SHARING SECRETS: Glorious Fabulous Summer
- k-england
- Jul 31
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 2
Edited by Cathy Tylka, for Let’s Talk Plants! July 2025.
The current question:
Hey, it’s summer! And I'll bet there is something GLORIOUS growing in your garden, or you have been somewhere and seen something FABULOUS. Please share with us!
Julie Erickson says apologetically…
...I went to the nursery looking for large yellow Trumpet flowers. They didn’t have them, but I found these! I think they are so cute! They make me smile when I walk past them every day! Neighbors have shopped for them after seeing mine! So my “suggestion” is to be open to what surprises Mother Nature has in (the) store for you! (Hey Julie, please send a quick email to info@sdhort.org with the name of your cute plant find and we will update this great contribution to Sharing Secrets with the plant's ID. Thanks so much...)
Susan D’Vincent of 92024 provided this answer…
...I've been holding on to this secret for a while. But here goes.
Sometimes making attractive ID labels for plants or planted seeds isn't easy. Maybe you're out of the nice ones you bought, coffee stirrers are too thin, and those nice roomy tongue depressors? I don't know if they even make them out of wood anymore.
So, here's how I solved that problem. We remodeled our bathroom, and we had many light-colored 2-inch tiles leftover with a flat (as opposed to shiny) surface. I found I could write on them with a pencil, and they looked great in the garden. At the end of the season, or when the plant died, I could remove the pencil with baking soda and reuse, indefinitely, the little tile. Reusing a repurposed product... Perfect!
Susan Lewitt sends her warm regards…
...This is not really a secret, but to support human health, and biodiversity, which brings a whole host of pollinators, and other species, we need to plant more native plants and avoid or remove invasive species.
Barbara Huntington shares…
...The lavender making up much of my labyrinth scents the day and the jasmine perfumes the night.
Miranda Alexander of 92117 proclaims…
... The most fabulous Dragon Tree that I have ever seen! Viewed in a neighborhood at the top of Point Loma during a Meetup group stroll of "Ladies with Dogs".
Marlys Vespe has regrouped and…
...We had to remove an olive tree in our courtyard as its roots were cracking our stucco wall and lifting the cement. It left a hole in our landscaping. Until I decide what to replace it with, I planted some sunflower seeds from last year’s sunflowers. Now that empty space is filled with 9 ft tall sunflowers!
Joan Herskowitz of 92008 says…
...Hi! I was taking a walk in Carlsbad and came upon a front garden with dramatic masses of red flowers on low growing plants. What a spectacle. As I got closer, I recognized these plants as red-flowered buckwheat (Eriogonum grande var. rubescens), an evergreen plant that originated on the Channel Islands but is used in landscaping throughout the state. It was only one part of a beautifully designed California native plant garden. The red buckwheat is a colorful garden addition, blooming from spring to fall, supporting pollinators and, after blooming, providing seeds for birds.
Ida Rigby of 92064 shares ….
...What’s gorgeous in the July garden?
The three chitalpa trees bloom for a good five weeks with their white and purple blossoms.
The water lilies are a refreshing relief from the inland (Poway) heat all summer. They bloom from about 10AM to 3PM, opening and closing each day for three days. Some have exquisite mottled green and bronze pads that ornament the pond’s surface.
When they are ready to emerge as dragon flies the larvae climb the lily stalks, shed their skin and fly off. All summer the pond is buzzing with red, green and blue dragon flies and blue damsel flies for a little life in the garden.
Then Ida Rigby shared again, and I love it….
...I realized I sent you yellows and pinks, so here are a few that are not blooming at the moment but will be in a few days and have been since April.
Lorie Johansen from 92084, shares with us with…
...FABULOUS FOOD grows with abundance at our northern Vista home where we have been for the past 23 years. Photos tell the story of enjoying a Greyhound with Oro Blanco grapefruit juice, avocado toast, Anna applesauce, quartered kumquats on large lunch salads, dehydrated apple banana chips as a sweet snack, dreaming of a crunchy fall persimmon, and so much more. These are just a few blessings bestowed by Mother Nature.
Gerald D. Stewart of 92084 corresponds…
...The Bougie Barricade along the back of my property is almost 300 feet of various cultivars with variegated leaves, which is the most important detail to me. But at the moment variegation takes the backseat. It's almost 300 feet of solid color from the bracts. Some of the cultivars are over 10 tall, so it's a wall of eye-popping color.
Karen England of 92084 is in love with...
...her Vitex in bloom. In fact, she brought this plant to the July General Meeting, and you can read about it in Susi Torre-Bueno's JULY PLANT FORUM article appearing in the same August 2025 Let's Talk Plants! newsletter as this SHARING SECRETS column.
For a refreshing drink at this time of year, Karen makes a "cold brew" infusion of just some fresh vitex blossoms and filtered water that she ices and sips on in order to cool off either from what her friend calls a "personal summer" (menopause) or the heat of actual summer. Note: Do research before using vitex in your diet as any herb, not just this one, can have contraindications with medications you are taking or conditions you may have.
Cathy Tylka of 92026 is surprised ...
...to see her wonderful Cereus blooming, always open in the AM, but closes in the sun.
Now for the question for next month (which was really last month's next question, that I forgot) …
What is your favorite AGAVE? Is it growing in your garden? Is it in S. Africa or Mexico? Why is it your favorite and what color is the flower?
Cathy Tylka, RN, retired Emergency Nurse, found her love of plants and the SDHS merge many years ago. Cathy acted as Treasurer for the organization and volunteers for many activities. Now, she is more than happy to assist in gathering questions to ask you in the Sharing Secrets area of the Newsletter.
