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Ok, get ready.... its foliage time!
Yes, the first two plants this month have already done thier floweing, and are now doing what they do best - They are showing off thier nice colourful foliage.
Presenting.... A Caladium
And... a white leafed one!
I was a little bit surprised to find this blooming in a corner - This is one of the plants which people who are from northern climates like to grow here - the Hosta.
This far south it gets too hot, and by about May the plants start to look bedraggled, with small leaves- In fact they are a mere shadow of the Hostas which can be grown a few hundred miles north.
So all things considered, I felt lucky that one of ours felt sufficiently happy to send up a flower spike this year. To be honest it looked pretty miserable (as evidenced in this picture), but hey- as a comitted bulb photo-journalist, I believe that the public deserves the truth!!
The next plant to bloom this month was this Crinum. I am not sure of the exact species, but the label said "Milk and Wine lily", which is a generic name for white/pink flowered varieties in this part of the world.
They really look good though- And, a surprise to me, they also smell very nice- almost like freesias I would say!
Sneaking into the July page is this "amethyst" toad-lily. It is not a true lily, but gardening books describe it as a tuberous rooted plant, thus it passes my (none too fussy) credentials. The plant is about 30cm tall, and the flowers are small but plentiful- it really looks good in its preferred shady spot
Lilium Regale "Phillipine Lily"-
Of all the lilys which claim to grow to 6 feet in height, this was the only one that actually did- it is probably the easiest lily to grow in Houston, apparently blooming from seed the first year.
The blooms are also a good size; the trumpets were about 5 inches wide, 8 inches long
This was a bit of an experiment for me- Lilium Henryi "Turks Cap Lily". The experiment was to see if it would grow. I was told that it would survive in light shade. Well, one of the two bulbs did bloom, but it looks less than spectacular - All the books claim that this lily grows to be 4 feet high - I had to make do with 6 inches- but at least I got a flower for this website!
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