I discovered this plant earlier this year at another gardener's home and soon found three for my own garden. This is a native perennial in Mexico and Central America, but it usually grows as an annual below USDA hardiness zone 10. In zones 8-9, it sometimes will survive the winter if well mulched, dying down at frost, then returning with warmer spring temperatures. It can grow in the ground or in a pot. If in a pot, it may be overwintered inside by a bright window.

Cuphea blooms over a long season, from late spring till frost. The bat faces are small but are produced in abundance and do not need to be deadheaded.
There are now cultivars that produce blooms other than red, such as pink, purple and white. The nectar-rich blooms are very attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds.

Plant Bat-faced Cuphea in full sun in well-draining, rich, organic soil. In intensely hot regions it can take some afternoon shade. It should be watered regularly until the roots are established. After that it is fairly drought tolerant.

It can grow up to two feet tall by three feet wide. When it is about ten inches tall or when it becomes leggy, the plant may be pinched or sheared back to produce a bushier, more floriferous plant. I definitely recommend this. Mine have become leggy, producing blooms mostly at the end of the stem. Mine are getting pinched this week! Fertilize monthly with a balanced fertilizer, or use a slow-release fertilizer in spring.

I should not complain. This is completely normal weather for Alabama in August. I have lived here all my life, so I should be used to it by now. Overall, our summer has not been a bad one. The good news is that September is coming.

Meanwhile, most of the garden looks something like this, with little color other than shades of green. Interest comes from various textures and the play of shadow and light:

A little pink shows in the tropical bromeliads plopped down beside a woodland garden path:

A bowl of succulents also provides some subtle color:

Many flowers don't fare well in our August climate. Lots of them look like this:

Bright pink Pentas are an annual that revels in the heat, though in its hanging basket it does need to be watered regularly. It attracts many butterflies and other pollinators, except when I wanted to take a photo! I had to settle for this decorative iron hummingbird:

I have several dwarf butterfly bushes (Buddleia), and they have also been a butterfly magnet through the summer:

Here are more flowers that bloom reliably through the hottest part of our summer:Clockwise from top left: Helenium and purple Veronica; Tropical Hibiscus; Delicate white bloom of Persicaria 'Red Dragon'; Annual Angelonia with yellow marigold in the background.

In the woodland garden I placed a ceramic mushroom on a stump. Its cap wiggles in the wind. This one is understated, but ornaments are a good way to add a bit of color to a green garden:

Finally, Tradescantia zebrine, also called Striped Wandering Jew, is an easy-care annual hanging in a shady area near the arbor garden. I love its beautiful variegated foliage. I have lost more than one plant in a hanging basket this summer. Not this one.

Yes, Confederate jasmine, also called star jasmine, is a vigorous vine, but I love the lush look and the thousands of fragrant late spring blooms. This is the jasmine arch a few years ago. I pruned it only minimally since then.Earlier this year my husband Lou attempted to control its growth by shearing it, which solved the problem for a couple of days, until the plant responded with multiple spurts of growth at every single cut he had made. Hint: Don't shear a jasmine vine unless you are using it as a ground cover. Otherwise it becomes a monster pruning problem. I told Lou to stop shearing it. Instead, I began tucking excessive shoots into and around the arch.

Then one day Lou complained that he no longer could walk under the arch. All those long tendrils I had been working with were escaping the arch and threatening to devour passersby. I discovered that even I had to duck to get through, and I am a foot shorter than my husband.

I did some research about the proper procedure for pruning a jasmine vine. I was not encouraged. One source told me to detangle the vine and then lay it on the ground, cut back one third to two thirds of the growth, then finally reattach the vines to the support. Once I started, I realized how difficult this was going to be. I have a mature vine on each side of the arch, and the two were hopelessly twined together. This is what the arch looked like just after I started:

Over two days, I patiently detangled as many vines as possible, then trimmed away excessive side growth and shortened main stems. It was a rather sticky job, since jasmine excretes a sap when cut. I realized that I should have been doing this every year as soon as it finished blooming. Then my vines would not have become so out-of-control. Lesson learned. 

