Roselee, Counting from the very top: pic #4. Can you tell me about the grass with white tufts?

I think Tuesday was the day that was unexpected cooler, most welcome.

Your strategic moves are most effective. I haven't moved anything. On my to do list: plant a couple of plants, root pavonia cuttings, watch over my RLs seedlings.

ETA: I'm also checking out DL sales at https://garden.org/forums/view/forsale/

Very reasonable and sellers are reliable with quantities, descriptions and shipping. See for yourself. The website itself is even less active than GW but their classified forum is their saving grace.

I love your changes! You just had to move pots around (no easy feat) or you actually moved the plants to different pots? It's too hot for me to do more than the necessary.

I have a torch bouggie in the ground (next to the house) but it doesn't get as pretty as the one shown in the link, probably because my crappy soil and the ruellias around it.

Omar

I made a few changes last month. One of the articles in Garden Gate magazine mentioned vantage point (the position from which an object is viewed). In the heat of summer, I water, weed, or deadhead in the early morning, and then I sit on the patio with my cup of tea (or if it's really hot, a glass of iced tea or water) and watch the birds, butterflies, and bees until it's too hot to stay out. The idea of my vantage point from the patio led me to move a couple pots and some garden ornaments. Now when I sit there, my eye is drawn around the garden to the different places I have highlighted.

I love all the changes you've made. Your garden is stunning!

Michelle

Bossy, I've tried a lot of grasses, but "Little Bunny Fountain Grass" is my all time favorite. It starts blooming early in the season, April if I remember correctly, and stays in full bloom until it freezes. It takes full blasting sun and the deer don't eat it. Excellent in every way. BTW, the plant sale pages you linked to look fabulous.

Pam, I could have never done what I did that day today. That drop in temperature was delightful. Would that we'd have that happen more often.

The plants were already in those pots. They are foam so are light weight and easy to pick up when soil dries a little. But I don't carry them. I wheel them from place to place using a dolly. It's handy to have pots with things already growing so when a needy spot appears you can plop a pot there.

Omar, how long has your torch glow bougie been in the ground? The sites say that it stays smaller and makes a bush more than the vine that most bougainvilleas want to do so it may do well there if not crowded. When I planted some of these very same bougies that you see in my photos in the ground they grew like crazy and didn't bloom until fall when they were huge. But they do fantastic in two to three gallon pots sitting in saucers to help hold the moisture. However, I thought about putting the 'torch glow' in one of the planters next year.

Michelle, thanks for reminding us to pay attention to vantage points when planting! And yes, like you, I try to do garden chores in the mornings and then sit back and see what needs 'fixing'. I've been cutting back or pulling out things that are not taking the heat. Some of them, such as the zinnias, were planted too late in the season to establish a good root system before the heat set it. That long cool spring fooled me ... again. Guess I'm easily fooled when it comes to plants.

Roselee, I've brought from a couple of those people in the past. No relation other than being 100% satisfied customer. Personally, I only buy evergreen or semi evergreen, no dormant DLs for my southern garden. The best advantage of buying there is that membership pressure is great and if even 1 person complains, reasonably, others will not support. It's been years since I've heard of unhappy people over there; sellers truly work hard at doing right by their customers. A lot of them are crazed DL collectors that run out of room and need to thin out their gardens so they can continue their obsession.

I move (or have them moved) plants now and then, but usually because they have gotten too big for their "spot" !! I do, however, plant to make the view from the vantage point in my breakfast nook pleasing to me from the inside rather than what it looks like approaching it from the outside. I spend a lot of time in this area, and this is important to me. Hey, Ragna, we can move a lot of things with the aid of those dollies, can't we???

Ragna, my torch bouggie has been there for, at least, five years and its performance has been erratic and inconsistent. It usually sends 2-3 stems. It has done what yours did: blooming only in the fall, and I learned to prune it in early summer so it bushed up a little before blooming. However, this year it started to bloom at the end of the spring, so I didn't have the guts to prune the flowers. So here it is in the middle of the prairie/jungle of my weedsland.

As you can see is surrounded by ruellias, pepper vine, Himalayan indigo, Mexican oregano, white lantana, salvia greggii and vigueira.

Omar

Bossy, that hibiscus of 'off the charts' beautiful! What a color -- wow.

Carries, wheels are wonderful things, but it took until 3500 B.C. for someone to invent them..

Omar, I'm very impressed with your 'Torch glow' bougie blooming like that with all the competition. It probably liked the extra water it got this spring from the rain.

I didn't know what vigueira was and had to look it up.

I'm not fond of bougies b/c of thorns. I have grown them successfully in large hanging baskets but even then, they need constant watering. OK in spring but as I get the summer lazies, No bueno and I become a bad bougie mom.

roselee? I think the plant you are talking about is DL Velvet Eyes, not a Hibbie.

i envy all of you who grow them so well.

