Two of my banana trees started growing another shoot a few days ago, here's one of them.

Awesome pictures everyone. Amazing what some of the plants and flowers look like with the heat we have.

My yellow hibiscus bloomed for the first time today.
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Plumeria J105, first bloom.

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And the Adenium (Desert Rose) from HD.

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All my Adeniums are blooming like crazy...love it.

Hibiscus is always colorful

This is a new Arabian Jasmine I planted last fall. So fragrant.

More blooms on my Dwarf Singapore Pink

Close-up

More plumeria: Monterrey

Divine

Cozumel Yellow

iAndy, those are great looking bananas. What variety are you growing?

The one in the picture was sold as a manzano banana plant. It handles the heat very well. I actually neglected my garden for a few days when it first got really hot and both of my Manzano looked fine.

I have Blue Java (ice cream) banana plants too. They don't take the heat as well as the Manzano, but they're still handling it well enough.

I noticed you had a couple banana plants as well, which variety are yours?

I have all of them in full sun, and I put one of the Blue Javas in the ground recently to try it out. Here's one of the Blue Javas in a big container:

This post was edited by iAndy on Thu, Jun 5, 14 at 21:02

I have 2 Blue Javas. They did not take the full sun too well this week and I have had to move them. They look pretty bad this week actually with the new leaves getting badly sun burned.

Last year was the first year I had my blue javas and I had to keep them in shade around this time for the same reason. I've never had to shade the manzanos though.

Great new updates and pics, all. I love seeing all of the hibiscus and plumerias especially. I always have a pot or three of hibiscus for summer and this year is no exception (a nice mango-orange color). So fun.

My 'Celandine' plumeria is making a ton of blooms and they smell amazing! She's over 7 feet tall now with four nice branches, three of which are covered in flowers or buds. She perfumes that whole section of the garden, so pretty! She gets afternoon shade in summer so her leaves don't get sun scorched. Here's a quick pic:

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Another fun Stapelia (S. grandiflora I think) in bloom on the east side of the house:

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And good ol' Zauschneria californica (hummingbird bush, California fuchsia (even though it's not even closely related to true fuchsias)) starting to flower too. There's a lot of Echium candicans foliage sneaking in to the pic too. Zauschnerias are fun leafy perennials that self sow around the garden:

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Finally, my 'Sunburst' variegated Aeonium is still looking great. It, like all of my many aeoniums, will get VERY annoyed by late summer, dropping most of its lower leaves and forcing its crown to curl up to protect itself like a sad little rose bud, hah, but they always revive in autumn when temps cool down. I move them to black shade and give them almost no water in summer when they're in a heat induced stupor. For now though, it's looking perfect:

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Keep the fun pics and updates coming. Mornings are still amazingly beautiful--for now, hah! I'll be reading along this week of course, but not posting pics as I'll be in Washington DC for work (first time there). Luckily I've got someone to take care of the house/garden while I'm gone so I won't have to worry TOO much about the garden, hah, makes traveling so much easier!

Happy gardening!
Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics from my garden June 2014

This is my zinnia. Planted from seeds in February. Next to it is Phlox and forget me nots. All from seed.

Twynings Dahlia from a tuber

Costara romanesco zucchini finally!

Wow, amazing pics everyone,! Love the plumeria, and Grant, based on what you've said about Celadine, I now have a healthy rooted cutting on the patio! Why don't you take a picture of the entire tree, everyone would love to see it.

Anyway, first picture is a montage of plants, taken this morning, another rplumeria, Laredo Princess, along with a Tradewinds hibiscus, which has been blooming like crazy for months, and my Ivy Geranium, which is still going strong in this heat, and has earned the right to spend summer inside.

My collection of Adeniums and Epis is growing, and a new plant stand or two was in order and the new epi cuttings I rooted, are growing on the post with pot clips. I have 5 more on another post. :) They work well for smaller pots, and it's a good way to save space and look nice while they are getting big. In front, is a new purple Datura, based on what I'm reading, they do fine in the heat.