Here is the final result:

It was worth the trouble. I am looking forward to next year's blooms. I can see the arch again, and dear hubby has no problem walking beneath it. 

For more information about Confederate jasmine see my previous post:  Confederate Jasmine for a Fragrant Layer in the Garden

Today's view across the front lawn.

Our biggest summer chore is watering our very large garden. Every year I lose a few plants to environmental stress because high temperatures, wilting humidity and droughty conditions can affect even native plants. So I am very grateful for the rain tropical storm Barry is sending our way today.I was able to take several photos during breaks in the rain today. Everything is wonderfully wet!My part of Alabama is at the far eastern edge of Barry's influence as it makes its way through Louisiana, so we should not experience dangerous winds or flooding, but only a much needed soaking over the next couple of days. An inch of rain has collected in my rain gauge so far today, and more is coming.

I recently discovered someone else who must appreciate the rain:

This little tree frog has been staying inside the large rain barrel we use to collect and store water for the woodland garden. At first I thought he was an albino, but research reveals that he probably is a type of Gray Tree Frog. These creatures are variable in color due to their ability to camouflage themselves by assuming tints from dark gray to green to white depending on where they are sitting. I found him on the metal grate inside the rain barrel, so he is doing a good job turning himself silver!

This is not the first tree frog to take summer refuge inside our woodland rain barrel. I took this photo of an American tree frog in 2016:

You can read about the American tree frog and our use of the woodland rain barrel in this previous post: My Tree Frog.

This is one of several Snowflake Hydrangeas that grow in my woodland garden. Now in its third year since planting, it has prospered.

Aldridge Gardens in Hoover, Alabama, is noted for its hydrangeas, especially the Snowflake Hydrangea, an oakleaf hydrangea whose white blooms are double and last far longer than the species, shading beautifully to pink as they age. Here is a close-up of the Snowflake's double blooms.

This is a photo taken in a previous year in July at Aldridge Gardens, as the Snowflakes took on their lovely pink hues.However, most people are unaware of the interesting history associated with this beautiful Alabama native. I was privileged to serve on the Board of Aldridge Gardens with its founder, Eddie Aldridge, who passed away in November 2018. Mr. Aldridge told me about the Snowflake and a little-known bit of history associated with it. 

Eddie Aldridge and his father, Loren, introduced the Snowflake Hydrangea to the world in the 1970s, after they began propagation and patented it.

A friend had told Loren about an unusual hydrangea in a lady’s backyard, and Loren asked to see the shrub. Unfortunately, the plant was dying. Loren managed to obtain three cuttings. He brought them to his nursery and was able to root them. But one day a nursery worker mistook the little plants for weeds and threw them into the dumpster! 

Eddie came in later that afternoon. When he discovered what had happened, he sent the hapless nursery worker headfirst into the dumpster to retrieve the plants. Only one survived; and since the mother plant had meanwhile perished, there were no more to be had. 

The new hydrangea was sterile, so any new plants had to be grown from cuttings. The surviving plant prospered, and over the next year Loren rooted thirteen new cuttings. These thirteen hydrangeas were planted by the waterfall at Aldridge Gardens. Eventually, the Aldridges propagated enough plants to begin marketing. Eddie and Loren named the shrub ‘Snowflake’ and obtained a patent so they could publicize the plant. They never charged royalties or sought monetary gain, but only wanted to share this unique hydrangea with the world.  

About 1990, an ad featuring the Snowflake in the American Nursery Magazine created a stir in the nursery world. Eddie’s cousin Arthur, who ran the Aldridge nursery near Boaz, sold a large number to the West Coast, and the Rockefeller Foundation soon requested a huge quantity for New York City, including Central Park. Arthur did not recognize the name of this “outfit” from New York and demanded they pay cash! (Which they did.) This is a photo of Eddie Aldridge, taken by his wife Kay, in New York's Central Park with some Snowflake hydrangeas.
Snowflake Hydrangeas, like all oakleaf hydrangeas, have beautiful fall foliage. They also have interesting structure that is a highlight in the winter garden. Snowflakes are truly a four season plant.

