Hot blossoms

Most of the blooms that brighten my sad, drought-stricken garden these days are just as hot as the weather.

Like the blazing orange of the 'Tropicanna's' bloom.

Or the hot pink/lavender of the summer phlox.

The Hamelia patens shrubs have begun to open their orange tubular-shaped blooms.

As have the cigar plant Cupheas.

The flaming stars of the red 'Texas Star' hibiscus continue to shine in my backyard.

The 'Pride of Barbados' died back to its roots during the winter.  I wondered if it would grow back sufficiently to bloom this year.  It took a while, but here in July I have my answer.

  The dark purple of the verbena gives a little relief to all that heat.

My favorite old-fashioned cannas have not bloomed as profusely as they normally do this summer but they continue to send out the bright flames of their blossoms.  On the plus side, they have not been bothered by leaf-roller caterpillars this summer so far.

The Texas sage is in almost full bloom and the bees are loving it!  Was it the rain that we had a couple of weeks ago that triggered this spate of blooms, or perhaps the fact that I had watered the bed a couple of times recently?  For whatever reason, I am happy to see these blooms.

The flame acanthus continues to burn its way through summer.

My butterfly weed has been in constant bloom but has found few butterflies to enjoy its blossoms or leaves.

This little pink hibiscus has been a surprising winner in my garden this year.  It just blooms and blooms and laughs at the heat.

'Katie' ruellia offers a cooler note.  Many gardeners hate it, but I actually quite like it.  It does reseed but unwanted plants are easily pulled up.  It isn't nearly as obnoxious as some of the taller ruellias.

The bright yellow blooms of the cestrum have been going non-stop since April.

And autumn sage plants have bloomed all over my garden all spring and summer.  The blossoms are much-loved by hummingbirds and bees.

The 'Lucifer' canna blooms in front of the red-orange 'Big Momma' Turk's cap.

Purple porterweed blooms by the vegetable garden gate. 

And, of course, no survey of the garden in summer would be complete without mentioning the "yellow bells" of Esperanza.

There's no relief from the hot summer temperatures in sight for my garden, either from the weather or from the predominate color of the blooms.  The heat goes on.