So what’s blooming? Here it is early July and some stuff has hatched a plan to take off right in front of our very eyes. As you browse these pictures – which you can enlarge greatly by clicking on – bear in mind the scope of this adventure is just another trip around my local neighborhood. I save the special stuff for special posts, although to be perfectly honest, there is nothing not “special” about flowers anywhere, is there?

I cannot help but feature another one of my favorites – a picture I took this morning of perhaps the most perfect Southern Magnolia bloom I’ve ever seen:

Perhaps most apparent to me are these geographically new (to me) Crepe Myrtles. These are another wonderfully Southern plant, particular to warm climates and muggy weather.

This one above was actually a part of an interesting line of these gorgeous and rather informally-droopy plants. Here is a shot just a bit down the line:

And then here they are altogether, forming a rainbow-like wall of color and bright form, right up close to the street. I love this look:

Here’s a close-up.Is this plant cool or what?:

Some of the colors are electric:

I also like that they are used as masses, as is the case at this apartment complex’s central office:

Their colors match those – almost – of the local Hardy Hibiscus shrubs nearby, of which there are bazillions:

This of course is actually 2 Hibiscus plants, installed to hide the utility company’s ugly old box. I happen to be glad they tried it.

There is much variation in Hibiscii!!

Just as there is in the local Lily population:

We’ll explore Lilies more in the next post – including some interesting Cana’s. For now, let’s check in on how our Banana Plant is doing. It seems just about ready to begin devouring that poor house. 😉

I’d say it grew just about 4 feet this month. Poor Harry.