A Frenchman named Andre Briant began propagation of the Snowflake in the 1990’s and featured them in his international trade magazine. Before long he was selling them all over the world. Snowflake Hydrangeas now grow in Butchart Gardens near Victoria, Canada and in the New York Botanical Gardens. They grow from New Zealand to England and France, to China and Japan. And all of these many plants growing over the world, including any you happen to be growing in your garden, can be traced back to the single plant that survived its dangerous trip into the dumpster!

First, some color: This tropical hibiscus is so beautiful that I plan to bring it inside later to overwinter. For now it sits on our patio, and I have a good view of it from our kitchen and dining room.

Here are a few more June blooms:The large top photo is from my new pollinator garden, with purple Veronica and perennial Helenium. Do you see the bee? Small photos left to right: Hummingbird plant, Dicliptera suberecta, is also known as Uruguayan firecracker plant; One of the very best yellow reblooming daylilies is Hemerocallis 'Going Bananas'; Hydrangea quercifolia 'Snowflake' has double blooms, unlike the common oak leaf hydrangea, which has single blooms; 'Anthony Waterer' Spirea has May - June blooms but will produce more flowers if spent blooms are removed.

When the day is nearly done - but not quite - the sun sends shafts of light through the woodland garden. It is my favorite time of the day. Sparks flash under and over and through the foliage; and like a soul lifted out of darkness, the garden is transformed.

Here are closer views of some of the woodland plants:Clockwise from top left: Breynia disticha is called Snow on the Mountain bush and also Snowbush. It is not hardy in my area. It is in a pot, and I will bring it inside for winter; Hosta 'Rhino Hide'; Cercis canadensis 'Whitewater' is a weeping variegated redbud tree; Zantedeschia albomaculata, or White Spotted Leaf Calla Lily; Fatsia 'Spider's Web'; Bird's nest fern (Asplenium nidus) is another plant in my garden that is not hardy. It is in a pot so I can bring it in for winter.

Clockwise from top left: Peacock moss (Selaginella uncinata) and Athyrium filix-femina, commonly called lady fern, grow next to a mossy rock; A close-up of the Peacock moss; Native Trillium and Autumn Fern (Dryopteris erythrosora);Hostas are beginning to bloom - I don't remember the name of this one!

Finally, here is a Daddy Longlegs, stretched out, taking it easy on a hosta leaf. This non-venomous insect has 6 legs and is not a true spider:

Happy Gardening!

When a long, shaggy, moss-covered limb fell, I saw it as a woodland serpent with a wide open mouth, ready to swallow its prey. It had broken into two pieces when if hit the ground. The two pieces together were about twenty-five feet long - quite a snake! Lou was doubtful at first, but I convinced him the serpent log would make a great edging to the trail next to our fern glade. He and a helper loaded the pieces onto the back of a truck and hauled them to the entrance of the woodland garden, then carried them from there. I think it was worth their effort!

Here is a view of the two pieces of the serpent log in place; you can see part of the second piece in the center rear of the picture.:

Lou thinks it looks like an alligator, and maybe it does. But it really is too long to be anything but a serpent. I wish the two pieces were intact. I am going to encourage the vinca to grow over the ends so that it looks like the center of the snake is hidden in the growth.

Here is the back end of the serpent log. Lou had to cut the sharp jagged end off for the safety of people walking along the trail.

This trail is next to our fern glade, and I also used a couple of hollow logs to make some easy rustic planters for the same area. I simply put the logs in place, then filled their cavities with a good potting mix prior to planting.These hollow logs came from a chestnut oak:

Here is another log I think has a lot of character. I laid it on its side and used it as part of the edging beside the fern glade:

Extreme gardening is much safer. In fact, one can argue that extreme gardening has many physical and emotional benefits. Nevertheless, some people may shake their heads and think that an extreme gardener is a bit strange, if not outright nuts. The jasmine arch by the patio is blooming.

