Exuberance!

Exuberance was the word that came to mind this morning when I went into the garden!  After the rain of the last few days almost  everything looks revived and renewed. The tomatoes and cucumbers  are starting to bloom again after having a little rest period.  The okra is going wild with blooms, and the native hibiscus had more blossoms as well.  The crape myrtle is  full of lilac colored  blooms now,  and the new shrubs look much happier. The vines are all happily climbing and creeping everywhere!
My autumn sedum is looking like it will flower soon,and so do the ginger lilies.

I did get yet another little gift this morning.  A small rosebush has appeared where I have the tomatoes this year.  Last fall I dug up 3 knockout roses from the back, next to the vegetable garden, and planted them in the front garden.  This little guy may be a remnant of the rootstock from one of those.  I will add him to my list for the fall grand  relocation  day. I hope we have a very long fall, because my chore list is getting longer and longer.

I did some more weeding and pruning as usual, and did cut back some of  the swamp sunflowers hoping they will still flower in October.  They will grow to between 6 and 8 feet, and there were already some starting to fall over . I just can't stake all of those things, there are too many. My friend Joanie says that she has had good luck with them when she cuts them back by half  in the middle of the summer, so I thought I would try it.  I thinned them out quite a bit in the flower garden behind the fence at the end of the driveway.  They will take over everything very quickly if you don't keep on top of them, another exuberant plant.  They are not a true sunflower, and the only book I could find them listed in is the Alabama Gardener's Guide by Jennifer Greer. She says that they are Heliopsis angustifolius.  They have just a brief mention in her book as one of the perennials. 

The weather section of the paper predicted that the weather tomorrow will be delightful, and if it is anything like this afternoon was, it will be!  This morning was still very damp and we had some gray clouds going over, but then it cleared off and the high humidity was gone.  What a blessing!

Susan

                                                       transplanted rose bush, Knockout Rose