Another Tuesday and another view! My camera has traveled on to other destinations so this week we’re going to see how well the phone camera works. Fortunately when I headed out to take the pictures a few clouds rolled in to filter the light, and things don’t look too harsh here.
Today’s view of the tropical garden. A little dark, but look at that weird color which the lawn has developed… Green!
I’m going to admit to doing little more than admiring the garden this week. There was another nice rainfall last Saturday and for the first time in months things look relatively happy. I even went as far as to mow parts of the lawn short and throw some fertilizer around to help the lawn recover now that it’s making an attempt at coming back to green.
There’s more to healthy growing than the color green. Here’s my favorite offensively festive canna, ‘Tropicana”.
I do have a soft spot for the lushest of cannas. The tall purple leaved ones are great, but ‘Tropicana’ and ‘Bengal Tiger’ both bring vivid variegation into the mix. After years of trying to get a virus free plant of the later I think I’m finally there and hopefully it’s with me for a while again.
Still small but growing, canna Bengal Tiger (Pretoria) might be my very favorite canna. The yellow striping is amazing and I think when this becomes a big clump (fingers crossed) it will be quite a sight.
My Bengal Tiger has a way to go before it’s as inspiring as the ones I saw last year at Chanticleer but I have patience… sort of. In the meantime the amazingly fast growth of the Kochia scoparia (burning bush or summer cypress) continues to impress me. I love the fresh green color and soft fluffiness of the plants, and I hope it keeps looking good until (with luck) it lives up to its name and burns bright red this autumn.
Kochia with Verbena bonariensis and orange zahara zinnias.
So that’s where we are this week. If you’d like to check in with a few other Tuesday views give Cathy at Words and Herbs a visit and if you’d like to join in feel free, I’m sure she’d be happy to have you!
sorta like suburbia 
You may remember that I was proudly growing these cannas last year. Of course, I’d like to be a bragster and extol how I got them to come back this year! Serves me right for feeling proud, because the dreaded canna leaf roller found them. Nasty nasty insects. I had to cut the Bengal tiger down to the ground because I could not get a grip on the problem. New growth looks fine but I wonder if they will resurface next year??
Oh I’m so sorry. I experienced that in Texas and it’s absolutely no fun with all those mangled and caught up leaves. Cutting it back was probably the best thing, and they are tough!
🙂 I almost asked you for a division, I remember the photos you posted from the community garden!
Beautiful view – love the cannas especially!
Thanks Eliza, the cannas are really doing well this year, they are the backbone of the bed 🙂
Those Canna leaves are enormous! I also love that lime green stripy one, and Tropicana too. The Kochia is keeping me on tenterhooks… so autumn will not arrive until it starts changing colour? Long may it stay green! 😉 Thanks for joining me again Frank!
Thanks for bringing back the Tuesday view, it’s keeping me focused 😉
The kochia is a big unknown this year, I’m very happy with the way it’s grown so far but online I’ve heard a range of comments on just how much it “burns” in the autumn. In a few places I saw the word “brown” used to describe the color…
Brown sounds disappointing, but let’s be optimistic! 😉
What a happy-looking garden and the gardener sounds pretty happy too!
Happy garden = happy gardener (usually). The return of this thing called rain has completely changed my attitude and it’s such a relief to see all the work of planting and tending paying off. Rain was the missing ingredient!
Enjoy the rain. We’re suddenly without rain and very hot, at least for the next 5-6 days.
The striped canas are favorites of mine, too even though there are none in my garden this year.
I don’t think you’ll miss the striped cannas too much, you have so many other cool plants to pick up the slack. So many plants, so little time (and space)!
Looks great, Frank! A little rain is a wonderful thing, isn’t it! I like Tropicana better than Bengal Tiger, but I wouldn’t kick either one out of bed for eating crackers! By the way, I just put up a new post that I think will be right up your alley! https://cosmosandcleome.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/h-o-smith-botanical-gardens/
I already browsed through your post on my phone, now I finally get to look at it full sized on the pc. You’re right, it was absolutely up my alley 🙂
I don’t think deer or woodchucks eat cannas, and if they do there are always fresh leaves coming up to replace them. Just saying.
I experimented with one Canna in a pot on the ground this summer, and nothing but a few Japanese beetles have bothered it. There will be Cannas in the gardens next summer, for sure! (And yes, I’ll be happy to relieve you of some of yours!)
Phew, the way things are going I will have a truckload of canna roots to share!
I had to pick Japanese beetles off as well. I guess that’s a small price to pay and they’re never really that bad here.
Now get that Thursday post done!
It’s done! Would’ve been up 40 minutes earlier, but as I was typing in the Categories and Tags, a violin student arrived, five minutes early! (No, I’m not guilty of timing things to the last second! Ha!)
Those Cannas are gorgeous. Is that Verbena bonariensis growing with them? It’s a beautiful combination.
Yes, that’s the verbena in there. I usually have the verbena coming up everywhere and in the spring when the freshly planted beds look so empty I can’t help but transplant it around into the gaps. Sometimes it’s a big mess, but every now and then some nice combinations pull it all together.
Lovely cannas. I can’ t think why I don’ t grow them. Next year I will. Amazing to see your grass looking green, it looked dead last time I saw it.
Even I am amazed at how quickly the lawn is greening up. I was expecting a vacation from mowing until at least early September!