How do you know you are an extreme gardener? I have compiled a list of ten traits that, while completely unverified and unscientific, may indicate you are an extreme gardener:

1.You garden, no matter what your environmental conditions or living arrangements. You find a way to garden, year round, in one form or another.My arbor garden swing is a good place to relax and enjoy the garden.

2. When people visit, they ask to see your garden. If they don't ask, you show them anyway.Here is a view inside my perennial/pollinator garden, planted since last August.

3. People you don't know have come up to you and asked for gardening advice.

4. You own at least 50 gardening books, not counting garden magazines. No way you can count all those.

5. You have gardened at night under the floodlights around your house. 

6. You arrange vacation time around gardening activities. 

7. You know the botanical names for most of your plants. Amaryllis 'Apple Blossom' (Hippeastrum) has 16 blooms on it this year!

Planted earlier this year, Acanthus 'Whitewater' has its first bloom.

Fatsia japonica 'Spiderweb' is a shade-lover with beautiful leaves.

8. You have attended a demonstration or lecture about hydroponics.

9. You publish a garden blog.Views of my little blue bridge in the woodland garden have appeared many times on my blog. I recently moved a blue bottle tree to its side.

This large urn was one of the first features I put in the arbor garden when I began developing the space a decade ago. 

This green rabbit is one of a collection of rabbits that appear throughout my garden, in addition to the real ones!

10. Gardening is your favorite form of physical therapy for such things as hip replacement, torn meniscus, and recovery from debilitating infection.

If you are positive for any of the above, chances are you are a real gardener. The more traits you have, the more serious you are about gardening. If you own up to six or more, you may indeed be an extreme gardener. I confess I am guilty of all ten. But at least I am not putting on a wingsuit and jumping off cliffs.

So, how extreme are you?

Wishing all you gardeners the very best!  Deb

Azaleas have been blooming along the path in the front garden:

Here are some views in and around the arbor garden:

Ferns are emerging throughout the garden:

Fresh green growth covers the woodland garden, and the moss paths are lush:

After a dreary winter, I am always excited to see colorful foliage and blooms return each year:1st row: Honeysuckle 'Major Wheeler'; Azalea 'George L. Tabor'; Common Ajuga. 2nd row: Spirea 'Candy Corn'; Pieris 'Cavatine'; Hybrid Columbine. 3rd row: Autumn Fern; Orange Karume Azalea; Korean Spice Viburnum.Here is a close-up of a colorful euphorbia:

This is the beautiful season. The nights are cool, the days are pleasantly warm, and I love being in the garden. Finally getting those garden chores done will be no chore at all!

I prefer to buy my plants from local nurseries. I have had the experience of paying too much on line for a plant that arrived on death's door or else pitifully small for the price. But once again I had fallen victim to a glossy catalogue photo of a plant I had never seen before. So as I opened the box containing my newly arrived Acanthus 'Whitewater', I was anxious that my worse fears would be confirmed.

I had only partially opened the container when a large leaf unfurled out of its wrappings, like a young animal's enthusiastic attempt to escape its cage. I exclaimed at the plant's beauty as I released it from a covering of styrofoam packing.Here is what my new Acanthus 'Whitewater' looked like immediately after arrival.

Acanthus 'Whitewater' is a perennial with striking deep green leaves with creamy variegation. That is enough to make me love it, but it also will produce spikes of pink and cream flowers in early to midsummer. This plant needs some space, growing 3 feet tall and wide.A closer look at Acanthus 'Whitewater'

An easy care, vigorous plant, it will grow in USDA hardiness zones 7 - 10. It likes shade to part shade and prefers moist but well-drained loamy soil. However, it will grow in poorer soil and is also tolerant of heat and humidity. I just planted mine in a shadier part of my new pollinator garden, and I am eager to see how it does. 3' x 3' sounds big to me, but I know happy plants in my climate often exceed expectations. So I placed it in a corner where it can get much larger without bothering other plants or looking out of place. 

Time will tell, but after a week in the ground, Acanthus 'Whitewater' looks very happy.