Georgia Gardening: What's blooming for you in this heat?, 1 by hcmcdole

hcmcdole wrote:
Zinnias, marigolds, sunflowers, cosmos, dahlias continue to bloom despite the heat and drought. Wave petunias are cascading over my containers but seem to be doing better than the one I planted in the rocks of our dry stream bed.

Most of my hardy hibiscus are done blooming including Kopper King but I have a couple that are still blooming. Lady Baltimore is one of the longest blooming cultivars it seems.

The few hostas I put out this year are blooming even if half the foliage is burnt up. Wild passion flowers are so beautiful but they can be so weedy.

Lantana and annual vinca(Catharanthus) continue to bloom as though laughing at the miserable conditions. Dragon Wings begonia is a stunning bloomer as well as a lot of my cane begonias.

Black eyed Susans pop up everywhere but I only have one purple coneflower so far. Butterfly bushes are doing okay but they are still young. My balloon flower did spectacular this year with hundreds of blooms and now I see several seedlings from last year. Celosia spicata (Flamingo Feather) is quite weedy but the colors of foliage and blooms are too nice to destroy completely. Datura is starting to bloom (double purple, white, and hopefully double yellow soon). The datura ('Le Fleur Lilac') is very weedy so I pull up the ones I don't want and leave the rest.

Not sure if I should include gourds since it isn't the flower that counts but rather the gourd itself - I have many nice ones this year. I guess they find water somehow.

Here are some of my begonias that are my passion. Blooms are frosting on the cake for these plants.