Blooms

Despite the hot and dry weather lately, with the monsoon taking an extended week or two off, blooms are popping up in the garden.

My tecoma stans are showing its first yellow bells. My crape myrtle is growing red buds. And the bottlebrush shrub once again is in red bloom. Only my Mexican sage is bloomless and below its normal growth rate. Perhaps it is not getting enough sun?

The treatment on the cactus bugs yesterday morning seems to have worked. I checked on the beavertail cactus several times yesterday and after applying the fly-mosquito repellent saw only two more bugs on any pads for the rest of the day.

I also noted a few more red and yellow Mexican birds of Paradise popping up around the property. I am going to let them all grow in place. In ten years the front yard will be a shady area where both of us are going to sit and watch time go by. Several of the agave are also growing pups. With each passing year I'm spending less and less on plants for the landscape because enough plants are reproducing on their own. That's how I like it to be.