Heat Lovers

For the hot summer days, we get rewarded with a host of beautiful blooms including these:


Ascelpias Tuberosa, Butterfly Weed.

Echinacea 'Sombrero', hosting a black butterfly.

Tickseed (Coreopsis) "Route 66", a lover of heat and sun.

Bear's Breeches (Acanthus mollis) likes partial sun, and I think prefers a slightly alkaline soil and decent drainage.

Echinacea, as most of us know by now, includes the native Echinaceas  purpurea and tennesseensis - the purple coneflowers, and slew of cultivars of crazy bright colors in the white/yellow/orange/red ranges. They grow in full hot sun, don't want extra water, and have not too many problems. The natives grow about 3 feet tall, the cultivars come in all sizes.

Butterfly Weed, part of the milkweed genus, is both a wild and cultivated sun-lover. Best in full-sun, not excess water. It grows about 18 inches high and blooms mid/late summer with a bright orange clusters. It doesnt transplant well but I have saved the seed and started plants.  Be patient in the spring as it really waits for very warm weather before emerging from the ground. I leave a marker at its home spot in my garden so I know where it will be each year. There are cultivars to be obtained as well, but I like the native so much, it's all I want.

Coreopsis is a great sun-lover that is pretty easy care. It doesn't need a lot of water,and blooms most of the summer. Sometimes they can get a little floppy, so may need staking or some friends nearby to crowd them into standing up. They are daisy-like blooms with the cultivars available in yellows, reds, whites and oranges. A fantastic starter is "Jethro Tull" with its appealing cupped bright orange petals.

None of these get supplemental watering in my yard, unless we go through a two or three week drought.

Zone Detour: The Tropics

The Cayman Islands, a British overseas colony, are a group of 3 small islands in the western Caribbean. They have a tropical marine climate. I visited Grand Cayman, an island of about 100 square miles. I was able to visit a private garden, observe naturalized plantings and visit the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, which not only has lovely flora on display but is home to a breeding and conservation effort for the native Cayman Blue Iguana - endangered and found only on the island of Grand Cayman.
 The creature is in fact blue, or brownish and blue depending on how long it may have been sitting in the sun; as it warms up, more of the blue colors emerge. The largest one we saw was about 2 1/2 feet long.
I do not have identifying information for many of the plants pictured here...my knowledge of tropical plants is very limited, and at the QEII park, there was only partial tagging. Beautiful none the less.

First, photos from the QEII Botanical Park (all photos, credit: Louise Zepp):

Zone Detour: The Tropics, part 2

Second part of my visit to Grand Cayman. I did visit much of the island, including Georgetown, West Bay, BoddenTown/East End.

A legume, with caterpillar, growing near a beach.

Orchid, growing on tree trunk, in private garden.

Cactus, in private garden. There were also plums, lantana, palms, vinca, and something that looked like Secreseia/Tradescantia in this garden.

Palm, at Spotts Public Beach.

Another orchid growing on a tree trunk, private garden.