While our summer has been plagued with cold temperatures, rain, wind and in my case some ijit who pulled everything out of one flower bed and tossed it all about the yard twice, my posies haven’t done terribly well. This makes me sad, especially as we have such long, dark winters.
However…
When we moved last September a friend gave me a baby african violet as a housewarming gift. My thumbs are fairly green, but while I have grown magnificent african violet plants, I have never been able to coax one into bloom. So I set it under the lamp by the computer, kept it moist, and lo and behold, I recently noticed it was covered in buds! It is now in glorious full bloom, and it’s just lovely. When I told my friend she came right over with three more babies which are now all blooming as well. I have a dark purple, a medium-sorta-bi-color purple/lavendar, a pastel lavendar, and the prettiest ruffled pale pink with dark pink eyes.
Do you have an office job? If so, they love those always-on flourescent lights. I could never make mine bloom until I took it in to work, and now it blooms every couple months.
What a crappy August. Or typical. Depends on how long you’ve lived here. This is how I remember August when I was growing up, only not quite so wet. Everyone is sick of the friggin’ rain, that’s for sure. But today is gorgeous.
Our pansies kinda shriveled up; the sweet peas are reluctant to bloom; but the daisies love it all. Sure is soggy, though.
Indoors, the hibiscus continue to bloom, as do the orchids and violets. And the basil has taken over the place.
Can you believe we have freakin’ snow on the mountain tops already? Holy crap!
No office job, but when my husband gets done with salmon fishing he’s going to put up a shelf with a fluorescent light above for my african violets. He doesn’t know it yet, but that is one of the Honey-Do chores I have for him!
Hey Chefguy, it has been unusually nasty here on the island this summer. Generally the second half of July and into August, and sometimes into September we have much nicer weather than this year. Although right at this moment the sun is out here too, and tomorrow is supposed to be partly sunny with temps in the low 60’s. The pansies and violas are doing well, the foxglove, delphiniums, poppies and dianthus are fabulous. The petunias have been a complete disaster, with the exception of the wave petunia in the hanging basket, although the rain drowned the lobelia in the basket so it looks all scraggly. The lobelia in the tubs is great, the yellow and white snapdragons (this year’s new flower attempt) are blooming nicely, the red snapdragons are budded but not yet open. The linaria, nemisia, mimulus, calendula and schizianthus are lush. I have mimulus, pansies and parsley volunteers from last year, and have stopped deadheading with the hope that they will repeat again next year. I have a new raised bed which has been cooking all summer with old fish, kelp, beach peat and lawn clippings ready for next year’s vegetable bed.
Indoors the Easter cactus is budding again, the Christmas cactus, ivy, pothos, dracena, fibrous begonia, split leaf philodendron and ficus are doing well. My hibiscus and ti plants didn’t make it in the last house, but now I have a better exposure and will start them again.
Too bad for you, we don’t have any termination dust yet. It’s an advantage of being water bound!
Here’s a hint for later when the plant gets older. I found that African Violets stopped getting new buds, when they had too many leaves. There isn’t room for buds to start between the tight leaves on the stem. I remove one or two rows of leaves around the bottom, then the leaves spread out, and the blossoms start again. You don’t have to wait for them to stop blooming. I learned when to do it before they stop blooming.
I’m glad that you are getting some flowers. I started thinking about the fact that in a week or two, everything in the yard may be deed. I’ve started bringing in the flower heads I’m keeping for seeds.
