Well, I missed last month’s posting to GBBD (first time in ten years) and I feel somewhat guilty so I have a couple of special items for this posting.  Back in April I received as a gift one of the largest plants I’ve ever gotten in a box in the mail (from ForestFarm).  

It was a Gordlinia grandiflora, a relatively rare hybrid derived from a cross between Franklinia alatamaha and Gordonia lasianthus in 2003.  It’s a relatively small tree with absolutely gorgeous camellia-like flowers.

It’s begun flowering now and should continue through September…

Another special item for us this year is the Princess Flower.  I started this from a small 4 inch pot from Putnam Hill Nursery last year and it didn’t flower.  So I carried it over in the greenhouse and repotted it at the beginning of the season.  It has taken off over the last two months and it’s now 5 foot tall and still growing.  In the meantime I found another specimen growing in a pot twice as big as mine and just coming into flower.  Nonestop flowering is what it yields.

It will need to go into the greenhouse again but wow, what flowering!

Otherwise it’s pretty normal summer flowering for us.

The Allium are flowering in a couple of places

The Crepe Myrtle is finally in flower for the season

the Cestrum has recovered from its winter dieback

And the Crinum is showing its numerous hanging flowers

In the vegetable/cutting garden the Glads have yielded abundantly

and the Tithonia and Sunflowers are ten foot tall at least.

In the greenhouse there are multiple pots of Cyrtanthus in flower

as well as a particularly nice Sinningia

If we weren’t so busy picking fruits and vegetables I might actually finish weeding the greenhouse:)

Oh, I should mention that my excuse for missing last month’s posting was a trip to California where we relived our youth by driving down the California Coast.

It was a wonderful trip…