Confederate Rose

I bought this 'Confederate Rose' (Hibiscus mutabilis) about a year ago from Bioscape. The bloom starts off almost white, goes pink during the day, and the next day it's practically carmine.
There's quite a lot of variablity in the species. I think I've read that the single blooms throughout the year; this double/triple only started to bloom this week, but if it blooms like last year, it will bloom until hit by frost, and again all spring. The leaves go a bit wilty in the heat of the afternoon sun no matter how much it gets watered, but I'd say it's very drought tolerant: It made it through a dry spring without hardly any irrigation, and it's in almost full afternoon sun.

May Day Blooms

Pink Paeonie Papaver. My favorite bloom in the garden.

A small bed of 'Rocket' Snaps. This varietal does very well here in Central Florida. Last year they continued to bloom well into July before burning out. These get more shade in this bed than other locations where I've planted them, so I'm hopeful that they'll make it through to fall. I nursed several through the summer and fall in pots, and they're blooming for the second year now.

My familiar. On 'Prosperity', a really nice Hybrid Musk growing on Fortuniana in my garden.

I'm really excited by how well these Foxgloves ('Foxie') are doing in the garden this year. In the past, they've burned out quickly, but I got these into the beds in November, so they're really well established and seem to handing the dry and hot conditions well. Lots of water helps...

Spring's bounty

A bouquet I picked for my secretary for 'National Secretary's Day', along with some cucumbers from the garden. The flowers are a mix of Alstroemeria, roses, snapdragons and whatever filler caught my eye. I included a gardenia for aroma... That one bloom filled the office with that tropical, heady, sultry smell of gardenias...

These are 'Cucino' cukes, an F1 hybrid that produces loads of finger-length cukes with thin skins and a dense, satisfyingly-melon interior. My kids love them. Oh, and some 'Yellow Currant' tomatoes. These have proved to be wildly and wonderfully vigorous. There are several hundred tomatoes already on a single plant. I'd call them more reddish than yellow, but they have a nice, typical balance of sweet and acid.