to a friend about how I want to divide the Hedychium and plant some in the front part of my woods. People will see it and then steal it, so it will spread around the island. I have found that if I plant anything attractive in the front of my woods, people will dig it up, sad but true.
11 Aug, 2022
Lovely photo's, its always interesting to see what is doing well in your part of the world..
12 Aug, 2022
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They all look very healthy - the Aloe in particular! I I'd better if its supposed to look like that, poor thing! Never heard of Hedychium - looks interesting!
4 Aug, 2022