Vanessence: July 2016

A scorcher Sunday! Man oh man, it’s the kind of oppressive heat that you just don’t stay in for long. I took my pictures as quickly as I could and came back in. Several of my pictures were kind of washed out, and my daughter and I think a haze might have developed on the lens, like what happens to your sunglasses when you go from cool air conditioned air to the hot, humid outdoors.

I had to laugh at the “no rain for 2 hours” thing. Less than an hour later, we were getting buckets dumped on us. Which was good for the plants, but it didn’t break the heat any.

I’m losing more pansies. I have come to the conclusion that one of the packs I picked up was probably diseased or something, because near as I can recall, all the dead/dying ones are from the same pack. It just seems like it’s been a much rougher season plant-wise than in years past. We will marshal on though. There’s just a couple months left, three at best.

Overall, things seem okay. The lilies are fading now, but the things I deadheaded last week are now beginning to bloom again. The new plants I put in the ground this season seem to be doing well, so that’s a relief.

This is still my happy pot. I love the graceful lines of it.

The marigolds are still holing their own, despite being front and center where the sun hits.

The potato vine has some new growth on it this week. I credit fertilizer. The sweet alyssum though are still pretty puny.

I’m so glad I put this pot near the door! It’s so nice to walk outside and see a bright spot of color greeting me.

Pansies in re-bloom. These pansies are doing great, thankfully! Which is why I suspect that I got a bad pack with the others. If something was wrong with the pansies in general, this pot would also be heading south.

Only a few more blooms left on the lilies. The grounds crew that comes in to cut the grass keeps nipping my lily leaves with their weed-whacker. I think I may have to stake the lilies next year to keep them from leaning so far forward. But, the sun! They are reaching for the sun!