Wild sunflowers at my parent's house in North Phoenix.

Awesome pics everyone, keep them coming. Love to see what everyone is growing.

Here is the Hamatocactus flower. Only lasted a couple of days.
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One of the Desert Roses I picked up at Lowe's last month and had no idea what the flower would be like. I think I got a nice surprise...So I call it Surprise.
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Not a flower but I have to share...I just got this Turtle pot and I just love it. Not sure of where it will end up.
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Well stay cool and keep gardening...
Michael

A welcome passiflora invader from my neighbors yard. It went under the block fence.{{gwi:407490}}

Tithonia rotundifolia gone wild. A favorite of the hummingbirds and butterflies.{{gwi:407492}}{{gwi:407494}}
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Awesome new pics and updates everyone. So fun to see. Awesome wildlife pics too Jon! That's one of the best hummingbird pics I've ever seen! So great!

I just got back yesterday afternoon from a week in hugely fun, sophisticated, elegant and MUGGY Washington DC. I freely admit 100 degrees with 7% humidity in the SHADE feels cooler than their 86 degrees with 80% humidity (it rained every single night and sprinkled most days).

Anyway, it's good to be back home and to be greeted with lots of new action in the garden, including these 'Milk & Wine' crinum lilies and fun Gymnocalycium friedrichii cactus flowers.

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I did have Humidity Envy in terms of gardening (although not in terms of my sweaty shirts on the long walks from my hotel to the monuments and the US Botanic Garden, LOL!). Lots of great leafy plants like coleus etc luxuriating in full hot sun. The two biggest surprises: several of our native Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) as nice small sized trees blooming away (I would have though DC's winters were too cold/wet) AND some Caesalpinia gilliesii too (although they were JUST now emerging from below ground).

Happy gardening all!
Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics from my garden, June 2014

My Echinopsis sorceress in bloom

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Gorgeous 'Sorceress' Mike! It is definitely one of my most floriferous varieties of Echinopsis. Plus its so vibrant too. Love yours and the pics are just flawless!

Dusti and all, here are two bad pics of my tallest 'Celandine'. It's hard to see that three of the stems have several flowers--the pattern of the light/dark of the 'Meyer' lemon tree in the background made it hard to line up the flowers with a green part of the background, LOL, anyway, you get the idea. She's in a very large terra-cotta pot (not the colorful talavera pot in front of her). She smells wonderful today and didn't even miss me while I was away in DC for six days. She's almost like a cat that way, hah! Happy gardening all! Grant

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Petunia rabbit,

Love the zinnia and dahlia. Do these typically do well in our heat?

Variegated form of "Turk's cap mallow", Malvaviscus drummondii in bloom this morning. I grow a ton of the all green form and this variegated one does just as well. Partial or full shade in the Phoenix area. Fun flowers that never open more than this, but that doesn't stop bees and hummingbirds (and me!) from enjoying them. Happy gardening!

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Here is a link that might be useful: Pics from my garden June 2014

Amazing picts this month, and Mike, I love the turtle planter! Know you'll find the perfect spot, and that hummer picture is magazine worthy.

Thanks for posting the Celandine pictures, Grant! What a beautiful tree! Have a question though, you say the tree is in a clay pot, and I've read from most sources online to grow them in plastic pots due to roots clinging to the clay. Mine is also in a clay pot, any advise there?

Grant,

Did your pink Mexican BOP ever bloom?

Helen

Grant,

Did your pink Mexican BOP ever bloom?

Helen

Love all of the new updates, keep them coming! Mornings are still lovely, so get out early and enjoy the nice temps while we can, hah.

Here's a quick pic of our native pipevine, Aristolochia watsonii in bloom this week. Cute little non-climbing vine, often called "mouse ear vine". Who can resist a common name like that? The blooms are TINY, but interesting:

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Dusti, I've always grown my potted plumerias in terra-cotta pots and never had any real issue. I think my plants are happiest in pots where the soil can breathe. I've obviously potted 'Celandine' and some others up to larger and larger terra-cotta pots and haven't had any real issues with them "sticking". Of course, I always run my trusty looooong serrated bread knife around the inside of the pot to help the rootball pop out. Maybe that helps? In any case, I've never had a real problem with it.

