Some Like it Hot!

It is absolultely hot as blazes here, but we lucked out with a couple of weeks of tolerable weather and a lot of rain this month. So instead of everything looking like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree right now, our backyard is positively flourishing. After many years of watching my flowers shrivel up in the unforgiving Texas sun, I’ve finally learned what is most heat tolerant in my shadeless backyard.

Hibiscus “Feed me Seymour!” (10 pts for whomever can name that movie)

Lantana

Sweet Potato Vine, trained to ‘creep’

Marigolds (disclaimer: I have actually never planted these, they grow wild in this little gravel spot every year…so apparently they like it hot!)

Snapdragons and Salvia

Crepe Myrtle bushes

Yellow Belles

Ferns — I hang these from the lower tree branches, so they do get shade.

Creeper Vine — I’m sure there is a more technical term for this one. Mr. Sugarplum put a trellis over the electric meter and this thing has attacked it…completely covered in 2 years. I have to trim it constantly to prevent it from eating the cable dish for lunch.

Texas Sage — the hotter it gets, the more flowers these produce. They line the freeways here and are beautiful.

More Sweet Potato Vine — this one groomed for fullness

Don’t get me wrong, these flowers need watering every day. But they aren’t heat-sissies and will hang with you if you take moderate care of them.

When we moved to this house five years ago, the backyard was a bare, hot desert with 6-foot prickery bushes:

Here it is today…much more lush I think:

And the other end of the pool is a favorite spot now with the new addition of these inherited butterfly chairs:

thanks poppoo!

How’s your backyard looking now…with August just around the corner?