Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (Drought Edition) August 2022

 Before I begin, if you are looking for my Music Monday post, click here.

It's the 15th of the month, and I am joining other flower gardeners for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  We are officially in a drought in my zone 5b garden in the Southern Tier and my plants are suffering.  The warmer than normal temperatures (fortunately not as bad as some parts of our United States) hasn't helped.  Fortunately, no water restrictions - yet.

There is some good in this - the blueberry crop in our area has been fantastic, but that may be partially a function of last year's wetter than normal summer.  But, watering our community garden and the flower beds (thank you, husband) is not our favorite thing to do.

Fortunately these cardinal flowers (the first year ours have bloomed) seem to be pretty drought resistant.

Cosmos.

One of our day lilies is still blooming but it looks like today is the last day.  This plant has large flowers and they are fragrant, too.

The last day for this one was yesterday but I am calling it "showing you anyway". If you see some water droplets on it, it wasn't from rain.

This one also finished yesterday.  Another one (one we just bought in July) is done for now but is sending up a new flower stalk.

Bachelor buttons are also doing well.  I hadn't grown them in several years but I got some free seeds and decided to go for it. 

Our hibiscus is doing just fine for now. In fact, the plant is loaded with blooms.  By the way, to any of my readers who don't think hibiscus will grow in colder climates, they can.  We don't have to take any special winter precautions, either. We even saw several in Vermont earlier this month, on a short trip.  Where we saw them was probably zone 5a but may have been a protected location. 

I wish I could say the same for our tall phlox.  I think it is giving up prematurely.  I did find one decent cluster yesterday.  The rest of them are on their way out.

My one container of lantanas has me totally puzzled.  They have stopped blooming.  I don't think we've overwatered it (I know they like being slightly stressed and we keep them on the dry side.)  This weather, including our warmer than normal temperatures, should have been perfect for them.  Thoughts? Is there a way to get them to bloom again?

Our glads barely hung on until GBBD.

Here are several petunias.  This first container, which I've shown before, is a cross between petunias and million bells.  I am more than thrilled with their performance.  This one is a keeper.

My favorite petunia color.

Finally, a small petunia assortment.  They have become my favorite flower although some varieties have to be pruned back midsummer and I never know what to expect.
 

Ending with a small bacopa from my hanging baskets.  These are white.

Thanks go to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this monthly meme.  If you want to see more flowers, head on over to Carol's blog and you'll see other participating flower gardeners.