Views of the Neighborhood – Fading Flowers

~ John W. Howell

Today we are taking a stroll around the neighborhood to look at the last of the blooms. The summer heat is upon us, and so most of the flowers have finished, and the neighborhood settles into coping with the heat. Hope you enjoy.

Views of the Neighborhood

A very large pink Crape Myrtle. It hasn’t started dropping its blooms, but it will soon.

A red Crape Myrtle blooming its heart out.

Two more reds.

A white oleander.  We usually see there on the highway.

A succulent going to seed.

A couple more Crape Myrtles.

A substantial white Crape Myrtle.

Some yard ornaments posing as deer.

Another succulent which went to seed then broke and uprooted itself.

I’m keeping my eye on this fig tree. The figs are getting bigger.

Esperanza in full bloom.

85 thoughts on “Views of the Neighborhood – Fading Flowers”

  2. A wonderful walk, John. We’ve had over 100-degree temps for several days, which is most unusual for our area. Whether in humans or in nature, temperatures are heating up these days.

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  7. I can’t remember the last time I had a fresh fig! That pink myrtle is gorgeous, John. And I haven’t seen a residential oleander in many years. Once people discovered they were poisonous – they began disappearing.

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  8. It’s all very pretty, John. We’re done seeing blooming things here, other than flowers. The rise of sharrons are getting ready to make their run. Maybe next month.

    Thanks for taking us along with you.

    Take care, and I hope you have a great week.

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  10. Interesting architecture in some of those. It’s cool that you can have fig trees in your area. I grew one for a couple of years, but they are borderline here. Eventually, one of our winters got it, even though I planted it close to the foundation.

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  12. I don’t think I’ve ever seen esperanza before — it’s gorgeous! Kind of hard to find cheery yellow flowers when the bulk seem to be red, pink, or white. And those crepe myrtles? Stunning! How I miss the ones I had when I lived in Texas — they must be huge by now, unless somebody chopped them down (gasp!)

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  13. Beautiful blooms, John. Unlike many of our neighbors, I love the deer even though they eat the gardens. But they’re such a sight to behold. Thanks for the lovely walk. 🙂

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  16. Especially love that esperanza, John! I haven’t seen any of that around here, I don’t think. We had big winds last night, and on my walk this morning I saw a huge section of a blooming pink crape myrtle downed. Such a shame.

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  17. Pretty neighbourhood! I got the heat ‘perspective from one of yr comments. 106 huh? Pretty respectable for a generally cold place. Indian northern plains get to a peak of about 45, or a little over 110F I think. But this peak happens in May and June.

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      1. I know sometime ‘we’ living in hot places tend to play down the hot weather in normally cold places like the US, but a 106F in the US is can be hot. In my experience, it is probably more difficult to be in the open in the US in 106F than in India in 116F. Not sure of the science behind it, perhaps UV radiation, perhaps presence of dust particles in the atmosphere in India during summer months, etc.

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  21. I envy your figs. Our crop didn’t do so well this year, because of so much rain. On the other hand, the tomatoes were out of this world, so there’s that. You may know that Galveston bills itself as the ‘oleander city.’ There are hundreds of the shrubs lining the streets and parkways there. There wasn’t the traditional Oleander Festival in May, for obvious reasons, but it looks like you have an Oleander Festival in your neighborhood.

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  22. I like the white crape myrtle that looks like an umbrella. I think many of your readers would like to see the figs when they appear. I’ve never seen that before. Thank you for the lovely view of the neighborhood, although it seems early to be dropping blossoms.

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  23. Those are gorgeous Crape Myrtles! Thanks for the tour. We have quite a few around here too. When the blossoms fall, they completely over the sidewalk; it looks like you’re walking on a velvet carpet 🙂 Random thought: I wonder if the fake deer attract the real deer?

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  25. I used to see a lot of oleander but other plants took place when replanting. We have a lot of Myrtle in place of some trees with roots ripping the sidewalks.

    I thought the deer are real. They look real. I think they are real.

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  26. I became a Crape Myrtle fan when we lived in SC. Here in KY, ours are beautiful one year, then barely bloom the next. Have no idea what we’re doing wrong. This isn’t looking like a stellar year for them.

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      1. When I was a girl we had a neighbor with a fig tree and they introduced me to eating figs right from the tree. I still like fig newtons. Pepperidge Farms cookies and Fig Newtons are the cookies I buy. 😀

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  30. I like all these crape myrtles, John. I don’t know if we get this kind of tree in Pennsylvania. Most of our blooming trees are finished. Hope you are doing well!

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