What a lovely summer it has been: unusually cool, with just enough rain, no tomato blight and no need for much air conditioning. Here is the gorgeous, traffic-stopping trellis/sculpture created by David upon which the David Austin roses will peg.
I'll indulge in a little further vanity and show two flowering triumphs: The night blooming cereus photographed on August 1 at 9:26 p.m. This broad-leaved epiphyllum is a particularly well-known species of a Central American cacti. It bears large, strongly fragrant flowers that bloom for a single night only. That dramatic flowering makes up for the otherwise floppy, sloppy habit of the plant during the rest of the year. I've had mine now for about 15 years and for the first ten years it did not bloom. Now it blooms each summer on my porch anywhere from July to September depending on when I drag it out of the house. This propagates easily but I've found few takers in my time.
And, finally, the autumn flowering clematis which has perfumed my porch and sometimes the entire front yard for the past two weeks. Quite an invasive fellow unless one prunes hard the attractive seed heads which follow the flowers. I have not been an assiduous pruner.
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