Helen, my pink Caesalpinia just started blooming last autumn as temperatures cooled off. Since it was a seedling last year and I got it planted late-ish, I'm hoping that's what delayed blooming so long. It overwintered fine and is now a fairly established plant with several vigorous branches, although I'm disappointed to say it has no signs of flower buds or blooms the way the red and yellow cultivars do--most of THOSE are already in bloom of course. I guess we'll see. I'll post an update to my pink BOP thread for good or bad later this summer, hah. Thanks for remembering and asking about it!

Happy gardening all!
Grant

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Here's one of the Roselle plants that I started from seed this spring growing vigorously.

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Strawberry guava tree loaded with fruits

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Bananas growing quick and handling the hot weather pretty well.

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More bananas but these are in a shady spot that's why they're shorter than the others.

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Glad to see a lot of new shoots coming out of my giant timber bamboo.

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Ice cream bean tree is doing so well in this protected spot I planted it in. Lots of new growth since I planted it in ground this spring.

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small fruits on my Longan trees. Birds have already started to pick some off.

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Golden Lotus Banana started from a 3inch seedling this spring.

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Sugarcanes

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One of the new Canna lily that I'm trying this year. Canna "Gigundo" suppose to reach over 10ft tall. They're a little over 3ft so far. They were started from a rhizome this spring.

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Canna "Kentucky Sunset"

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Another new one, Canna "Ripples" suppose to reach over 8-10ft.

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Another new Canna, Canna "Angele Martin" 6-8ft tall. The yellow/cream flowers combined with it's olive color foliage is stunning. I can't wait until I have a whole row of these next year.

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My Calamondin loaded with fruit! And it's taking the full sun pretty well too.

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Alphonso Mango tree. This tree had fruit on it this spring but I made a mistake on giving it fertilizer that has nitrogen, a few days later it started to drop fruit and new leaves started to flush out soon after :(

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White sapote looking good again after dropping most of its leaves. I applied some iron chelate to it and gave it some palm fertilizer that's 10-5-10.

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Jaboticaba dropped most of its leaves from the stress of getting planted in ground plus the amount of sun it's getting. I should be giving it a shade cloth but I want to see if it'll survive the summer without it.

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It's starting to flush out new growth now so I'm quite happy about that.

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White Orchid tree doing pretty well, but I had to apply iron chelate to it. New leaves were showing signs of iron chlorisis which is typical to these trees out here in our alkaline soil.

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Red Orchid tree, not much of a tree lol! it's still pretty small but it's been growing pretty quick and loves the sun and heat.

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First photo was taken back in May first, and the one below it was taken this morning.

Where do I find Plumeria and a Red Orchid Tree here in the valley?

Thanks,

Joey

Whitfill nursery has both. The one at 7th st and Glendale.

lots of other local nurseries typically carry plumerias, even the big box stores like Lowe's and HD has them from time to time.

Raimeiken, I love your tropical garden! Am picking up a Key West vibe, love it!! Looking for a dwarf banana tree to go with my kumquat, and dwarf orange. Yours look amazing.

Grant, thanks so much for the advise on the plumeria. I brought several varieties this spring and after coming across several large clay pots priced rock bottom, snapped them up and planted the new plumerias. Super stressful to read online, after the fact, that plastic is so much better. After seeing your beautiful trees, I can breath a big sigh of relief! Thanks. :)

Here is one of the newbies, not too stressed in clay.

Here is the first bloom from Devine. Lots of you have this one, but it's still a big deal to see those blooms!

The adeniums are all blooming well, heat lovers for sure!

1212, nice bloom. Do you fertilize the adeniums? Mine is not blooming.

Love all of the new updates and pics!! Thanks for posting them!

Yup, the Whitfills on 7th and Glendale had both last time I was there. The Lowes on Scottsdale and Frank Lloyd Wright had a lot of nice small plumerias this week too, so maybe one by you has them too, joey. Keep us posted.