Internet descriptions say that the 'Torch glow" bougainvillea is thornless. My plant being small and young is not a reliable indicator, but so far it has no hint of a thorn. Omar, how about yours?

Incidentally, my 'pale pink' bougie pictured above in the OP is 'Silhouette'. It is said to be thornless, and it was at first, but now has thorns.

But for the fabulous color they offer all summer in full sun I don't mind the thorns or frequent watering. Slightly larger pots in saucers, and water retaining crystals all help in that regard.

I used to avoid thorns also, but little by little they have gained me over: roses, cacti, mimosa, agaves, coral bean and lately, retamas. Ragna, my torch bouggie has huge thorns. However, my 6-7 year old white and pink bouggie is thornless and I think I saw a thornless purple bouggie a couple of years ago, so they do exist. But, yes, Bossy, there are days that I have to water my bouggies twice.

Omar

Oh yes, I've seen that bougie in public landscape and they're spectacular but also quite big. Can you really grow that one in a hanging basket? The ones off Grand Pkway and Mason road, ft bend co, survived the 2017 cold spell without incident.

Regular hanging baskets lose moisture quicker. I use plastic pots with saucers. The pots are relatively small (2-5 gallon.) The plants seem to like it that way. I have grown them like that for 9-10 years. The other challenge in my garden is overwintering them . I am pretty sure they will die in my zone without some kind of winter protection.

Omar

A couple of DLs that I got in prev years via garden.org classifieds. $5 dbl fan + ship, usually.

Bold Move

Strawberry Candy

oh my! i love bougainvilleas. all of mine succumbed to the 'winter'. so now ill have to start over. wish i knew how to propagate them so i could make backups of mine. Can someone share how to successfully propagate them? Ragna i love love love your yard. All of the daylilies are beautiful. Bossy what is the name of the new one you just acquired?

Shell, Irene gave me two unrooted bougie cuttings stuck in a little pot last fall. They spent the winter in the greenhouse getting watered only occasionally. I really had my doubts they would make it. But both rooted and are growing fast.

This week's Central Texas Gardener has a segment on keeping bougainvilleas blooming. John Dromgoole says not to use peat based potting soil, but I do and they grow well. Perhaps it's providing some of the acidity he says they need. I didn't know about that, but do feed them Miracid water soluble plant food from time to time. I just sprinkle the powder on the top and water it in. I use other fertilizers also and agree they are heavy feeders as well as heavy drinkers!

I also appreciated this CTG segment on the great therapy gardening provides. When the link opens you have to scroll up a bit to see it

Oh, and I probably shouldn't tell you this, but Rainbow Gardens is advertising $3.00 off this weekend on their bougie hanging baskets ... :-) Print the coupon or show it on your phone.

Shell have you, or anyone on here from San Antonio seen the unbelievable Torch Bougainvilleas at the corner of Lockhill Selma and San Pedro planted by the The Pyramid building sign?!!!?

We are usually traveling east on Lockhill Selma and are in the far left lane to go north onto San Pedro. I don't know how I missed them before, but saw them out of the corner of my eye a week ago and wondered "Did I really see what I think I saw?"

Today, still in the left lane with heavy traffic I got a pretty good look at them. It looks like two plants and the stems are 8 to 10 ft long with flowers covering about 2 ft of the ends! I'm going to get Bob to go slow in the right lane and see if I can get a photo.

If anybody is in the vicinity take a look, but don't have an accident doing it!

I dont normally go that way but was over there today but i have tunnelvision when i drive cuz i dont know where im going usually lol had i seen this post earlier i wouldve paid more attention

Shell, that's very good that you keep your mind and eyes on the road. I have to discipline myself not to look at plants while driving. I once had some sunglasses that distorted colors and I threw them away because I kept doing a double take at what seemed like some weird colored plants.

This is the intersection just in case you're that way again and really want to see the torch bougies. They are planted on both sides of the white Pyramid building sign. I made a special trip to snap these photos last week. Bob drove:

It's a very dramatic planting.

ooooh a neighbor has those planted in her front yard & i always wondered what it was because it looked like a bougie.

So i'll ask the new owners for a clipping since I never had the nerve to ask the old owner lol. Then i'll have to turn it over to you guys to root for me lol

I was surprised at how easy the bougies rooted. Irene just stuck two 6/8 in. long clippings in a decorative pot with light soil in the fall and gave them to me. To be honest I had my doubts they would make it, but I dutifully put them in the greenhouse for the winter. They seldom got watered. Maybe that was the 'secret' to their success.

Voila! By the time I took them out in the spring they had started to put on new leaves. A bright window sill could substitute for a green house. In the dry atmosphere of a heated house you might want to put some clear plastic over them.

Does your neighbor have them planted in the ground?

Yes it's planted in the front yard & doesnt seem to get big. I've seen it since I moved here. It grows straight up & not more than i'd say 3ft tall maybe. Not sure if she kept it trimmed or what.