dry, dry, dry, and more dry

 Any way you want to slice it our gardens are suffering through a drought.  Areas that would be called "lawn" are brown and crispy, and they would burn should anyone drop a match. Our lily/fish pond is down some 6-10 inches.  Some trees must be watered or else they would die.  A Kousa dogwood is struggling, but not much else is newly planted. So TPP is dragging hoses around to give the most sensitive plants water.  And you can hardly blame bun-buns for eating plants that are best at keeping themselves alive.  The bird bath and garden fountain are very popular with our avian residents.   The native Prickly pear did flower very nicely.

Friday Fabulous flower

 As many of TPP's reader know Magnolia's and nagnoliid flowers are a great favorite.  The collection  includes two species of big-leafed magnolia, M. tripetala and M. megaphylla (var. aschii).  Both have leaves that are routinely more than 20 inches long.  The Asche magnolia also has really big flowers 9-10 inches across and it flowers when quite small and young if polar vortexes stay away.  

Here's the flower some 9" across and it was about 4' above the ground.  This one gets some protection by growing fairly close to our house.  It is the Ashe variety (native to the FL pan handle) which should not get so big, although we saw a full-sized one at an arboretum in Kansas City.  Enjoy.