A Few July Blooms in Orlando

I have never before been to Florida in July.  I was a witness to some blooms I had never seen before. It's a whole new world in that zone and it makes me feel like a beginning gardener--with no feel for the seasons, watering needs or plant names.

I was visiting my daughter Rebecca this past week and intended to scout out some tropical beauty with my camera....but time was short, the weather was hot and I opted for a boat ride and beer by the pool.

So I took a few poolside photos. Credit goes to her husband who installed the sprinkling system, waters the pots and is the primary caretaker of the outside spaces. The yard is about 99% green with just a few specimens in bloom. The bloom above was hanging over a neighbor's fence, a prominent bloomer in the area. What is it? I don't know. I think crape myrtle.

This hot and sunny window sill was host to an herb garden last year. A little more hardy are these cute cacti. I gave each pot a shot of time-released fertilizer, so maybe they will decide to bloom in the near future.

Having first planted bougainvillea in large patio pots at her first house, Rebecca has enjoyed them for years. She used to forget to water the pots (much to my annoyance), and the plants would lose most of their leaves. Now that they are planted in the ground and receive automatic sprinkling from the well, the shrubs are getting a bit wild and only showing a tease of summer blooming. Also in bloom was this large and interesting palm (forgot the name) which was tree-top high and captured here with 3x zoom.

Here is a regular photo:

Pictured below is one of three shady area towers created with stacked strawberry pots. They are filling in nicely and will become super-lush if watered faithfully--they do not receive rain or sprinkling. Northern house plants become potted patio plants in central Florida.

A new seating area is under recent development in the side yard:

After a short time putzing about in the garden in the July heat I was ready to relax with a cold one in the warm pool. The sweet potato vine shown under the palm tree dies back in the cold of winter, but comes back and gets crazy by the end of the summer.