Thanks for posting! Where do you live again? That must wear on you after a while to have so many days of non-stop hot, hot weather. I'll bet the nights don't even cool down.

Love the side branch growing on your one plumeria. Can't wait to see how that turns out.

Great colors in your garden. Thanks for sharing.

Dave

Beautiful flowers!
Thanks for sharing!

Nice work Jen. Yeah its been pretty brutal. Austin and San Antonio are nearly 20 inches of rain behind for the year. Even established Xerics and Texas native plants are in trouble.

Thanks, everyone. I'm grateful to have any flowers this summer.

Dave, I'm in Texas, land of the perpetual high pressure system. The whole state is in an exceptional drought; every weather system passes us by but dumps rain on our neighbors east, west, north and south. They say the extremely dry soil is what's making the heat even worse. By about 3pm everyone around here wants to take a nap!

Dave P., that is JL Tornado, so I'm pretty excited to see the flowers in the future. All those seedlings have flourished where some other varieties had a lot of weak babies.

K, if I had to do it again I would use more of that Pride of Barbados around the yard as a xeric. It's very tough and so cheerful despite only a watering every 7-10 days and being in full sun most of the day. No pests, either.

We are keeping cool naturally here in NYC these past 2 or 3 days. Temperatures have only gotten to the low 80s (nights still in the 70s though) and its been on the cloudy side. But upper 80s and himidity are coming back again starting tomorrow. I definitely am not tired of it yet, but I cant imagine how tired of it you must be in Texas!
It looks like you are doing a great job with the watering though because your plants are beautiful! I really like the crinum and the Pride of Barbados looks like it really enjoys the Texas heat (and the fact that the deer leave it alone must be another really nice feature!).
Thanks for sharing! My no-Id has a bloom coming soon so your pic really made me excited for mine to open up (the flowers on mine are reddish).
-Alex

Very nice pictures. Was your NOID from a cutting or seed? I have a few cuttings that are rooting, does it take a few years to flower? Thanks

Hello Everyone,

Jen,

What gorgeous pictures...All of the flowers are so vibrant!!!

The colors of your flowers just want to jumpright out from the screen...awesome colors!!!

I have never seen a "Pride of Barbados" before and i think it is absolutely beautiful!!

The Black and Blue Sage is quite a beauty as well!!

All of your trees and plants are looking great!!

Congratulations on a fine job, especially in the heat you are having!!!

The Plumeria look great too! Your seedling is looking very healthy especially withh the side branch already!!!

Thanks for the pics Jen!!

Things really do grow "big" in Texas....LOL!!!

Great JOb!!!

Take care everyone,

Laura in VB

Spring, the NOID was bought as a rooted cutting in summer 2009. There were three cuttings in one pot, so I assume they're the same variety, but only the tall one has flowered. I'm counting 2009, 2010, and 2011 as the three seasons since rooting but it's really just two years total for the tall one to bloom. Who knows when the other two will bloom? I need to find homes for them.

Thanks, Laura. Pride of Barbados dies back every winter but does well in our scorching heat. I think it's also called dwarf poinciana.

Jen,

I love the Pride of Barbados! I have never seen thst one. I am going to look it uo. How is it to grow?

Beautiful pictures!

Labland, I'm surprised you don't see them in SoCal. They're an excellent xeric plant, needing lots of sun and little water. They probably wouldn't even freeze back there and would grow larger than they do here.

Jandey, OK so you're in Austin? zone 8B probably.

Caesalpinia pulcherrima, or Pride of Barbados, is a very popular landscaping plant in the Southwest (like Phoenix!). It's a zone 8 plant and probably NEEDS a fair amount of heat and not too much water. So any plants in Phoenix that are hardy in your area should be considered in your 'heat dome' drought!

I tried to grow it in a pot once and it languished. I think I kept it too wet.

Dave, yes, I'm in Hotstin. That PoB is next to my mailbox by the black asphalt road, planted in our hilly caliche soil, which means a few inches of poor alkaline soil over crumbling limestone. It gets hit with a little water from the sprinklers once or, if it's lucky, twice a week, then bakes in full sun the rest of the time.

Whatever the rosemary next to it likes, the PoB likes. You could probably grow it in Virginia in gravel mix like an agave. The best feature for me is that the deer don't bother it much.