I love 'Divine' plumeria too dusti, it really IS a dwarf type. Love it.

Just for fun, here's my variegated "sea hibiscus", Hibiscus tileaceus on the east side of the house this morning, with Wilson the tennis ball to show size. I LOVE this plant--each leaf is unique. It's really common all over Hawaii (the variegated type is more common than the non variegated type). This guy was a TINY cutting three years ago and it's become a nice little shrub. One of my favorites:

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The first flowers on an Oenothera biennis in the garden. Oh sure, it's a weed in many climates, but it blooms absolutely nonstop for me June THROUGH October and doesn't even need to be on a drip irrigation system, so I definitely embrace it and let it self-sow (in moderation, hah!) around my little garden.

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Keep the pics and updates coming all, get out early and enjoy the beautiful mornings!

Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics from my garden, June 2014

Mary, to answer your question, yes, everything that blooms. I water the desert rose about twice a week, and make sure one of those includes bloom food. Little and often works better in the heat.

Love that variegated sea hibiscus, Grant! I've seen the solid ones, but the one you have is really nice.

Thanks 1212.

You're welcome, post some picts when they bloom.

Amazing some of the flowers we get in this heat...love the pictures everyone is posting.

A few more Plumeria flowers:

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Desert Rose

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Bougainvillea "Raspberry Ice"

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And two more cacti flowered.
Echinocereus subinermis, the flowers lasted a few days.

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Gymnocalycium fredrichii, it only opens for a few hours each day for the last couple of days.

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AWESOME new pics, Mike, so fun to see. It's great to have some plants that LOVE our blast furnace summers isn't it? You've got a ton of eye candy going on there. Great stuff!

I posted a separate thread on crinum lilies, but just for fun here's 'Ellen Bosanquet' in bloom this morning.

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Plus good old "climbing snapdragon", Asarina scandens still flowering in full hot sun on a metal obelisk that gets insanely hot in full sun in summer. Asarina doesn't seem to mind at all (available in pinks, reds, whites, and this purple-blue):

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Not blooming, but here's a fun 7 foot tall spineless prickly pear, Opuntia ficus-indica, that I started from a single pad six years ago. Wilson the tennis ball is wedged in there to show size, LOL. This is looking ESE in my little garden.

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Happy gardening all!
Grant

Great pictures guys! Truly amazing flowers, considering the heat is well over 100 these days. The lavender edge plumeria is incredible, as well as the Ellen Bosanquet and Asarina, keep them coming!

Raimeken your jojoba cannot produce sugars to survive without leaves and a tree that big is likely doomed. Shade cloth may have allowed more leaf bloom but I suspect with the average temps shooting up ten degrees over the next couple of days even that will no longer be possible until Oct.

Raimeiken, what part of AZ are you in? I tried a strawberry guava this year and I think it died in the sun (my pineapple guava is still doing fine with afternoon shade). I may try it again but keep it in full shade for the summer next year.

I live in Peoria. My guavas get plenty of sun, but I've had them for 2-3years now, so they've adapted themselves. But I did just get a Malaysian red guava a few months ago and it is struggling with full sun exposure. I might have to shade it for this summer.

My Jaboticaba is flushing out a lot of new leaves, so might worried about it at all. Trees tend to drop leaves when they're transplanted. It doesn't help that jabo is a very slow growing tree.

Nice, I will definitely try at least one strawberry guava again. I also tried blueberries this year and all of them look pretty bad right now (green stems but hardly any leaves) so I probably won't be trying them again if they don't make it.

Did you do anything for your bananas over the winter? I might have went overboard with mine and I managed to keep the leaves on the plants but I had to do a lot (christmas lights and greenhouse) and I wonder if it was even necessary since new leaves grew right away when the temperatures rose.

My bananas were just planted this spring. they haven't gone through a winter yet here.

This past winter we had was actually pretty warm, protecting them wasn't probably necessary except for 1 or 2 nights that we went below freezing.