Raindrops Keep Falling

I think it's been about two weeks with rain everyday.

It makes for a lot of green,which I love. The Cerastium tomentosum (commonly called snow-in-summer) is the white you see around the tree. It's always nice when it blooms after we've had a lot of rain to give that green/white contrast all across the rockwall garden.


I don't know what happened to this big poppy bud just as it was getting ready to open.
It suddenly turned this dark brown color. Reminds me of a vole's body with those stiff hairs all over it.

The Tropicannas are struggling. The 50-degree temperatures are just a bit too cold for all my tropicals.

These canna leaves are way smaller than they should be. My callas are barely breaking through the soil.

The Rembrandt dahlias in the two new containers flanking the back deck steps are doing well. This one has particularly large leaves and I can't wait to see what color the "striped and dotted" blooms will be. I purchased a mix of colors.

I was planning to throw this plastic pedestal container in the garbage. It's old and brittle. The top lip broke right off, but everything else seemed sturdy enough for another season. I decided to keep it and have some fun by painting it bright orange. I dry brushed a little gold over the orange so it would sparkle in the sunlight and tone down the orange a bit. Inside I have the Picasso canna, which is that big orange and yellow splotched one, with a dainty yellow daisy-like dahlia planted beside it. I think I also have some callas in there.

The phlox is already getting powderly mildew in the deck garden. It won't hurt the plant, but it's unsightly.

So with the rains come a few challenges. I would much rather put up with a little mildew than have everything dry up from lack of rain.