Hot Hot Hot and a Few Beautiful Blooms

95 Degrees today!  Seattle is hot and dry and it is stressing out the plants.  I’ve watered every day that I can and I’m trying to carry the plants through the worst of it, but it is touch and go.  For sure, the shrubs I planted in the Douglas fir bed are looking pretty wilted, but a few minutes of sprinkling brings them back a bit.  Similarly, the pumpkin vines, which I always thought loved heat, have been collapsing in the heat of the day, so I’ve sprinkled them to bring them back.

Amidst all the heat-caused chaos, some treasures are blooming.  My favorite right now is  the clematis Roguchi:

5A39A813-4101-44E9-A3A7-3635D57C29D5_zpskhfmho5w

3F6A7DA7-9566-4454-AD67-7B0AADA27341_zps67idjlvu

In the greenhouse, the little amaryllis relative, Griffinia liboniana has quickly thrown a flower spike:

3BE2D2C8-7568-4338-8403-F47A9A6D5C6B_zpsxwux9hxn

And even more quickly, it bloomed!

3F2D4A13-D486-4EA7-8A86-39D5021EEB0F_zpsn4rfawcm

Lastly, the Eucomis hybrids that I grew from seed about six years ago are blooming.  Here is one impressive spike:

0AF3CAD8-A37F-4A95-B7F6-8C8002B3DF48_zps5pu5kwlg

I harvested my fava beans yesterday and cooked them up–will eat them for lunch tomorrow.  I ripped the plants out of the bed and fertilized it with Happy Frog before planting seedlings of the Wonderberry there I had started in the greenhouse.  Apparently, these are Solanum retroflexum (formerly Solanum x burbankii, a hybrid originating from the great Luther Burbank).  See more info here.

It is too hot to do much other garden work, but cooler weather is coming next week.  I’ll look to get some chores done (and document them) next week.